1 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,840 (HELICOPTER ENGINE ROARING) (PIGS SQUEALING) 2 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:13,080 (ENGINE FADES AWAY) (SQUEALING CONTINUES) 3 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:17,360 (GUNFIRE) 4 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:19,760 Oh, Christ, I don't believe it. 5 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:22,720 Mike? Mike! 6 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:25,480 Jesus Christ! Hey! 7 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:27,920 (SHELLS ROAR) MAN: Incoming! 8 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:36,160 (GUNFIRE) 9 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:46,720 Starring Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken, 10 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:49,160 and directed by Michael Cimino, 11 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:53,080 The Deer Hunter can lay claim to have invented a genre. 12 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:55,120 (MOVING PIANO MUSIC PLAYS) 13 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:23,080 I mean, I think in some ways, looking back now, 14 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,240 I think it's almost as remarkable 15 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:29,400 that this film got made so soon after the war ended. 16 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:31,920 Because, try to imagine, 17 00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:34,440 this was a defeat at arms of America. 18 00:01:34,479 --> 00:01:36,360 It wasn't that America, somehow, 19 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,039 attritionally had to pull out a few troops, 20 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:40,440 this was defeat. 21 00:01:40,479 --> 00:01:42,880 Helicopters lifting off the American Embassy, 22 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:44,960 people scrambling for safety. 23 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,800 So the sense of national humiliation was very high. 24 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:51,920 I think it would've been untouchable before, during the war itself. 25 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:55,200 I think the filmmakers would have been eviscerated 26 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:57,560 for lack of patriotism. 27 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:00,720 Told from the perspective of ordinary men, 28 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:05,080 here was a radical new way of depicting war on screen. 29 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:08,720 A film about the damage done to the bodies, 30 00:02:08,759 --> 00:02:11,680 minds, and souls of those who fought. 31 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:15,000 The political was wrapped up in the personal. 32 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:17,720 The Vietnam movie was born. 33 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:19,760 (DEEP CHORAL SINGING) 34 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:39,520 (GUNSHOT, MUSIC ENDS) 35 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:41,560 (GENTLE THEME MUSIC PLAYS) 36 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:00,280 (WIND SWIRLS) 37 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:07,880 (VEHICLE ENGINE ROARS) 38 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:36,920 Released in 1978, The Deer Hunter became a sensation. 39 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:40,760 A huge box office hit that swept America off its feet, 40 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:42,760 winning five Oscars. 41 00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:47,120 But the film was more than simply a commercial and artistic success. 42 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:53,360 Before The Deer Hunter, what was Hollywood's attitude toward Vietnam? 43 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:56,720 Did such a thing as the Vietnam film even exist? 44 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:00,400 I think it took Hollywood a few years for the dust to settle, 45 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:03,000 for the evacuation of Saigon in '75, 46 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:06,560 to really start making films seriously about the war. 47 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,880 And in fact, there was only one feature film made in Hollywood 48 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,400 about the war during the war, and that was in 1968, 49 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:15,640 and it was John Wayne's film The Green Berets. 50 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:20,240 An extremely militaristic, pro-US-intervention film, 51 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,720 and not really attached to any of the actual realities 52 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:26,560 of what we'd expect from the Vietnam war film today, 53 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:28,840 which we might think about with The Deer Hunter. 54 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:30,800 There were a few documentaries being made 55 00:04:30,840 --> 00:04:32,520 that were more on the anti-war side, 56 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:34,960 things like Hearts and Minds in 1974, 57 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,280 which won Best Documentary at the Oscars. 58 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:41,720 But it was more of a thing that was not explicitly mentioned. 59 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:46,960 NEWSREADER: 'Before the parade, mass draft-card burning was urged. 60 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,560 Demonstrators claimed 200 cards were burned, 61 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:52,120 but no accurate count could be determined. 62 00:04:52,159 --> 00:04:55,120 Reporters and onlookers were jostled away on purpose. 63 00:04:55,159 --> 00:04:57,000 (FANFARE-STYLE MUSIC PLAYS) 64 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:00,160 Although mostly peaceful, shouted confrontations were frequent 65 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:02,840 and fiery during the course of the march. 66 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:07,720 The anti-war marchers were picketed by anti-anti-war marchers, 67 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:10,200 who were hawkish toward the parading doves.' 