Its ambition and moments of brilliance keeps Michael Cimino’s “The Deer Hunter” on my list of the best movies ever made. It is a devastating emotional experience yet it is essential viewing to any serious cinephile. Articulating the anguish of the Vietnam period in America, its brutality is matched by its lyricism and frank representation of the working class.
There are three separate parts to this three-hour film – and each has its own rhythm and feel. Cimino takes us through three rites of passage – three rituals richly detailed – a wedding, a war and a funeral.
The first half the movie immerses us in the lives of steelworkers in Clairton, Pennsylvania on the eve of the deployment of three of their own to Vietnam. We get to meet a group of close male friends as they prepare for a wedding prior to departure. In bold strokes, their personalities are established. Robert DeNiro plays Mike Vronsky – the leader of the group. He and Nick Chevotarevich (Christopher Walken) both love Linda (Meryl Streep) who is abused by her alcoholic father. Steven (John Savage) – the shy one of the group – is marrying Angela who is secretly pregnant by another man. The men drink and play pool at a pub right before the wedding and sing Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off you” – a moment that is bittersweet for we know this is the last time they will have this joy. The wedding sequence is spectacular – full of music, dancing, more singing, lots of drinking – furtive glances, and an engagement. There’s also a premonition – the camera does a close-up of a spill of red wine on the wedding dress. Nick makes Mike promise him that he will not leave him in Vietnam. The following morning there’s another ritual – the men go on a final deer hunt. The landscape of the Alleghenies is majestically photographed. We’re atop the mountains surrounded by clouds. Just like the wedding – this event is emblematic. The deer itself becomes a symbol – of death and of the powers in nature that are not easily subdued. The first section of the film unfolds leisurely.
Abruptly, we’re transported to hell. The film cuts to a loud and gruesome battle in Vietnam. The contrast is jarring. Mike, Nick and Steven are captured by the Viet Cong and are forced to partake in hellish game of Russian roulette while bets are placed on their survival. This sequence is fierce and pitiless in its depiction. Cimino uses Russian roulette as a metaphor for our involvement in Vietnam – a foolishly and ruinous business.
The third half of the film – purgatory – is the aftermath of the war on the small town – as some of the characters have difficulty reintegrating into their lives – and eventually Mike had to return to Vietnam to fulfill his promise. I’ve intentionally not given up a lot of the plot – but what happens is devastating. The main ritual of this third movement is a funeral – a stark contrast to the first half of the film. We return to the pub but this time it is somber and dim. The characters sit around a table and this time sing “God Bless America.” The accumulated effect is shattering.
The film won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Walken, Best Sound and Editing. It marked Meryl Streeps’s first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. DeNiro who was also nominated is robust. It marked John Cazale’s last film – he died soon after filming was completed never to see the final product. The atmospheric cinematography by Vilmos Zsgimond is crucial to the impact of this film. This is audacious and largescale filmmaking.
Michael: “You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it’s all about. The deer has to be taken with one shot. I try to tell people that – they don’t listen. Do you ever think about Vietnam?”
Nick: “Yeah. I don’t know. I guess I’m thinkin’ about the deer, goin’ to ‘Nam. I like the trees, you know? I like the way the trees are on the mountains, all different.”
Love,
Roger
Available to rent on Amazon Prime, iTunes, YouTube, Vudu and Google Play.
Directed by Michael Cimino
Written by Deric Washburn, Louis Garfinkle, Quinn K. Redeker, Michael Cimino
Starring: Christopher Walken, John Cazale, Robert De Niro, John Savage, Meryl Streep
183 minutes
About Writer and Director Michael Cimino
Writer/producer/director Michael Cimino, the son of a Long Island-based music publisher, earned an MFA in Painting at Yale University, where he also became involved with student theatrical productions. Upon moving to New York City, he augmented his acting lessons with ballet classes, and began directing TV commercials and industrial films around 1963. In 1971, Cimino moved to Hollywood, where he wrote his first big-studio film, the Douglas Trumbull-directed Silent Running. This led to his own feature-length directorial debut, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), a successful Clint Eastwood vehicle which Cimino patterned after one of his favorite ’50s films, Captain Lightfoot. Given virtual carte blanche for his next project, Cimino spent nearly three years on the preparation and production of The Deer Hunter, a long, elegiac Vietnam-era epic which won five 1978 Oscars, including Best Picture.
Operating on the theory that Cimino could do no wrong, United Artists gave the filmmaker another free hand on his next project, Heaven’s Gate (1980). The melancholy history of this mother of all cinematic fiascoes has been thoroughly covered elsewhere, so suffice to say that the production’s combination of clashing egos, on-set drug participation, misfired “atmosphere” sequences, muddy (and muddled) battle scenes and incomprehensible dialogue added up to the Picture That Killed United Artists.This critical blow derailed his career, though he continued to work periodically. He directed Mickey Rourke in both the 1985 thriller Year of the Dragon and a 1990 remake of The Desperate Hours, and hired Woody Harrelson to head-up his 1996 film The Sunchaser. It was another ten years before his next project when he contributed to the omnibus film To Each His Own Cinema. Cimino died in 2016, at age 77. (rottentomatoes.com)
Backing John Cazale
Meryl Streep accepted the role of the “vague, stock girlfriend,” in order to remain for the duration of filming with John Cazale, who had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Cazale was very weak when filming began, and for this reason, his scenes were filmed first. Michael Cimino knew from the start that Cazale was dying from cancer, but the studio did not. When they found out and he was deemed uninsurable, the studio wanted to replace Cazale. When Streep learned of their intentions, she threatened to quit if they did. Robert De Niro didn’t want Cazale replaced either and put up the money for the insurance for Cazale to stay on. Sadly though, Cazale died shortly after filming was finished, never seeing the completed film. (medium.com)
Russian Roulette
The Vietcong Russian roulette scenes were shot in real circumstances, with real rats and mosquitoes, the 3 principals (Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage) were tied up in bamboo cages erected along the River Kwai. The woman who was given the task of casting the extras in Thailand had much difficulty finding a local to play the vicious-looking individual who runs the game. The first actor hired turned out to be incapable of slapping De Niro in the face. The caster then found a local Thai man with a particular dislike of Americans, and cast him accordingly. De Niro suggested that Walken be slapped for real by one of the guards without any warning. The reaction on Walken’s face was genuine. Producer Michael Deeley has said that Cimino shot the brutal Vietcong Russian roulette scenes brilliantly and more efficiently than any other part of the film.
According to Cimino, De Niro requested a live cartridge in the revolver for the scene in which he subjects John Cazale’s character to an impromptu game of Russian roulette, to heighten the intensity of the situation. Cazale agreed without protest, but obsessively rechecked the gun before each take to make sure that the live round wasn’t next in the chamber. (fandom.com)
On Location
This was the first feature film depicting the Vietnam War to be filmed on location in Thailand. All scenes were shot on location (no sound stages). “There was discussion about shooting the film on a back lot, but the material demanded more realism,” says Spikings. The cast and crew viewed large amounts of news footage from the war to ensure authenticity. The film was shot over a period of 6 months. The Clairton scenes comprise footage shot in 8 different towns in 4 states: West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington and Ohio. The initial budget of the film was $8.5 million but when filming was completed, it had ended up costing $13 million and still had to go through an arduous post-production. (medium.com)