The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian-American steelworkers (inspired by Cimino's real-life Belarusian-American friend) whose lives are upended by fighting in the Vietnam War. The soldiers are played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage, with John Cazale (in his final role), Meryl Streep, and George Dzundza in supporting roles. The story takes place in Clairton, Pennsylvania (a working-class town on the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh) and in Vietnam.
The film is based in part on an unproduced screenplay called The Man Who Came to Play by Louis A. Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker about Las Vegas and Russian roulette. Producer Michael Deeley, who bought the script, hired Cimino, who, with Deric Washburn, rewrote the script, taking the Russian roulette element and placing it in the Vietnam War. The film went over budget and over schedule, costing $15 million. Its production company EMI Films released it in other territories, while Universal Pictures handled its distribution in the United States and Canada.
The Deer Hunter received acclaim from critics and audiences, with praise for Cimino's direction, the performances of its cast, its screenplay, realistic themes and tones, and cinematography. It was also successful at the box office, grossing $49 million. At the 51st Academy Awards, it was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won five: Best Picture, Best Director (for Cimino), Best Supporting Actor (for Walken), Best Sound, and Best Film Editing. It is Meryl Streep's first Academy Award nomination (for Best Supporting Actress).
The Deer Hunter has been included on lists of the best films ever made, including being named the 53rd-greatest American film of all time by the American Film Institute in 2007 in their 10th Anniversary Edition of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list. In 1996, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot Three Russian-AmericanGeorge Morris, "Ready, Aim... Click", Texas Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 3 (March 1979), page 142: "The film attempts to portray the effect of the Vietnam war on three Russian American steelworkers from a small town in Pennsylvania who volunteer for the war." friends in Clairton, Pennsylvania—Mike, Steven, and Nick—work in a steel mill and hunt deer with co-workers Stan and Axel, and bartender friend John. Mike, Steven, and Nick have enlisted for the Vietnam War. Steven is marrying Angela, pregnant by another man. The stoic Mike and amiable Nick are close friends and roommates; Nick dates Linda, with whom Mike is secretly infatuated. With Mike's approval, Nick allows Linda to stay in their house while they are away to escape her abusive alcoholic father. After catching the bouquet at Steven and Angela's wedding at a veterans hall, Linda accepts Nick's spontaneous marriage proposal. At the bar, Mike, Steven, and Nick meet a traumatized Green Beret, who curtly dismisses their attempt to ask about Vietnam. Later, Nick implores Mike to promise never to leave him stranded in Vietnam. The next day, the friends go on a final hunting trip; Mike kills a deer with "one shot," a goal they all aspire to achieve.
In Vietnam, Mike, now a Green Beret, coincidentally crosses paths with Nick and Steven, who land in a village during an air assault mission. Imprisoned by the Viet Cong, the three are forced to participate in Russian roulette while the jailers wager. Firing his round into the ceiling, Steven is forced into a submerged cage in the river with rats and previous victims. During Mike and Nick's turn to play, Mike convinces the captors to increase the stakes by loading three bullets into the revolver rather than one. When the next two chambers fall on empty, Mike and Nick turn their guns on their captors, killing them. Although Nick is wounded in the leg, they rescue Steven and escape.
The trio floats down the river on a felled tree trunk, but Nick and Steven quickly grow weak from their wounds. They are found by an American helicopter, which Nick boards. Steven falls back into the river while trying to hold onto the helicopter skids, breaking both legs. Dropping back down to help Steven, Mike carries him until meeting up with a South Vietnamese Army convoy.
In Saigon, Nick is treated at a U.S. military hospital. When released, suffering from PTSD, Nick wanders into a gambling den where bettors are wagering on Russian roulette. French businessman Julien forces him to come inside. Upset, Nick interrupts the game, pulling the trigger on a player, then himself, and then assaulting the bouncer. Coincidentally a spectator, Mike is unsuccessful in reaching Nick, who hurriedly is taken away by Julien, who bankrolls Nick in future games.
Returning home, Mike remains traumatized and avoids Linda's welcome-home party with friends, opting to stay in a hotel instead. Seeing Linda the next day, he learns that Nick has deserted and Angela has slipped into near-catatonia following her child's birth and Steven's return. On a hunting trip with his friends, Mike loses interest in shooting a deer and returns to the cabin, finding Stan cavalierly threatening Axel with a pistol. Mike takes the pistol, inserts a single round, and triggers an empty chamber at Stan's head.
Finding consolation in their mutual grief over Nick's disappearance, Mike and Linda begin a sexual relationship. Mike visits Steven at the veterans' hospital, finding that both his legs and one arm have been amputated and he is refusing to go home. Steven shows Mike that he has been regularly receiving large sums of cash from Saigon. Realizing that Nick is the source of these payments, Mike convinces Steven to return to Angela.