68 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:15,920 Before The Deer Hunter came along, 69 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:20,760 Hollywood was very nervous about making films about the Vietnam War. 70 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,160 It'd been going on for 20 years, and in that time of course, 71 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,920 it was very, very contentious with the American public. 72 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:32,040 John Wayne decided that he wanted to make a film 73 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:34,800 which was pretty well a sort of propaganda movie, 74 00:05:34,840 --> 00:05:37,800 to boost the morale of the troops. 75 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:41,159 And also to give the folks back home 76 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,440 an idea of what was happening over there. 77 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:47,080 Of course, this was very, very designed 78 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:51,560 to bring everybody up as opposed to keeping them down. 79 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:56,320 There was one other film, actually, made in 1972 called Limbo, 80 00:05:56,360 --> 00:06:00,160 which was about the wives who were left behind, the military wives, 81 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:03,480 waiting for their men, whether they were going to come back or not. 82 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:05,160 That didn't do very well either, 83 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:09,320 but those are the only two extant movies 84 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:13,120 from the period when the Vietnam War was actually happening. 85 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:18,080 We are, in Christian Action, convinced that the war in Vietnam 86 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,600 is an offence to all people of goodwill. 87 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:27,480 That it should and must be brought to an end at once. 88 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:31,040 And that the British government... 89 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:35,400 ..should be persuaded to do everything it possibly can... 90 00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:40,240 ..to get the dispute out of the hands of the military, 91 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:43,720 and into the conference room. 92 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:46,600 There were a couple of films which were allegories, I guess. 93 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:48,680 If you think the Rob Altman's M*A*S*H 94 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:50,560 was ostensibly about the Korean War, 95 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:53,760 but it was very clearly technically about the Vietnam War. 96 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:56,000 But really, Hollywood didn't want to go into it. 97 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,520 It felt that it was divisive, it was unpopular, 98 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:00,640 and that making a film about it would really... 99 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:03,240 No-one in America wanted to break away from the TV, 100 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:05,120 which was showing the war every night, 101 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:07,480 and go to the cinema to watch the war again. 102 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,600 So they really... It was very, very hands off. 103 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:13,720 America was not keen on remembering or reliving the war. 104 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:16,040 The veterans, when they came home from Vietnam, 105 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:19,120 found very little appetite to welcome them. 106 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:21,840 There were no heroes welcomes, it was really brushed aside. 107 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:24,320 It was almost as if everyone was embarrassed by the fact 108 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:26,880 that the war had taken place. Terrible for the veterans, 109 00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:30,320 but also something that Hollywood didn't want to set out to write. 110 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:32,920 Well... 111 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:35,240 we didn't have the brass bands, 112 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,400 and we didn't have crowds meeting us at the airport. 113 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:40,520 We kind of snuck in the back door. 114 00:07:41,320 --> 00:07:45,159 Uh... I came back... 115 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:47,240 even more so, cos I didn't even come... 116 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:49,040 I came back in a hospital plane. 117 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:52,400 Even by the mid-'70s, Hollywood stood firm 118 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:56,120 that audiences did not want to see Vietnam on the big screen. 119 00:07:56,159 --> 00:07:59,600 The Deer Hunter led a cinematic revolution. 120 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:02,200 Films that went in search of reality. 121 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:05,480 (Theme From "The Deer Hunter") 122 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:11,320 (TYRES SCREECH) MAN: Hey, wait! 123 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:16,440 (MUSIC CONTINUES) 124 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:28,600 (MUSIC CONTINUES) 125 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:40,440 Think of the context. 126 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:43,880 I mean, the war was unbelievably divisive in the States. 127 00:08:43,919 --> 00:08:46,600 There were mass demonstrations in London. 128 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:49,880 People were being arrested for complaining about the war. 129 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:52,120 Fifty thousand servicemen died. 130 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:54,880 People were running away to Canada, 131 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:58,360 large numbers of young men were crossing the border to Canada 132 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:01,680 and becoming refugees, effectively, from their own country. 