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| The Deer Hunter (1978), Universal Studios |
Notes:
A shot of a city skyline at night. On the side of a small brick building that houses a strip club reads,
"Welcome to CLAIRTON, City of Prayer"
Men are working in a steel mill in Clairton, Pennsylvania. Their shift ends in the morning. Steelworkers Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), Stan (John Cazale), Steven (John Savage), and Axel (Chuck Aspegren) head out of the mill and say their goodbyes to coworkers. Once outside, Mike suggests that they all go deer hunting that night, and Steven protests, reminding them that he's getting married to his girlfriend Angela (Rutanya Alda) that night. They all pile into the car and head to their local bar, Welsh's Lounge, owned by their friend John (George Dzundza).
Angela is in her wedding dress, practicing "I do" into the mirror. She surveys her pregnant belly nervously, with tears in her eyes.
Mike and his friends walk into the bar, sit down, and begin making bets on the Steelers vs Eagles game that is playing on the television.
Linda (Meryl Streep) is in her kitchen, in her bridesmaid dress, preparing a tray of tea and food. She brings the tray up to her father, who is in an angry drunken stupor on the floor. She pulls him up from the floor and tries to get him into bed, during which he hits her in the face twice.
By this time, all the men are pretty drunk at the bar, and Mike and Nick are now playing a game of pool. They all sing along as Frankie Valli's "Cant Take My Eyes Off of You" plays on the jukebox. Steven's mother barges into the bar and drags him out, yelling at him about his choice of wife. Steven insists that he loves Angela, and she loves him. The men watch from the bar.
Mike and Nick share a tiny house together. They discuss hunting. Mike says,
"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."
Nick replies, "I don't know, I guess I'm thinking about the deer. I like the trees, you know? I like the way the trees are in the mountains, all different... the way the trees are."
Axel and John arrive at Mike and Nick's, followed shortly after by Stan and three of the bridesmaids. Linda arrives by herself, and Nick (who is her boyfriend) asks her what's wrong when he sees she's visibly upset. She asks him if she can stay at his and Mike's place while they are gone, and he tells her yes. Mike is watching the conversation through the window, and he leaves the house as Linda walks inside.
Steven and Angela are married.
At the reception, a big crowd of people are dancing as a band plays Eastern European music. Steven, Nick, and Linda are dancing around in a circle, holding hands, and Mike is watching them from the bar area. It becomes apparent that he is mostly watching Linda; she notices and begins to glance back at him as well.
It's late in the evening and everyone at the reception has become fairly intoxicated. They take wedding party pictures.
The band begins to play "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You," and Nick pushes Mike into Linda and tells them to dance. After they dance, Mike leads Linda to the bar to buy her a beer.
Mike and Linda are at the bar alone, and Mike is very drunk, and hanging on Linda. Nick walks in and Linda runs to him and kisses him, and then runs back to the dance floor.
An Green Beret walks into the bar and sits down, and Mike and Nick immediately buy him a drink and try to talk to him because they will be leaving to fight in Vietnam soon. They ask the Beret what the war in Vietnam is like, but he refuses to speak to them and stares straight ahead.
Mike is drunk and gets angry that the man is ignoring them, but Nick and Steven hold him back from starting a fight. The Beret will only sip his drink and say "F*** it."
Steven and Angela are hoisted up onto people's shoulders and carried outside to their car. They are saying their goodbyes to the wedding party, and Steven is nervous about his wedding night and confides to Nick that he's never done it with Angela (Hence, Angela is pregnant with another man's baby). As Steven and Angela begin to drive off, Mike strips out of his clothes and runs down the street. Everyone runs after him, and Steven follows him in the car. Mike cuts down an alleyway, and the only one able to catch up with him is Nick. Mike finally lays down on an outdoor basketball court completely naked, and Nick flings a shirt over him. Nick sits down next to him, and Mike asks if he thinks they'll ever come back (from Vietnam). Nick asks Mike to promise him that no matter what happens, Mike won't leave him over there- that he'll bring his body back home.
The next morning, Mike, Nick, Stan, John, and Axel (the last four still in their wedding attire) drive through the mountains to go on their hunting trip.
They pull to the side of the road to eat and get their gear together.
Stan asks Mike if he can borrow his extra pair of boots and Mike tells him no.
 |
| "No boots for you" |
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| "Say what?" |
Church choir music plays as Mike and Nick head out of the hunting cabin and up into the mountains to hunt. Mike spots a deer and shoots it.
