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The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives are upended after fighting in the Vietnam War.
- George Dzundza
George Dzundza (/ ˈ z ʊ n d z ə / ZUUND-zə; born July 19,...
- John Savage
John Smeallie Youngs (born August 25, 1949), known...
- Novel
The Deer Hunter is a novelization by the American writer E....
- Pierre Segui
Pierre Ségui est un militaire puis un acteur français, né le...
- Peter Zinner
Peter Zinner (July 24, 1919 – November 13, 2007) was an...
- Stanley Myers
Stanley Myers (6 October 1930 – 9 November 1993) was an...
- Quinn K. Redeker
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- Joe Grifasi
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- William McCaughey
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- George Dzundza
The Deer Hunter: Directed by Michael Cimino. With Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, Christopher Walken. An in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
- Michael Cimino
- 3 min
A three-hour epic about the impact of Vietnam war on a group of friends from Pennsylvania. The film features a horrifying scene of Russian roulette, a promise to rescue a comrade, and a haunting finale with \"God Bless America\".
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- Overview
- Production notes and credits
- Cast
- Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)
The Deer Hunter, American dramatic film, released in 1978, that focused on the devastating effects of the Vietnam War on the young American men sent to fight in it. The emotionally shattering movie, cowritten and directed by Michael Cimino, won five Academy Awards, including those for best picture and best editor.
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
Britannica Quiz
Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia
The film opens at the end of a shift in a steel mill in Clairton, Pennsylvania. A group of workers—Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), and Steven (John Savage)—join with their friends Stan (John Cazale) and Axel (Chuck Aspegren) and go to the bar owned by John (George Dzundza). Steven is about to marry his pregnant girlfriend, Angela (Rutanya Alda), and Michael, Nick, and Steven are then going to ship out to Vietnam. Nick’s girlfriend, Linda (Meryl Streep), one of the bridesmaids, takes breakfast to her drunken father before leaving for the wedding, and he knocks her down. She later secures permission to stay in the home that Michael and Nick share during their deployment. The wedding takes place in a Russian Orthodox church, and the reception is held in an American Legion hall. Linda catches the bridal bouquet, and Nick proposes to her but seems surprised when she accepts the proposal. Early the next morning, all the men except Steven go on a deer-hunting trip organized by Michael and Nick. Michael, who follows his own strict code of honour regarding hunting, kills a buck with a single shot, and the men return to John’s bar with their trophy.
The movie’s next act begins in the midst of a brutal battle in a small village in Vietnam. Michael is among the small group of Americans defending the village from North Vietnamese attackers. American helicopters arrive with reinforcements, which include Nick and Steven. The Americans are outnumbered, however, and all three are taken prisoner. The prisoners of war (POWs) are held in bamboo cages partially submerged in rat-infested waters, and their captors pull them up to force them to play Russian roulette. When Steven is made to play, he nervously shifts the angle of the gun as he pulls the trigger, and the bullet that is fired only grazes his scalp. He is placed in a cage. Michael, who has thought of a way to escape, insists that he and Nick play against each other, but with three bullets rather than the standard single one in the chamber. After Michael and Nick survive three rounds, Michael turns the gun on the game’s ringleader, and he and Nick seize the weapons of their other captors and kill them. Michael and Nick free Steven from the cage and escape into the river, holding on to a floating log. An American helicopter attempts to rescue them, but only Nick is able to climb into the chopper. Steven falls back into the river, and Michael drops back down to save him. Steven’s legs are shattered in the fall, and Michael carries him on his back. Sometime later, the psychologically damaged Nick is released from a military hospital in Saigon and walks through the city, searching for Michael. Outside a gambling den, Nick meets Julien Grinda (Pierre Segui), a Frenchman who insists that Nick enter the building, in which young Vietnamese men are playing Russian roulette for money. Michael is in the crowd, though Nick does not notice him. Nick grabs a gun from one of the contestants and places it against his own head, drawing an empty chamber. He leaves with Grinda, and Michael is unable to catch up with him.
•Studios: EMI Films and Universal Pictures
•Director: Michael Cimino
•Music: Stanley Myers
•Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond
•Robert De Niro (Michael)
•Christopher Walken (Nick)
•John Savage (Steven)
•George Dzundza (John)
•Chuck Aspegren (Axel)
•Meryl Streep (Linda)
•Picture*
•Lead actor (Robert De Niro)
•Supporting actor* (Christopher Walken)
•Supporting actress (Meryl Streep)
•Cinematography
•Direction*
- Pat Bauer
The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American war drama movie. It is set from 1967 to 1975 and is about three friends from Pennsylvania affected by the Vietnam War. The movie won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It was named by the American Film Institute as the 53rd Greatest Movie of All Time.
A film about the impact of the Vietnam War on three friends from a steel mill town in Pennsylvania. The plot summary covers the characters, the events, the themes and the symbolism of the film.
The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives are upended after fighting in the Vietnam War.