133 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:05,840 So the social divisions provoked by the war at large, 134 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:09,880 but particularly among liberal Americans, were huge. 135 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:12,680 And Hollywood, being a liberal place, 136 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:16,320 was right at the crux of that kind of anguish.Mm. 137 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:20,400 That it would be unpatriotic to protest publicly, 138 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:23,760 but it was a source of disgust and shame. 139 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:26,240 So there was terrible conflicted feelings, I think, 140 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:30,320 within the entire creative community within the media at large, 141 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:33,280 and, of course, within the wider public, 142 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:35,720 where this had been the first televised war. 143 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:40,320 Cimino would often recall a preview screening held in Chicago. 144 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:42,560 During the showing of the three-hour film, 145 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:45,040 men and women would rush into the lobby, 146 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:47,920 not because they disliked what they were watching, 147 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:49,960 but to stem the flow of tears. 148 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:53,680 The Deer Hunter unlocked America. 149 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:57,880 It allowed audiences to finally confront the reality of Vietnam. 150 00:09:57,920 --> 00:09:59,960 (HELICOPTER WHIRRING) 151 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,200 (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) 152 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:10,960 (HELICOPTER CONTINUES WHIRRING) 153 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:26,960 STEVE: I hit some rocks, Michael. 154 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:30,200 I hit some rocks. I'm alright, Michael. 155 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:31,961 MIKE: OK. 156 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:36,960 (SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYS) 157 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:45,240 (HORNS BLARING) 158 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:54,720 (HORNS CONTINUE BLARING) 159 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:57,960 (HELICOPTER DROWNS OUT SHOUTING) 160 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:05,880 (HELICOPTER WHIRRING OVERHEAD) 161 00:11:09,880 --> 00:11:12,240 The original script had told the story 162 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:14,800 of a psychologically damaged veteran, 163 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,480 who heads to Las Vegas to play Russian roulette. 164 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:20,200 But when producer Michael Deeley 165 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:22,600 brought in writer/director Michael Cimino, 166 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:24,560 the script began to evolve. 167 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:28,880 Inspired by the combat footage on American television news, 168 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:31,240 Cimino inverted the idea 169 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:35,040 into a story of young men going to war. 170 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:37,000 Three contrasting friends 171 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:39,840 from a tight-knit Pennsylvania steel town, 172 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:43,240 who would leave for Vietnam after a local wedding. 173 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:46,960 They sound like shit. 174 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:49,720 Kill the lengthy Amazon... 175 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:53,120 It's the Screaming Eagles Airborne song. 176 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:56,520 but we're ready, here we go! 177 00:11:56,560 --> 00:11:58,680 Screaming assholes. 178 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,760 179 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:05,200 180 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:08,120 I can't remember the rest of the words. 181 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:10,200 (SINGING DROWNS OUT SPEECH) 182 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:14,080 183 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:16,040 Chickenshit, get scared. (LAUGHS) 184 00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:18,080 (TYRES SCREECH) 185 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:21,640 It didn't take on the subject directly, did it? 186 00:12:21,680 --> 00:12:24,280 Michael Deeley had a different script he was working on, 187 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:27,160 which was sort of about someone returning from Vietnam? 188 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:30,840 Yeah, it was about a returning Vietnam vet who goes to Vegas 189 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:32,960 and starts to become a gambler. 190 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:36,680 But all based around playing Russian roulette, which is, 191 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:40,400 of course, a key thematic thing in The Deer Hunter, 192 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:43,160 and which we know would later, you know, retool it in that way. 193 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:44,840 But this was supposed to be something 194 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:46,600 which was quite light in tone. 195 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:48,880 It was compared to Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid 196 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:50,800 at one point when it was being shopped around. 197 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:54,240 So it was completely different to what we get with The Deer Hunter, 198 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:57,080 which is focused on people going off to Vietnam, 199 00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:01,000 and young men whose hopes and lives are shattered by that experience. 200 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:04,800 Cimino insisted he was making a non-political movie. 