The men return to Clairton that night, with the dead deer strapped to the front of the car. They barge into Welsh's bar, which is dark and closed, singing drunkenly. They turn the lights on and start drinking beer. John begins to play a serious, classical song on the piano, and the men quickly sober and listen intently as he plays.
John finishes playing and they all sit quietly in silence.
North Vietnamese airplanes drop bombs on a small village in Vietnam, setting it on fire. Mike is laying on the ground, bloody and unconscious, in full camouflage gear. A North Vietnamese soldier finds a group of villagers, mostly women and children, hiding in an underground bunker. He throws a grenade on top of them, and runs away as they are blown up.
As Mike awakens, he sees the same Vietnamese soldier gun down a little girl carrying a baby. Mike jumps up, sets the man on fire, and then shoots him.
Nick and Steve arrive in a helicopter with a platoon of soldiers, and run over to Mike. Suddenly, a bunch of bombs go off on the ground, and a line of North Vietnamese soldiers is advancing towards them.
Mike, Nick, Steve, and others are taken prisoner and held captive in a wire cage along a river. One by one, the prisoners are pulled out from above, and forced to play Russian roulette with each other, as the North Vietnamese soldiers gamble on the outcome. Steve begins to yell and panic, and Mike goes over to comfort him. They listen as the game finally comes to an end as one of the men puts the gun to his head, pulls the trigger, and the bullet fires into his head.
Eventually, Steve and Mike are forced to play against each other in the Russian roulette game. Steve is crying in fear and won't pick up the gun. Mike, with tears in his eyes, is telling Steve that he can do it, and that the soldiers are going to shoot him if he doesn't. Steve continues to cry, and Mike starts yelling at him to do it, and to prove that he has balls.
Steve fires the gun, but the bullet only grazes his head because he didn't hold the gun straight. The soldiers pull Steve away and put him in an underwater cage as punishment, where Steve struggles to hold his head above the water and rats.
Mike is released back to the cage underneath the platform with Nick. He tells Nick that it's just the two of them now.
Nick asks, "What about Stevie?" Mike replies, "Forget about him. He ain't gonna make it." Nick looks at Mike with disbelief and asks, "Who do you think you are? God?"
Mike tells Nick that they are going to have to play each other in Russian roulette, and that they are going to need more bullets. Nick asks, "What are you crazy? More bullets?" Mike explains that it's the only way, and that he is going to use the bullets to start shooting at the soldiers, and then Nick will grab the nearest gun and start shooting.
Mike and Nick sit at the table to play, and Nick is the first one up. At Mike's urging, he fires and it's blank.
Mike then tells the soldiers that he wants to play with three bullets. They agree, load the gun with three bullets, and Mike points it to his head and pulls the trigger. Empty. It's Nick's turn, and he refuses to do it a few times, before finally pulling the trigger. Empty. It's Mike's turn again, and he brings the gun up to his head.
He then pulls it away and shoots three of the soldiers. Nick and Mike both grab machine guns and kills the rest of the soldiers and then make their way out of the hut.
Mike pulls Steve out of the underwater cage, and leads him over to Nick. The three of them begin to float down the river, holding onto a large log.
They spot a US Army helicopter, and grab onto a rope bridge to wave it down. The helicopter spots them and lowers down to pick them up. Nick is pulled into the helicopter, but Steve and Mike are left dangling, and then Steve loses his grip and falls into the water below. Mike lets go and falls in after him. He swims over to Steve and pulls him to shore, where he discovers that Steve has a serious leg injury and cannot walk. He hoists Steve on his back and carries him until he finds a US Army tank. He lays Steve onto the tank, but he stays behind as the tank rolls away.
At the US Army Hospital in Saigon, Nick watches from a balcony as the bodies of dead US Soldiers are laid out on the ground and loaded into metal coffins. A doctor comes up to Nick and begins to ask him about his family to fill out a form. After answering a few questions, Nick just begins to sob uncontrollably.
Nick is discharged from the hospital, and back in his uniform, he is roaming down a street in the middle of Saigon's nightlife. At one point he thinks he sees Mike, but it turns out not to be him. He walks into a strip club, where a prostitute tries to get his business, but he turns her down and leaves the club.
