The Deer Hunter

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The Deer Hunter

Directed by	Michael Cimino
Produced by	Barry Spikings Michael Deeley Michael Cimino John Peverall
Written by	Deric Washburn (story & screenplay) Michael Cimino Louis Garfinkle Quinn K. Redeker (story)
Starring	Robert De Niro Christopher Walken Meryl Streep
Music by	Stanley Myers
Cinematography	Vilmos Zsigmond
Editing by	Peter Zinner
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (US) EMI Films (non-US)
Release date(s)	December 8, 1978
Running time	182 min.
Country	United States
Language	English Russian Vietnamese French
Budget	US$15,000,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

For other uses, see Deer Hunter.

The Deer Hunter is a 1978 war drama film about a trio of Rusyn American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Vietnam War. It is loosely inspired by the German novel Three Comrades (1937), by World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque, the author of All Quiet on the Western Front, which follows the lives of a trio of World War I veterans in 1920s Weimar Germany. Like the novel, The Deer Hunter meditates and explores the moral and mental consequences of war violence and politically-manipulated patriotism upon the meaning of friendship, honour, and family in a tightly-knit community and deals with controversial issues such as drug abuse, suicide, infidelity and mental illness. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

The film stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep. The story occurs in southern Vietnam and in working-class Clairton, Pennsylvania, a Monongahela River town south of Pittsburgh. It was filmed in the Pittsburgh area; Cleveland and Mingo Junction, Ohio; Weirton, West Virginia; the North Cascades National Park in Washington state, the Patpong district of Bangkok in Thailand (as the Saigon red-light district), and in Sai Yok, Kanchanaburi Province (also in Thailand).

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Cast
4 Reception
5 DVD releases
6 Miscellanea
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Plot

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In Western Pennsylvania during the late 1960s, Russian-American steel workers Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage), Nick (Christopher Walken), Stanley (John Cazale), John (George Dzundza), and Axel (Chuck Aspegren) are preparing for two rites of passage: marriage and military service.

During the infantry combat in Vietnam, the three are captured and held prisoner in a riverside prisoner of war camp along with other US Army and ARVN prisoners. For entertainment, the guards force their prisoners to play Russian roulette and gamble on the outcome. All three are forced to play; Steven aims the gun above his head, grazing himself with the bullet and is punished by incarceration to an underwater cage. Believing Steven broken, Mike considers abandoning him. Nick angrily rejects Mike's consideration.

Eventually, the three escape the camp and escape downriver on a floating tree. An American helicopter rescues them, but only Nick boards; the weak Steven falls to the river; Mike follows him in rescue. Steve breaks his legs in the fall; Mike carries him to friendly lines.

The psychologically devastated Nick recuperates in a military hospital in Saigon. Afterwards, he aimlessly searches for Mike in the red light district. Nick encounters Julién Grinda, a champagne-drinking Frenchman outside a gambling den where men play Russian roulette for money. Grinda entices Nick to participate, then leads him in to the den. Unbeknown to Nick, Mike is in the crowd, as a gambler. Though Mike sees Nick, they do not reunite.

Back in the U.S. Mike eventually becomes romantically involved with Linda. Nick and Steven are still missing. Mike later reunites with Steven, who has lost his legs and is partially paralysed. Stevie reveals that someone in Saigon has been mailing large amounts of cash to him, which indicates that Nick is still alive, and playing Russian roulette.

Mike travels to Saigon just before its fall in 1975. With the help of the Frenchman Julién Grinda, he finds Nick in a crowded, loud roulette club, but Nick appears to have no recollection of his friends or his home in Pennsylvania. Mike's attempts to persuade him to come home are unsuccessful. Nick raises the gun and shoots himself in the head.

The film ends with Nick's funeral back in America and his friends' response to it.

[edit] Production

The film began with a spec screenplay called "The Man Who Came To Play", written by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker. The script, while unrelated to the Vietnam War, nontheless centered on a group of men who travel to Las Vegas to play Russian Roulette. Producer Barry Spikings, who had purchased the script from Garfinkle/Redeker, pitched the story to director Michael Cimino, who then adapted the Russian Roulette idea into a story he was preparing about Pennsylvania steelworkers who go off to war. Cimino then worked for 6 weeks with Deric Washburn, before firing him (Cimino and Washburn had previously collaborated with Stephen Bochco on the screenplay for Silent Running).

While Garfinkle and Redeker had nothing to do with the writing or filming of The Deer Hunter, they shared a "Story By" credit with Cimino and Washburn, since Cimino had adapted the Russian Roulette idea from "The Man Who Came To Play" into the film. Cimino would later claim to have written the entire screenplay himself, although a WGA arbitration awarded Washburn sole "Screenplay By" credit. All four writers received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for this film.