201 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,800 This wasn't even about the Vietnam War. 202 00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:10,480 Brilliantly structured in three movements 203 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:12,920 from wedding to funeral, 204 00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:14,960 this was a movie about people. 205 00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:18,200 Particularly, what happens when the horror 206 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:20,800 affects the lives of a group of friends. 207 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:27,560 These people are waiting hopefully, 208 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:29,640 but I imagine vainly, 209 00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:32,760 for a helicopter to land here on the roof of the American Embassy 210 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:35,240 in the middle of Saigon, and take them to safety. 211 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:37,720 But they have no papers, they have just come here. 212 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:41,320 Because the whole embassy is wide open, they've come up the stairs. 213 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:43,320 They're in fact on the chopper pad, 214 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,240 no helicopter would probably land under these circumstances. 215 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:48,440 And so they wait here vainly, 216 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:51,760 possibly a helicopter will come back, but it looks most unlikely, 217 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:54,080 because about ten past eight this morning, 218 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:56,200 what looked like a final Marine helicopter 219 00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:59,520 touched down here briefly, took aboard a handful of Marines, 220 00:13:59,560 --> 00:14:01,280 and then lifted off. 221 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:04,440 And that looked like the end of the American evacuation. 222 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:07,760 The background to the film is quite interesting. 223 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:11,200 Michael Deeley, the producer, had wanted to make a film 224 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:14,160 that was very much about a veteran of the war.Yep. 225 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:16,600 He had come back and he had sort of landed in Vegas 226 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:18,600 where the Russian roulette comes into it, 227 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:20,600 become obsessed with Russian roulette. 228 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:22,160 So it was very different, 229 00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:25,040 it wasn't quite a Vietnam War film to begin with. 230 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:28,480 No. I mean, the history of the genesis of this film 231 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:30,680 is partly tied up with these two Englishmen. 232 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:33,560 Michael Deeley in particular, who'd been part of the Woodfall, 233 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:35,760 he'd been part of New British Cinema. 234 00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:38,280 He'd done The Italian Job. 235 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:41,440 And then he, basically, British Lion, his company, 236 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:44,040 became EMI films. 237 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:46,400 And they made, I think, three films only, 238 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:48,160 two of which were deeply troubled. 239 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,040 And one of them was The Deer Hunter, 240 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:52,560 the other was Convoy with Sam Peckinpah, 241 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:54,800 an equally troubled film. 242 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:57,880 And I think the genesis of the script, 243 00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:01,040 with I think originally Roy Scheider possibly attached 244 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:03,480 to play in that version of the film. 245 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,280 The fact that Cimino then pitched in for it 246 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:09,720 on the strength of his work with Clint Eastwood, 247 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:12,000 who had kind of slightly mentored him. 248 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:14,320 That was a very interesting genesis. 249 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:16,440 And of course, the idea of the Russian roulette 250 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:18,840 and its transposition to Vietnam, in a sense, 251 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:21,000 is the heart, dramatically, of the film. 252 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:25,520 De Niro's Mike, Walken's Nick and John Savage's Steve 253 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:27,720 are eager to head off to Vietnam, 254 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:31,920 to break the monotony of their steel-mill night shifts. 255 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:35,640 They all leave behind small-town loves and lives, 256 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:40,920 including Meryl Streep as the girl both Mike and Nick adore. 257 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:43,760 Vietnam will prove a living nightmare. 258 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:45,760 Imprisoned by the Viet Cong, 259 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:49,000 their captors will gamble on who might live or die. 260 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:50,640 (GUARD SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE) 261 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:52,680 (GUARD 2 GRUNTS, SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE) 262 00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:57,880 (SPEAKING OWN LANGUAGE) 263 00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:03,960 (SHOUTS) 264 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:08,120 (SMACK) (SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE) 265 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:11,880 Cimino is a demanding and often temperamental artist. 