The Deer Hunter | 80's Movie Guide

The Deer Hunter movie storyline. Michael, Steven and Nick are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Before they go, Steven marries the pregnant Angela, and their wedding party also serves as the men's farewell party. After some time and many horrors, the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp in which they are forced to play Russian roulette against each other. Michael makes it possible for them to escape, but they soon get separated again. 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 and their service in the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale (in his final role), Meryl Streep, and George Dzundza. The story takes place in Clairton, a small working class town on the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and then in Vietnam and in Saigon, during the Vietnam War. The film was based in part on an unproduced screenplay called The Man Who Came to Play by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker, about Las Vegas and Russian roulette. Producer Michael Deeley, who bought the script, hired writer/director Michael 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, and ended up costing $15 million. The scenes of Russian roulette were highly controversial on release. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Michael Cimino, and Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken, and was named by the American Film Institute as the 53rd greatest American film of all time in the 10th Anniversary Edition of the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list. In 1996, The Deer Hunter was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The Deer Hunter (1978) Directed by: Michael Cimino Oyuncular: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep, George Dzundza, Rutanya Alda, Amy Wright Screenplay by: Deric Washburn Cinematography by: Vilmos Zsigmond Film Editing by: Peter Zinner Art Direction by: Ron Hobbs, Kim Swados Music by: Stanley Myers Distributed by: Universal Pictures Release Date: February 23, 1979