51st Academy Awards · 1979
The Deer Hunter
Directed by Michael Cimino
“One of the most important and powerful films of all time!”
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The story
Three 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.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer86%Fresh#75 of 98 winnersIMDb8.1390K votes#25 of 98 winners
Metacritic90/ 100#24 of 93 winners
TMDB8.0/ 10
Famous lines
You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it's all about. The deer has to be taken with one shot.
Nick: One shot.
Michael: One shot, one shot.
Stanley, see this? This is this. This ain't something else. This is this.
I love you, Nick. … Come on, Nicky, come home. Just come home.
If anything happens Mike, you don't - don't leave me over there. You got, you gotta...Just don't leave me. You gotta promise me that, Mike.
When a man says no to champagne, he says no to life.
What goes through your mind comes out your mouth.
You're so full of shit, you're gonna float away.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- Extras at the wedding were asked to bring gift-wrapped boxes to stand in for presents, and the crew later discovered the boxes were full of real gifts, from china to silverware.Wikipedia · The wedding scenes
- Meryl Streep accepted the small girlfriend role largely to stay near John Cazale, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer; The Deer Hunter was his final film, and Streep wrote all of her own lines.Wikipedia · Filming
- According to Michael Cimino, Robert De Niro asked for a live round in the revolver when his character forces John Cazale's into Russian roulette; Cazale agreed but obsessively rechecked the gun before every take.Wikipedia · Vietnam and the Russian roulette scenes
- Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs conceived the idea for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington after seeing a screening of The Deer Hunter in March 1979.Wikipedia · Honors and recognition
- During a helicopter stunt, the skids caught on the rope bridge and threatened to seriously injure Robert De Niro and John Savage, who shouted warnings to the crew; the footage is in the film.Wikipedia · Vietnam and the Russian roulette scenes
- The first actor hired to run the Russian roulette game couldn't bring himself to slap Robert De Niro, so the casting agent found a local man with a particular dislike of Americans; Christopher Walken's reaction to an unannounced slap was genuine.Wikipedia · Vietnam and the Russian roulette scenes
- At the 1979 Berlin Film Festival, the Soviet delegation protested the film's portrayal of the Vietnamese, leading to walkouts by several Eastern Bloc delegations and the resignation of two jury members.Wikipedia · Critical response
- Protesters from Vietnam Veterans Against the War met the limousines at the 1979 Oscars with signs reading 'The Deer Hunter a bloody lie,' and Variety reported a brief, bloody clash with police that led to 13 arrests.Wikipedia · Lead-up to awards season
- Michael Cimino fired editor Peter Zinner after catching him trimming the wedding scenes, which had grown from a planned 21 minutes to 51, yet Zinner went on to win the Oscar for Best Film Editing.Wikipedia · Post-production
- The studio wanted to dismiss the terminally ill John Cazale, but Meryl Streep and Michael Cimino threatened to quit; Cazale was almost uninsurable, and according to Streep, Robert De Niro paid for his insurance.Wikipedia · Cast