266 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:15,960 Having made his debut directing Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges 267 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:20,160 in the surprisingly dark caper movie Thunderbolt And Lightfoot... 268 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:26,320 ..his intensity and dedication would nevertheless elevate the material. 269 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:30,040 He took buses and trains through the Northeastern states 270 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:33,320 to find his perfect community, 271 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:37,720 writing the script as he was in search of American authenticity. 272 00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:43,520 This is set in a community which is Russian Orthodox Christianity. 273 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:45,520 So the wedding itself 274 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:49,960 is a wonderful sort of elaborate celebration, 275 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:53,200 with all the kind of rituals and adornments 276 00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:55,320 that you would get from that kind of community. 277 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:57,640 It contrasts very much, actually, with, of course, 278 00:16:57,680 --> 00:16:59,920 the actual outside and their working conditions, 279 00:16:59,960 --> 00:17:02,800 and even their living conditions, which are relatively poor, 280 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:04,280 they're quite impoverished. 281 00:17:04,319 --> 00:17:09,040 All this is set up because you want to be able to see the relationships 282 00:17:09,079 --> 00:17:13,640 and how they actually exist and survive in this environment. 283 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:15,720 And it brings them all closely together. 284 00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:17,880 They're a very close-knit community. 285 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:23,160 And so, by the time you've got even to the wedding ceremony, 286 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:26,160 which is, of course, a wonderfully glorious... 287 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:30,800 Full of dancing, full of music as well as the actual ceremony itself, 288 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:32,840 which is very ritualistic, 289 00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:36,840 you've got to understand each of those characters individually, 290 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:39,440 not just as a group, but individually, 291 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:42,240 and that means you actually care about them. 292 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:45,160 Backed by the record label EMI, 293 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:47,560 making a short-lived foray into film, 294 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:50,880 and stirred by the vitality of '70s Hollywood, 295 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:54,440 The Deer Hunter was an independent production. 296 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:56,480 Producer Michael Deeley maintained 297 00:17:56,520 --> 00:18:01,040 that they would never have achieved the financing without De Niro. 298 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:04,480 Michael Cimino wasn't interested 299 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:06,800 in a political film about the Vietnam War. 300 00:18:06,840 --> 00:18:09,080 He didn't want to make any statement about it. 301 00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:11,440 He, when he was developing the film, 302 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:13,280 almost saw the Vietnam War as something 303 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:15,080 that happened to these three friends. 304 00:18:15,120 --> 00:18:18,080 He was interested in what happens to three people in a community 305 00:18:18,120 --> 00:18:20,760 when a catastrophe hits. He was on the record really, 306 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:23,720 saying this is about what happened to these three men, 307 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:25,760 not about the grand sweep of war, 308 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:28,520 and the historical injustices or so on. 309 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:31,440 He didn't want people to see it as a political film most of all. 310 00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:34,840 So he is not commenting on the war, 311 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:37,080 he's using the war to tell the story. 312 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:39,960 Now at the time, the war had only been over for three years, 313 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,400 the war ended in 1975, they shot The Deer Hunter in 1978. 314 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:45,160 Perhaps that was important 315 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:47,680 not to be making a statement about the film for him, 316 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:51,120 because it was clearly an incredibly divisive subject still in America. 317 00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:54,560 It was something that he was exploring, you know, 318 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:56,400 in a way, at great risk to the film, 319 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:58,920 to the likelihood of the film attracting an audience, 320 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:00,680 because there would be a lot of people who, 321 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:03,400 if they thought this was either leaning one way or the other, 322 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:05,120 would probably not want to go. 323 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:08,000 So he was very keen to say the war is the event of the film, 324 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:09,600 it's not about the war. 325 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:11,760 NEWLAND: He said later on that he was influenced 326 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:13,760 by the Visconti movie The Leopard, 327 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:16,640 and the long, long sequence in the ballroom. 