The Deer Hunter is an American motion picture, directed by Michael Cimino and released in 1978. It stars Robert De Niro as Staff Sergeant Mike Vronsky, Christopher Walken as Corporal Nick Chebotarevich, John Savage as Corporal Steven Pushkov and Meryl Streep as Linda.

The Deer Hunter begins in late 1967 with an exploration of the lives of its main characters, particularly Vronsky and Chebotarevich. All live in small town Pennsylvania; all work at the local steel plant; all drink at a local bar and hunt deer in their spare time. Some, like Nick and Steven, are preparing for marriage.

Mike, Nick and Steven are also preparing for enlistment and military service in Vietnam. At Steven’s wedding reception, the three have an awkward encounter with a returned soldier.

The Deer Hunter then flashes forward to Vietnam, where Mike, Nick and Steven meet unexpectedly during an attack on a communist-held village. The three friends are captured by the North Vietnamese, held as prisoners of war and subject to torture and humiliation, including forced games of Russian roulette. They manage to escape from their guards but are separated after Steven is wounded and Nick becomes traumatised.

Mike returns alone to the United States and struggles to overcome his demons. He learns that Steven is in a local hospital for war veterans, having lost both his legs. The final scenes of The Deer Hunter show Mike returning to Vietnam in search of Nick, after receiving clues that he is still alive. He finds Nick in the Saigon underworld, addicted to drugs and remembering nothing of his friends or his former life.

The Deer Hunter received critical acclaim and was a box office success. It won numerous awards, including Oscars for best picture, best director, best supporting actor (Walken), best sound and best film editing. Cimino won praise for his depiction of working-class Americans, their attitudes toward Vietnam and the horrors endured by some prisoners of war.

The Deer Hunter has received criticism from veterans and military historians, mainly for its depiction of the North Vietnamese using Russian roulette as an instrument of torture and humiliation (there are no recorded examples of this). The Deer Hunter does not explore political aspects of the Vietnam War; its general position is neither pro-war or anti-war. Instead, it presents the Vietnam conflict as an event of great impact and significance, one that affected the lives of many Americans.

---

Content on this page is © Alpha History 2018-23. Content created by Alpha History may not be copied, republished or redistributed without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use.