Mike returns to Saigon, now in chaos shortly before its fall, to find Nick. He locates and persuades Julien to take him to another gambling den where a drug-addled Nick has become a high-stakes pawn in Russian roulette and fails to recognize Mike. Mike attempts to bring Nick back to reason, but Nick remains unresponsive, spitting in Mike's face. Resorting to entering in a game with Nick, Mike describes their hunting trips; Nick recalls Mike's "one shot" mantra about the deer and smiles before pulling the trigger, killing himself.
Mike, Steven, friends, and loved ones attend Nick's funeral. As they convene at the bar for breakfast, John begins to sing "God Bless America" and all join in.
Cast Robert De Niro as Staff Sergeant Mikhail Vronsky ("Mike"). After Roy Scheider withdrew from the cast two weeks before the start of filming due to creative differences, producer Michael Deeley pursued De Niro, who was paid one million dollars for the role,, , Antenne 2, May 2, 1992. in search of star power to sell a film with a "gruesome-sounding storyline and a barely known director".Deeley, p. 168 De Niro later said, "I liked the script, and [Cimino] had done a lot of prep. I was impressed." He prepared by socializing with steelworkers in local bars and by visiting their homes. De Niro claimed that this was his most physically exhausting film, and that the sequence in which Mike visits Steven in the hospital was the most emotional scene of his career.De Niro, Robert (actor) (June 12, 2003). AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Robert De Niro. [Television Production] American Film Institute. Christopher Walken as Corporal Nikanor Chevotarevich ("Nick"). The character was named after director Michael Cimino's real-life best friend and college roommate, Nikanor Chebotarevich, whom Cimino described as a "White Russian". Historical records indicate Chebotarevich was born in Belarus and emigrated to the United States during World War II. His performance won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. John Savage as Corporal Steven Pushkov. John Cazale as Stanley ("Stan"/"Stosh"). All scenes involving Cazale, who had terminal cancer, were filmed first. Because of his illness, the studio wanted to dismiss him, but Streep, with whom he was in a romantic relationship, and Cimino threatened to withdraw from the project if Cazale was released. He was almost uninsurable, and according to Streep, De Niro paid for his insurance because he wanted Cazale in the film. This was Cazale's last film, as he died shortly after filming wrapped. He never saw the finished film.Parker, p. 129 Meryl Streep as Linda. In the screenplay, Streep's role was negligible, but Cimino explained the role to her and suggested that she write her own lines.Parker, p. 128 George Dzundza as John Welsh. as Julien Grinda. Shirley Stoler as Steven's mother. Chuck Aspegren as Peter Axelrod ("Axel"). Aspegren was not an actor; he was the foreman at an East Chicago steel factory that was visited by De Niro and Cimino during pre-production. They were so impressed with him that they offered him the role. He was the second person to be cast in the film, after De Niro. Rutanya Alda as Angela Ludhjduravic-Pushkov. Paul D'Amato as Sergeant. Amy Wright as Bridesmaid. Joe Grifasi as Bandleader. John F. Buchmelter III as a bar patron. Buchmelter was a steel worker whom Cimino wanted to lend the film a sense of authenticity. John McBeth as a bar patron and a Marine. Somsak Sengvilai as the Viet Cong referee. Casting local actors to play the stone-faced referee during the famous Russian-roulette scene proved troublesome, as many refused to authentically slap De Niro and Walken. When Sengvilai was cast, he was noted as holding a particular disdain toward Americans, and the slaps that he delivered in the scene were genuine.
Although Deeley was pleased with the revised script, he was still concerned with selling the film. He later wrote, "We still had to get millions out of a major studio, as well as convince our markets around the world that they should buy it before it was finished. I needed someone with the caliber of Robert De Niro."Deeley, p. 167 Deeley felt that De Niro was "the right age, apparently tough as hell, and immensely talented".
De Niro, who knew many actors in New York, brought Streep and Cazale to the attention of Cimino and Deeley.Deeley, p. 170 De Niro also accompanied Cimino to scout locations for the steel-mill sequence, and rehearsed with the actors to use the workshops as a bonding process.
Each of the six principal male characters carried a photo in his back pocket depicting them all together as children to enhance the sense of camaraderie among them. Cimino instructed the props department to fashion complete photo IDs for each of them, including driver licenses and medical cards, to enhance each actor's sense of his character.
Production Preproduction There has been considerable debate and controversy about how The Deer Hunter was initially developed and written. Director and cowriter Michael Cimino, writer Deric Washburn and producers Barry Spikings and Michael Deeley all have different versions of how the film came to be.
Development In 1968, record company EMI formed a new company, EMI Films, which by the mid 70s came under the control of Barry Spikings and Deeley. Deeley purchased the first draft of a spec script called The Man Who Came to Play, written by Louis A. Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker, for $19,000. It was about people who go to Las Vegas to play Russian roulette. Deeley later wrote, "The screenplay had struck me as brilliant, but it wasn't complete. The trick was to find a way to turn a very clever piece of writing into a practical, realizable film."Deeley, p. 163 When the film was being planned during the mid-1970s, the Vietnam War was still a taboo subject with all major Hollywood studios.Deeley, p. 2 According to Deeley, the standard response was that "no American would want to see a picture about Vietnam".