328 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:18,600 And although that's about aristocracy, 329 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:22,240 and this is about the working class, there is something about this idea 330 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:25,520 of this kind of elegiac, end-of-an-era feeling to it. 331 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:27,040 The sense that, you know, 332 00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:29,480 three days before they're gonna get shipped out to Vietnam 333 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:31,000 and things are, you know... 334 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:33,880 Things are never going to be the same again after this. 335 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:36,760 So you carry that melancholy with you when you watch it. 336 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:40,560 But equally, just in terms of the set up of it, it's something. 337 00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:42,560 Because so many of the extras came in, 338 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:44,680 something like 250 extras were from the community 339 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:46,960 and were from a Russian Orthodox background, 340 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,760 most of them didn't even have to learn the traditional dances. 341 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,160 He wants to do an almost fly-on-the-wall thing. 342 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:54,520 It does feel very influenced by cinema verite, 343 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,320 by things like the Maysles brothers, 344 00:19:56,360 --> 00:19:58,560 and even filmmakers like Milos Forman as well, 345 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:00,240 who... had such a great eye 346 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:03,720 for capturing the textures of everyday working-class life. 347 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:07,240 And yeah, you can just watch the small little petty incidents, 348 00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:11,160 the little dramas, the little kind of jealousies, these moments of joy, 349 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:15,960 happiness, drunkenness, sadness, that go on at a big wedding. 350 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:18,440 De Niro still claims that The Deer Hunter 351 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,280 is the most physically and emotionally taxing film 352 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:22,800 he has ever made. 353 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:27,040 And this is the man who starred in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. 354 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:29,440 He was the backbone of the project. 355 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:32,560 He opened doors to the New York acting community, 356 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:36,800 persuading John Cazale and Meryl Streep to be in the film. 357 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:39,640 And of course, he went deep into character, 358 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:43,680 meeting real steelworkers, hanging out at local bars. 359 00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:48,840 The thrust of the story is the violent juxtaposition 360 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:52,240 between home and the horrors of Vietnam. 361 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:54,280 (MOUTHING) 362 00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:59,040 PRIEST: Blessed is the kingdom of the Father and of the Son 363 00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:00,880 and of the Holy Spirit. 364 00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:05,680 Now and ever and unto ages of ages. 365 00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:11,120 CHOIR: (SINGS) A-A-Amen. 366 00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:14,923 Ah, blessed. 367 00:21:16,923 --> 00:21:18,920 (UPBEAT TRADITIONAL RUSSIAN MUSIC PLAYS) 368 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:27,240 CROWD: (CHANT) Hey, hey - hey, hey, hey. 369 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,320 (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) 370 00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:56,440 The casting of De Niro's Mike had come easily, 371 00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:58,920 but finding the perfect Nick, his best friend, 372 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:00,680 had seemed impossible. 373 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:02,760 Warmer than Mike, more open, 374 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:06,000 the doomed Nick is the glue that holds the group together. 375 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:09,600 One morning, casting director Cis Corman 376 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:13,560 slipped a folded-up piece of paper into Cimino's pocket. 377 00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:17,840 After another fruitless day of auditions, Cimino found it, 378 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:21,840 unfolding the message to read: "Christopher Walken IS Nick." 379 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:25,400 Walken would go in search of real experiences, 380 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:30,040 but found that veterans clammed up, even his own brother. 381 00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:32,520 That silence spoke volumes. 382 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:36,440 So the year before The Deer Hunter comes out, you've got Annie Hall. 383 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:39,160 Christopher Walken plays a little part in that as, 384 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:42,400 very memorably, as Dianne Keaton's psychotic brother. 385 00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:46,320 He's got a quality about him, which is both sort of everyman-ish. 386 00:22:46,360 --> 00:22:48,440 He's kind of a normal-looking guy in some respects, 387 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:51,040 but also, he has a little bit of... There's an edge to him.Yeah. 388 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:53,280 You know, and he looks like he could be dangerous. 389 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:58,120 And I think that's really what probably worked in his advantage 390 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,080 when it came to taking on the part of Nick, 391 00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:02,000 because, of course, the part of Nick is the one 392 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,240 which ends in a psychosis of its own.Mm-hm. 393 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:05,760 You know, when I think about the fact 394 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:07,360 that someone like a young Jeff Bridges 395 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:09,480 was also auditioning for this part, 396 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:11,760 that is a completely different performance. 