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The Deer Hunter
Three steelworkers enlist in the army and are sent to Vietnam, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love. What they encounter during the war changes their lives forever.
1978 · Directed by Michael Cimino · 183 min · Drama · War · Screenplay in the scene database · 39 frames
Tagline
One of the most important and powerful films of all time!
Plot
Three Russian-American 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, after a drunken run through the neighborhood, Nick implores Mike to promise never to leave him stranded in Vietnam. The next day, the group goes on a final hunting trip where Mike kills a deer with "one shot," a code by which he proudly lives. Returning to town late at night, they celebrate in John's closed bar, but the mood turns somber as John plays Chopin's sixth Nocturne (Op. 15, No. 3 in G minor) on the bar piano.
The scene cuts to Vietnam, where Mike, now a Green Beret, coincidentally crosses paths with Nick and Steven, who land in a village during an air assault mission. Early assault momentum meets a counterattack and the scene cuts away. 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 along the river with rats and the dead bodies of previous victims. During Mike and Nick's turn to play, Mike convinces the captors to increase his odds of losing by loading three bullets into the revolver rather than one. When the next two chambers luckily fall on empty, Mike and Nick suddenly get the drop on the 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. Mike drops back down to help him, and carries him until they meet up with a South Vietnamese Army convoy.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Deric Washburn
- Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond
- Edited by: Peter Zinner
- Music: Stanley Myers
- Produced by: Michael Cimino, Michael Deeley, Barry Spikings, John Peverall
Cast
- Robert De Niro as Michael Vronsky
- Christopher Walken as Nikanor "Nick" Chevotarevich
- John Cazale as Stan
- John Savage as Steven Pushkov
- Meryl Streep as Linda
- George Dzundza as John
- Rutanya Alda as Angela
- Pierre Segui as Julien
- Amy Wright as Bridesmaid
- Richard Kuss as Linda's Father
Production
- Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English, French, Russian, Vietnamese
- Studios: Universal Pictures, EMI Films
- Budget: $15,000,000
- Box office: $49,000,000
- Themes: vietnam war, vietnam veteran, small town, suicide, vietnam, post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd), escape, pennsylvania, usa, saigon, friends
More by Michael Cimino
On this film
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