At long last, after a brief educationally necessary little hiatus, we get to discuss The Deer Hunter (1978, EMI Films/Michael Cimino Film Production; Universal). This film is a bit controversial—though after writing that, I’m now pondering the likelihood that for each film that we’ve already discussed (and will discuss in the future), someone somewhere finds something of controversy in it. Such is the way of the world, I guess.

Anyhow, the release of The Deer Hunter came a mere three and a half years after the unsatisfactory close of the Vietnam War. Almost 60,000 Americans lost their lives, and approximately 150,000 were wounded in action before 20 years of American political and military involvement in Vietnam ended with the fall of Saigon to communist forces in April 1975. These are facts. The Deer Hunter deals more with emotions. The film follows the lives of three young American GIs—both home and abroad—and examines how the war and its atrocities affect each of them. It’s an interesting storyline, but very disturbing, to say the least. The Deer Hunter’s most famous (and unsurprisingly, its most controversial) scenes portray the American soldiers’ (and their South Vietnamese allies’) forced involvement in “games” of Russian roulette in which their North Vietnamese/Viet Cong captors amuse themselves by loading a bullet into one chamber of a small revolver, spinning the cylinder, and forcing each prisoner at gunpoint to point the gun at his head and pull the trigger. Some prisoners don’t make it to the end of the film.

The Russian roulette scenes outraged many people, who said (and still say) that the film’s depiction of American and South Vietnamese POWs is unrealistic. In real life, there were no Russian roulette games with captives, and the North Vietnamese would never have treated their prisoners in such a way. Some very angry people even insist that the film discriminates against the North Vietnamese, for that people group is always portrayed as the “bad guys” in films about the Vietnam War—to which I say: ???? Then I wonder why no one seems to ever question how every time Nazis show up in films they’re the bad guys and—gasp—they’re also always white Europeans. How racially/ethnically stereotypical!

Moving on…

Despite the controversy surrounding it, The Deer Hunter garnered nine Academy Award nominations and took home five statuettes: Sound, Film Editing, Directing for Michael Cimino, Actor in a Supporting Role for Christopher Walken as Nick, and Best Picture. It failed to win: Cinematography, Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen), Actor in a Leading Role for Robert De Niro as Michael, and Actress in a Supporting Role for Meryl Streep as Linda (Streep’s first of 21 Oscar nominations).

On a tragic note, while The Deer Hunter helped to launch Meryl Streep’s illustrious career, the film also marked the final motion picture appearance of John Cazale (you know, Fredo from The Godfather). Ironically, in the mid-1960s, Cazale worked for Standard Oil with another aspiring actor named Al Pacino, both of whom soon went on to act on stage in Israel Horovitz’s The Indian Wants the Bronx before vaulting into the world of film (though Cazale continued his stage work as well). The Godfather was Cazale’s movie debut, and it made him famous. In a rare feat, each of the six full-length films that featured Cazale were nominated for Best Picture: The Godfather (1972), The Conversation (1974), The Godfather Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), The Deer Hunter (1978), and The Godfather Part III (1990; archival footage of the deceased actor was used). Diagnosed with lung cancer in 1977, Cazale was ill and weak during the filming of The Deer Hunter, his health status only known to director Michael Cimino and Cazale’s then-girlfriend Meryl Streep. When enraged studio execs discovered the truth about the actor’s illness, they planned to fire Cazale—that is, until Streep and De Niro threatened to walk away from the film if Cazale was let go. The ailing actor was retained, and his scenes in the film were all shot first. Sadly, he died shortly after filming of The Deer Hunter wrapped and was never able to see the finished product. He was 42 years old. His friend Israel Horovitz said in his eulogy: “John Cazale happens once in a lifetime. He was an invention, a small perfection. It is no wonder his friends feel such anger upon waking from their sleep to discover that Cazale sleeps on with kings and counselors, with Booth and Kean, with Jimmy Dean, with Bernhardt, Guitry, and Duse, with Stanislavsky, with Groucho, Benny, and Allen. He will make fast friends in his new place. He is easy to love.”

For more thoughts on The Deer Hunter and its significance, please check out the full post tomorrow (I hope)!