397 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:14,200 Young Jeff Bridges looks like a golden retriever, 398 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,560 he's, you know, that's not Christopher Walken's energy at all. 399 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:20,960 Arguably, the first on-screen representation 400 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,520 of trauma, of PTSD. 401 00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:26,200 He's the first time anyone, I think, 402 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:30,280 had portrayed that to such a degree that it was quite shocking. 403 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:32,360 I think Walken's excellent in the role, 404 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,600 and he has a difficult thing that he has to do, 405 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:39,720 which is that he is embodying both specific psychological trauma, 406 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:43,400 but also it's pretty clear that Cimino is aiming at it being 407 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:45,480 a larger thing about American trauma, 408 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:47,760 and about what has happened to the American psyche 409 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:49,440 and the disillusionment of that. 410 00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:52,920 I mean, almost directly after what happens to Nick, 411 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,000 when he reaches this, you know, the final ebb of his story, 412 00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:59,480 it cuts to the helicopters leaving Saigon during the evacuation, 413 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,000 during the fall of Saigon. 414 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,280 So it doesn't take brain surgery to kind of work out 415 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:05,560 that there is like a metaphorical link being made, 416 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:09,120 which is not always an easy thing for an actor to portray. 417 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:12,160 BRITISH MAN: 'But then, suddenly we, too, 418 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,280 forty or fifty of us in the safety of the coaches, 419 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:18,480 had to get out and fight our way to the American compound, 420 00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:20,920 where the helicopters were landing to fly us 421 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,160 and the thousands more out of the country. 422 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:27,840 Seeing us in the streets with our bags, the Vietnamese followed. 423 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:30,360 Any chance, they thought, was better than none. 424 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:32,880 But the embassy gates were closed 425 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,680 and we, like the frightened Vietnamese and their families, 426 00:24:35,720 --> 00:24:38,200 had to fight and claw our way up. 427 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,520 And we did claw and we did fight. 428 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:45,040 And if it wasn't for one single American Marine 429 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:48,240 whose name I didn't have the chance or time to discover, 430 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:51,080 we would never have climbed our way to our evacuation. 431 00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:53,880 He hauled us up, kicking and punching Vietnamese, 432 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:56,280 who were clambering over our bodies. 433 00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:58,320 (BOAT ENGINE ROARS) 434 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:06,240 (COFFINS CLATTER) 435 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:15,160 What do you make of Christopher Walken's performance? 436 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,880 It was the Oscar-winning performance in the film. 437 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:20,160 The Nick character is complicated, 438 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:22,920 and in some senses, that's... 439 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:25,080 We had Best Years Of Our Lives, I suppose.Mm. 440 00:25:25,120 --> 00:25:29,720 But this was the first frank portrayal of PTSD, 441 00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:32,320 of post traumatic stress in relation to war. 442 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,080 Look, I think one of the ways of looking at the film... 443 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:40,200 ..is that this is really, it's a love story. 444 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,920 It's not... Meryl Streep is not really part of that love story. 445 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:46,960 It's a love story between... 446 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,760 ..the De Niro character and the Walken character. 447 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:55,280 It's a love story that we know will end badly. 448 00:25:56,200 --> 00:26:01,920 It's a love story that neither can contemplate openly. 449 00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,320 It's a love story that cannot sort of speak its name, in a way. 450 00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:08,880 Even that's maybe going too far. 451 00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,040 I do remember thinking... 452 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:17,320 that this was at the heart of Cimino's own fascinations. 453 00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:20,520 Because as a very young journalist, 454 00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:23,320 I interviewed him about Thunderbolt And Lightfoot, 455 00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:25,640 And I brought up this thematic thing 456 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,960 about the kind of latent homo-eroticism 457 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:31,240 of the relationships in the film, 458 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:35,000 and he lost his temper in the most spectacular fashion, 459 00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:38,640 I think at the Dorchester Hotel, and hurled me out of his suite. 