One of the earliest attempts by Hollywood to process the traumatic memories of the Vietnam war was ‘The Deer Hunter’, directed by Michael Cimino in 1978. The film was one of the first, and most controversial, major theatrical films to be critical of the American involvement in Vietnam following 1975 when the war officially ended.
Initially it was a hit with the critics. The film received nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor (Robert De Niro), Best Supporting Actress (Meryl Streep), Best Cinematography (by Vilmos Zsigmond) and Best Original Screenplay), and won five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken), Best Director, Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.
Soon the admiration became more reserved. Since its release the movie has been called racist, and labelled as an inaccurate portrayal of the Vietnam War - the most talked about sequence is the fictional Russian Roulette torture, imposed on the American POW's during wartime and played as a game in a Vietnamese gambling den (there were no documented cases or historical reports of the deadly game in actuality). However, the film is still held in high regard for its depiction of the humane experience of three average American citizens and their struggles and hardships.
‘The Deer Hunter’ focuses on a group of Pennsylvania steel-workers, some of whom are going off to fight just days after one of their number has got married. It’s the wedding of Steven (John Savage) that dominates the first third of the movie. His pals include the intense Nicky (Christopher Walken), who is enjoying a tentative romance with Linda (Meryl Streep); the sleazy, insecure Stan (John Cazale); and the unofficial leader of the group, Michael (Robert De Niro), a clipped and practical man who is never more fully alive than when he is hunting deer in the mountains.
Their relationship is beyond being friends; they are family to one another. Cimino beautifully shows us their relationship by following them doing different activities and interacting with their small hometown. Whether it is hunting, toiling in a factory or celebrating a Russian Orthodox wedding, the community is very much involved in every aspect. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond zooms slowly and with curiosity into scenes of people socialising, or doggedly working, or going about the kind of humdrum activities not normally considered worthy of the camera’s attention. Cimino and Zsigmond show people in their natural environment, struggling through ordinary cluttered lives. The film is alert to incongruous details, whether humorous (the giggling maids of honour flailing around in the grey streets) or tragic (Linda at the wedding, decked out in her glad rags with a bruise on her cheek).
The second part of ‘The Deer Hunter’ abruptly throws Mike, Nick, and Steven into the heart of battle in Vietnam. Cimino films this part in a style that screams tragedy and nightmare. Soon after we see the characters fighting on the battlefield, we then see them as prisoners of war, held captive in rat-infested water and forced to participate against one another in rounds of Russian roulette. This particular location makes up the majority of the Vietnam scene, and establishes that war and life are full of risks.
The final part of ‘The Deer Hunter’ is the most heartrending - the characters’ physical involvement in Vietnam has concluded, and now an internal war has started for the group of friends. Returning home for Michael and Steven proves just as tough as the war itself. The hero of the movie, Michael, especially finds the transition difficult. Before the war he was an avid hunter, and the best hunter in his town. After the war, he cannot find the strength in him to continue with the once sacred experience of killing a deer that is well within the range of his rifle. This change Michael goes through represents the change that has been going on in his town, and in America, post-Vietnam War.
Director Michael Cimino entered the film industry as a writer in the early 1970s, credited as ‘Mike Cimino’ for his unique science-fiction screenplay ‘Silent Running’ (1972). Frustrated with the difficulty of getting subsequent scripts made, he wrote ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’, a highly original buddy movie that subverted that genre’s conventions.
Clint Eastwood loved the script, and eventually starred in the film in 1974, with Cimino making his directing debut. Before that, he hired Cimino to rewrite John Milius’s screenplay for ‘Magnum Force’ (1973), the sequel to Dirty Harry. Cimino helped develop the story ideas behind ‘The Deer Hunter’, which was based partly on another script, ‘The Man Who Came to Play’ (its authors received co-story credits).
Producer Michael Deeley pursued De Niro for ‘The Deer Hunter’ because he felt that he needed De Niro's star power to sell a film with a "gruesome-sounding storyline and a barely known director”. De Niro prepared by socializing with steelworkers in local bars and by visiting their homes. Cimino introduced De Niro as his agent, Harry Ufland. No one recognized him. De Niro claims this was his most physically exhausting film. He explained that the scene where Mike visits Steven in the hospital for the first time was the most emotional scene that he was ever involved with. De Niro was a last-minute replacement for Roy Scheider, who dropped out of the production two weeks before the start of filming due to "creative differences". Hiring De Niro turned out to be a casting coup because he knew so many actors in New York and he brought Meryl Streep to the attention of Cimino and Deeley. With Streep came John Cazale.
Cimino beautifully shows us their relationship by following them doing different activities and interacting with their small hometown.
John Cazale, who was 42 at the time of filming, had appeared in only four previous pictures: ‘The Godfather’ (1972), ‘The Conversation’, ‘The Godfather Part II’ (both 1974) and ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975).
However, the actor was dying of bone cancer, a fact that Cimino had kept from the studio by lining up Cazale’s scenes first to utilize what little energy reserves he had left. Eventually the studio discovered the truth. He was uninsurable, and according to Streep, De Niro paid for his insurance because he wanted Cazale in the film. Cimino and Meryl Streep, who was Cazale’s fiancée as well as his co-star, defended the actor, threatening to quit the picture if he was removed. This was Cazale's last film, as he died shortly after filming wrapped. Cazale never saw the finished film, dying shortly before filming was completed.
On the basis of the film’s massive success, Cimino was given free rein by United Artists for his next feature, ‘Heaven's Gate’ (1980). As with ‘The Deer Hunter’, the film came in several times over budget. After its release, it proved to be a financial disaster that nearly bankrupted the studio. Heaven's Gate became the lightning rod for the industry perception of the loosely controlled situation in Hollywood at that time. The film's failure marked the end of the New Hollywood era. Transamerica Corporation sold United Artists, having lost confidence in the company and its management.
‘Heaven's Gate’ was such a devastating critical and commercial bomb that public perception of Cimino's work was tainted in its wake; the majority of his subsequent films achieved neither popular nor critical success. Cimino directed a 1985 crime drama, ‘Year of the Dragon’, which he and Oliver Stone adapted from Robert Daley's novel – it was nominated for five Razzie awards, including Worst Director and Worst Screenplay, and sharply criticized for providing offensive stereotypes about Chinese Americans. Cimino directed ‘The Sicilian’ from a Mario Puzo novel in 1987 and a remake of the Humphrey Bogart film ‘The Desperate Hours’ in 1990, starring Anthony Hopkins and Mickey Rourke – both films bombed at the box office. His last feature-length film was 1996's ‘Sunchaser’ with Woody Harrelson and Jon Seda which, while nominated for the Palme d'Or at that year's Cannes Film Festival, was released straight-to-video.
Meanwhile, ‘The Deer Hunter’ has continued to age well. 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", and was 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.
It seems that ‘The Deer Hunter’ will always live on and be regarded thoughtfully by modern audiences and critics alike. The film helped the people of America to finally put the pain of the war behind them, and appreciate their community. The movie’s message is still relevant today, showing the kind of courage and friendship that is necessary to sustain a stronger, healthier life in the post-war climate.