Nick is walking down a dark street alone when he hears gunshots. He follows the sound to where a Frenchman named Julien is lounging in a car, outside of a building. Julien greets Nick and insists that he come inside to see the game. Once inside, Nick sees that a large group of men are yelling and cheering, as they gamble on games of Russian roulette. Mike is one of the spectators, but he and Nick don't notice each other. Nick pulls the gun from one of the men playing and shoots the gun at the man's head. Empty. He then shoots the gun at his own head, and it's empty. Nick is then thrown out of the building, and Mike runs after him. Nick jumps into the car with Julien and they drive off as Mike yells after Nick. Julien hands Nick a wad of money and tells him that he could make a lot of money playing Russian roulette, but Nick throws the money out of the car.
Mike is in a cab arriving back in Clairton, when he spots banners hanging along the road that say, "Welcome Home, Michael," and he sees that his friends are having a welcome home party for him at his house. Linda, Stan, Axel, and others are gathered inside with a cake, awaiting his return. Mike tells the cab driver not to stop and to keep on driving.
Mike checks into a motel, where he takes off his uniform, sits on the floor, and takes out a picture of Linda from his wallet. The next morning, Mike waits until everyone has left the house, and then goes in to say hello to Linda.
Linda is overjoyed to see him, and she welcomes him inside. She tells Mike that she was hoping somehow he would have Nick with him.
Mike simply says, "no," and then asks if she's heard anything about Nick. Linda says no, and that the last she heard, Nick was AWOL. She begins to cry, and Mike hugs her and tells her it will be alright. Linda says she has to go to work, and Mike says that he'll walk her there.
Mike goes to the steel mill to surprise Stan and Axel.
The three of them then show up at Welsh's Lounge, where Mike is welcomed back by everyone inside. John pulls them into the back for a drink, where Mike finds out that Steve has already returned home, and they all thought he knew. John tells him that Steve has disappeared and Angela won't tell anyone where he's gone. Mike immediately leaves the bar and goes to Steve's Mother's house to ask Angela about Steve. She's lying in bed and won't speak, but she writes down on a piece of paper a phone number.
Mike goes to a payphone to dial the number, but he hangs up without dialing it. He then goes home and packs up his stuff. He tells Linda as she's arriving home that he has to get out of there. She asks him to stay and go to bed with her, so that they can comfort each other. Mike tells her he can't, and leaves. She runs outside after him, and goes to his motel room with him.
Mike is watching Linda bowl with Axel, John, and Stan at a bowling alley. Mike stays apart from everything, watching from fairly far away. Axel gets himself stuck underneath the rack of pins, and everyone runs to pull him out, including Mike. As Linda and Mike help Axel limp off of the lanes, Axel asks the guys about going on another hunting trip.
Mike, Stan, Axel, and John are roaming through the mountains with rifles, hunting deer. Mike is tracking a large buck, and eventually comes face to face with it. The buck stares at him and Mike has a clear shot, but he misses. The buck continues to stand there after the gun shot, and then slowly ambles away. Mike sits down and yells out over a canyon, "okay!"
Stan and Axel are sitting in the cabin and Stan is looking over his revolver. Axel asks Stan why he brought a gun like that on a hunting trip, and Stan says, "just in case."
Axel then makes a joke about Stan's girlfriend cheating on him, and Stan points the gun at him and yells at him to take it back. Mike walks into the cabin as Stan is waving the gun at Axel, and Mike grabs the gun away from Stan and pushes him to the ground. Stan yells, "What? did you think it was loaded?" Mike checks the revolver's chamber and it is loaded. Angrily, Mike takes all of the bullets out of the chamber besides one, and points the gun at Stan's head, yelling at him, "You want to play games? I'll play your game." He pulls the trigger. Empty. Mike stalks out of the cabin and throws the revolver into the woods.
Back in Clairton, Mike drives to his house without dropping any of the guys off, and gets out of the car without saying a word to anyone. He gets his stuff out of the trunk and goes inside. Axel, Stan, and John slowly get out of the car, grab their stuff, and begin walking home.
Mike arrives at the supermarket to visit Linda at work, and he finds her in the back stockroom crying. He asks what's wrong, and she says she doesn't know. She tells him to just leave her alone.
When Linda leaves work for the night, Mike is waiting for her with his car. She gets inside and they start to drive home. She asks, "Did you ever think life would turn out like this?" He replies, "No."
