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The Deer Hunter
Sign in to saveAlso known as Deer Hunter, Voyage au bout de l'enfer
1978 film directed by Michael Cimino
"The Deer Hunter" is a 1978 film directed by Michael Cimino that follows a group of working-class friends whose lives are dramatically altered by the Vietnam War. The film is considered significant for its unflinching portrayal of war's impact on ordinary people and became a major critical and commercial success of its era.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Film · TMDB
8.0Three 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.
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
Themes
- vietnam war
- vietnam veteran
- small town
- suicide
- vietnam
- post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)
- escape
- pennsylvania, usa
- saigon
- friends
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~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
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 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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Deer Hunter” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.