Filming locations include:

St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
Patpong, Bangkok, Thailand - the area used to represent Saigon's red light district.
Sai Yok, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand
North Cascades National Park, Washington State, US.
Mingo Junction, Ohio, for the steel mills.
Steubenville, Ohio, for some mill and neighborhood shots.
Struthers, Ohio, for external house and long-range road shots.
Weirton, West Virginia, for mill and trailer shots.

[edit] Cast

Special Forces SSG Michael Vronsky (Robert De Niro)

Actor	Role
Robert De Niro	Michael "Mike" Vronsky
John Cazale	Stanley aka "Stosh"
John Savage	Steven Pushkov
Christopher Walken	Nikanor "Nick" Chevotarevich
Meryl Streep	Linda
George Dzundza	John Welch
Chuck Aspegren	Peter "Axel" Axelrod
Shirley Stoler	Steven's mother
Rutanya Alda	Angela Ludhjduravic-Pushkov
Pierre Segiu	Julién Grinda
Amy Wright	Bridesmaid
Richard Kuss	Linda's father
Joe Grifasi	Bandleader

[edit] Reception

Academy Awards record
1. Best Supporting Actor, Christopher Walken
2. Best Director, Michael Cimino
3. Best Editing, Peter Zinner
4. Best Picture, Barry Spikings, Michael Deeley, Michael Cimino, John Peverall
5. Best Sound, Richard Portman, William L. McCaughey, Aaron Rochin, C. Darin Knight
Golden Globe Awards record
1. Best Director, Michael Cimino
BAFTA Awards record
1. Best Cinematography, Vilmos Zsigmond
2. Best Editing, Peter Zinner

The Deer Hunter won Oscars in 1978 for Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Cimino), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Christopher Walken), Best Film Editing, and Best Sound. In addition, it was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Meryl Streep), Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

In 1996, The Deer Hunter was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

It is ranked # 53 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time.^[1]

The theme song of The Deer Hunter, Cavatina, written by Stanley Myers and performed by classical guitarist John Williams is commonly known as The Theme from The Deer Hunter.

During the Berlin International Film Festival in 1979 the Soviet delegation expressed its indignation with the film which, in their opinion, insulted the Vietnamese people in numerous scenes. The socialist states felt obliged to voice their solidarity with the “heroic people of Vietnam”. They protested against the screening of the film and insisted that it violated the statutes of the festival, since it in no way contributed to the “improvement of mutual understanding between the peoples of the world”.^[2] The ensuing domino effect led to the walk-outs of the Cubans, East Germans, Bulgarians, Poles and Czechoslovakians, and two members of the jury resigned in sympathy.

[edit] DVD releases

The Deer Hunter has twice been released on DVD. The first 1998 issue by Universal, with no extra features and a non-anamorphic transfer, has since been discontinued. A second version, part of the "Legacy Series", was released as a two-disc set on September 6, 2005, with an anamorphic transfer of the film. The set features a cinematographer's commentary by Vilmos Zsigmond, interviews of the cast and crew, and deleted and extended scenes. The region-2 version of The Deer Hunter, exclusive to the UK, features a commentary track from director Michael Cimino. The film was released on HD DVD in 2006.

[edit] Miscellanea

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

During an American Movie Classics broadcast of the film, Gossip said Robert De Niro requested a live bullet in the Russian roulette revolver, to heighten the intensity of the situation.^{[citation needed]}
To render himself ghostly, Christopher Walken exclusively ate rice, bananas, and water for the week before he filmed the third act.
During screenings of the short version of the film, director Cimino bribed the projectionist to interrupt it, in order to obtain better reviews of the long version.
The tie-in novelisation opens with an epigraph by Ernest Hemingway:

“

There is no hunt like the hunting of man; and those who have hunted other men long enough to like it, never care for anything else thereafter.

”

All scenes involving John Cazale, who had end-stage bone cancer during the shoot, had to be filmed first. Cazale passed away shortly after filming wrapped. Because of his illness, the studio initially wanted to get rid of Cazale, but his real-life fiancee, Streep, threatened to walk away if they did.
The animal that Michael hunts in the second hunting scene is not a deer, but an elk.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by Annie Hall	Academy Award for Best Picture 1978	Succeeded by Kramer vs. Kramer

v • d • e Films Directed by Michael Cimino

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot • The Deer Hunter • Heaven's Gate • Year of the Dragon • The Sicilian • Desperate Hours • The Sunchaser