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The Deer Hunter (1978) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
In 1968, three friends in a tight-knit Slavic American [3][a] community in Western Pennsylvania —Mike Vronsky, Steven Pushkov, and Nikanor "Nick" Chevotarevich—work in a steel mill and hunt deer with their co-workers Stanley ("Stan") and Peter "Axel" Axelrod, along with friend and bartender John Welsh.
Sep 14, 2023 · One of the most confusing aspects of The Deer Hunter's ending is the fact that Nick is the person sending Steve money from Saigon despite losing his memory. When Michael finds Nick, he's clearly become addicted to heroin and has been living in a stupor for some time, only to regain pieces of his memory in what prove to be his final moments.
- Kayleena Pierce-Bohen
- Overview
- Production notes and credits
- Cast
- Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)
The Deer Hunter, American dramatic film, released in 1978, that focused on the devastating effects of the Vietnam War on the young American men sent to fight in it. The emotionally shattering movie, cowritten and directed by Michael Cimino, won five Academy Awards, including those for best picture and best editor.
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
Britannica Quiz
Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia
The film opens at the end of a shift in a steel mill in Clairton, Pennsylvania. A group of workers—Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), and Steven (John Savage)—join with their friends Stan (John Cazale) and Axel (Chuck Aspegren) and go to the bar owned by John (George Dzundza). Steven is about to marry his pregnant girlfriend, Angela (Rutanya Alda), and Michael, Nick, and Steven are then going to ship out to Vietnam. Nick’s girlfriend, Linda (Meryl Streep), one of the bridesmaids, takes breakfast to her drunken father before leaving for the wedding, and he knocks her down. She later secures permission to stay in the home that Michael and Nick share during their deployment. The wedding takes place in a Russian Orthodox church, and the reception is held in an American Legion hall. Linda catches the bridal bouquet, and Nick proposes to her but seems surprised when she accepts the proposal. Early the next morning, all the men except Steven go on a deer-hunting trip organized by Michael and Nick. Michael, who follows his own strict code of honour regarding hunting, kills a buck with a single shot, and the men return to John’s bar with their trophy.
The movie’s next act begins in the midst of a brutal battle in a small village in Vietnam. Michael is among the small group of Americans defending the village from North Vietnamese attackers. American helicopters arrive with reinforcements, which include Nick and Steven. The Americans are outnumbered, however, and all three are taken prisoner. The prisoners of war (POWs) are held in bamboo cages partially submerged in rat-infested waters, and their captors pull them up to force them to play Russian roulette. When Steven is made to play, he nervously shifts the angle of the gun as he pulls the trigger, and the bullet that is fired only grazes his scalp. He is placed in a cage. Michael, who has thought of a way to escape, insists that he and Nick play against each other, but with three bullets rather than the standard single one in the chamber. After Michael and Nick survive three rounds, Michael turns the gun on the game’s ringleader, and he and Nick seize the weapons of their other captors and kill them. Michael and Nick free Steven from the cage and escape into the river, holding on to a floating log. An American helicopter attempts to rescue them, but only Nick is able to climb into the chopper. Steven falls back into the river, and Michael drops back down to save him. Steven’s legs are shattered in the fall, and Michael carries him on his back. Sometime later, the psychologically damaged Nick is released from a military hospital in Saigon and walks through the city, searching for Michael. Outside a gambling den, Nick meets Julien Grinda (Pierre Segui), a Frenchman who insists that Nick enter the building, in which young Vietnamese men are playing Russian roulette for money. Michael is in the crowd, though Nick does not notice him. Nick grabs a gun from one of the contestants and places it against his own head, drawing an empty chamber. He leaves with Grinda, and Michael is unable to catch up with him.
•Studios: EMI Films and Universal Pictures
•Director: Michael Cimino
•Music: Stanley Myers
•Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond
•Robert De Niro (Michael)
•Christopher Walken (Nick)
•John Savage (Steven)
•George Dzundza (John)
•Chuck Aspegren (Axel)
•Meryl Streep (Linda)
•Picture*
•Lead actor (Robert De Niro)
•Supporting actor* (Christopher Walken)
•Supporting actress (Meryl Streep)
•Cinematography
•Direction*
- Patricia Bauer
Nick : Stan. [gives him back the boots] Axel : [Mike puts the live round into his rifle, takes aim and vents his anger by firing it out into the woods, then looks at the group to see their bewildered reactions]
Before they left, Steven married his pregnant girlfriend -- and Michael and Nick were in love with the same woman. But all three are different men upon their return. A group of working-class friends decide to enlist in the Army during the Vietnam War and finds it to be hellish chaos -- not the noble venture they imagined.
Sep 25, 2023 · Mike leads Nick in a tense shootout escape. They grab Steven, and a helicopter saves the trio — but only for a moment. Steven slips into the river, and Mike goes in after him, but Nick goes AWOL...