That night, Mike leaves the house and walks to the payphone to call the number Angela gave him.
Steve is at a Veteran's Hospital in a motorized wheelchair, both his legs amputated. A nurse tells him that he has a phone call. Steve answers the phone and it's Mike. He's happy to hear from him, and asks how things are going. Mike says fine, and then asks when Steve is coming home. Steve explains not for awhile, and Mike doesn't understand what he's talking about. Steve says he has to go and hangs up. Mike hangs up the phone as well, and Steve sits in his chair, crying.
Mike goes to the hospital to visit Steve. Steve tells him that he doesn't want to go home, and Mike says that he knows, and that it's fine. Steve then shows him a drawer full of $100 bills. He tells Mike that he keeps receiving money from Saigon, and he doesn't know why. Mike says that it must be from Nick, and Steve asks, "Nick is still alive? Where is he getting this kind of money?" Mike says, "Cards? I don't know," but he knows that Nick is getting the money from playing Russian roulette. Mike wheels Steve away and tells him that he's taking him home.
Mike flies back to Saigon to find Nick. He finds Julien and asks him if he knows where Nick is. Julien is reluctant to tell him anything, and Mike hands him stacks of money and says that he wants to play against Nick in Russian roulette. Julien agrees to take him to Nick, and they end up at a door where another man extorts $1500 out of Mike before letting them inside the room.
Inside, a game of Russian roulette is in progress, with a large group of men watching and gambling.
Mike searches for Nick, but doesn't see him. Mike watches as one of the men playing puts the gun to his head, shoots it, and dies.
Mike spots Nick come through a door at the end of a hallway, and he rushes forward to talk to him. Nick is unresponsive and doesn't recognize Mike. He tries to push past Mike to get to the game, but Mike restrains him saying, "I traveled 12,000 miles to come get you. Nick, I love you, you're my friend. What are you doing?" Nick says nothing and spits in his face. Mike lets him go, and Nick walks away to play the game. Mike hurries into the backroom to negotiate with the men in charge of the game, telling them that he wants to play Nick, and he gives them all his money. They agree, and Mike walks out and sits down at the table across from Nick.
The gun is handed to Nick first, and he lifts the gun to his head. Mike begs him to stop, but Nick pulls the trigger.
Empty. The gun goes to Mike next, and Mike lifts the gun to his head, and asks Nick, "Is this what you want?" Nick doesn't respond, and stares at Mike with no emotion. Mike stares back at him and says, "I love you, Nick" and he pulls the trigger. Empty.
The gun goes back to Nick, and Mike notices the track marks up and down Nick's arm as he restrains him from lifting the gun. Mike pleads with Nick again to come home, and some type of recognition seems to register on Nick's face. Trying to jog Nick's memory, Mike says, "Remember the trees, Nick? All the different trees in the mountains? Remember that?" Nick smiles and remembering the conversation says, "One shot?" Mike says, "Yeah, one shot, remember?" Nick smiles again and repeats, "One shot." He pulls his arm away from Mike, puts the gun to his head, and pulls the trigger. The bullet goes into Nick's head, and Mike lunges forward to grab him as he falls.
In Clairton, Mike, Stan, Axel, and John carry Nick's casket down the steps of the church, with Linda walking behind it, and Steve being carried down in his wheelchair. They load the casket into the back of the hearse.
After the funeral, Mike, Linda, Steven, Angela, Stan, Axel, and John gather at Welsh's Lounge for breakfast. All of them are stricken with grief and no one is really talking when John starts humming "God Bless America," and they all start singing it.
After the song, Mike raises his glass, and says "To Nick," and they all raise their glasses and repeat "To Nick."
"The Deer Hunter" won Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Cimino), Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken), Best Sound, and Best Editing at the 1979 Academy Awards, and was also nominated for Best Actor (Robert De Niro), Best Supporting Actress (Meryl Streep), Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Director: Michael Cimino
Screenplay: Deric Washburn,
Michae Cimino
Producers: Barry Spikings,
Michael Deeley
Cinematography:
Vilmos Zsigmond
CAST:
Robert De Niro- Michael
John Cazale- Stan
John Savage- Steven
Christopher Walken- Nick
Meryl Streep- Linda
George Dzundza- John
Rutanya Alda- Angela
Chuck Aspegren- Axel
Pierre Segui- Julien
Chuck Aspegren- Axel
Pierre Segui- Julien
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