460 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:40,320 He was enraged. 461 00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:42,760 And I remember the publicist standing outside going, 462 00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:45,000 "What happened, what happened?" 463 00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:46,920 And I said, "I've no idea." (CHUCKLES) 464 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:50,520 So this was, you know... And I realised then, 465 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,280 and years later I met him in a very different context, 466 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:56,240 I realised then this was a place 467 00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,000 that he was touched but did not want to be touched. 468 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:04,240 And that was touching to us, but in a very, very painful way. 469 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,640 And I think it's at the heart of the film's quality... 470 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,960 ..is that it speaks of masculinity. 471 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,440 And I think David Thomson talks about 472 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:19,400 the impossible difficulties of American masculinity, 473 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:21,160 the culture of the gun. 474 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:24,240 He encapsulates it around the one-shot philosophy. 475 00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,600 And the film encapsulates it at the very end, 476 00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:31,960 with these shattering, only five words of dialogue, five words. 477 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:35,000 And De Niro says to him, 478 00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:37,040 "I love you." 479 00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:39,120 And he says back, "One shot." 480 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,720 And pulls the trigger and blows his brains out. 481 00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:43,840 And that's the end of the love story, 482 00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:45,560 it's the end of the dream, 483 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,640 and all that's left is to close the film, 484 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:50,880 and that's how we end up in the bar. 485 00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,440 ANGELA: It's been such a grey day. 486 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:09,320 (CHINA CLINKS) 487 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,600 Meryl Streep took the role of the yearning Linda 488 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:24,240 because she wanted to stay by the side of her partner John Cazale. 489 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:25,960 He was dying of lung cancer. 490 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,360 But De Niro had convinced Cimino 491 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:32,280 he was perfect as wastrel Stan, left behind. 492 00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,760 Cazale took the film because he wanted to work with De Niro. 493 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:40,360 When EMI resisted his casting, claiming he was an insurance risk, 494 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:44,040 both Cimino and Streep threatened to drop out. 495 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,880 It was De Niro who covered his insurance. 496 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,800 ARMSTRONG: When Meryl Streep arrived to film, 497 00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:53,520 she found that there were almost no lines for her character, Linda. 498 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:55,640 And indeed, Michael Cimino said, "Well look, 499 00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:58,360 she's not really written, do you want to write her yourself, 500 00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:00,160 and develop the lines yourself?" 501 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:02,880 So she said in an interview later on 502 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:05,160 that that was both an enormous opportunity, 503 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:06,920 but actually quite daunting. 504 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,280 So how are you going to create the character, literally, 505 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:11,480 not just in your sort of method or your understanding 506 00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:14,200 or your interpretation, but how do you actually write the part? 507 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:18,360 So she thought of the girls at home who she went to school with, 508 00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:20,160 who were waiting for a man to rescue them, 509 00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:23,840 whose idea about life was, "Who will marry me? 510 00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:26,200 Who will I be able to attach myself to?" 511 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:28,960 And that's how she created Linda, 512 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,480 someone who was only alive, in a sense, 513 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,000 through the men who were beside her. 514 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:39,400 And she portrays a woman who really struggles 515 00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,520 with lots of fairly straightforward circumstances. 516 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:46,400 She's looking all the time, to find an arm to hold. 517 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:48,600 She's initially in love with Christopher Walken, 518 00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:50,640 Robert De Niro's character is in love with her, 519 00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:52,800 but she doesn't really know how to handle this idea 520 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,120 that there are two men, she only knows the man she wants. 521 00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,280 And then when Christopher Walken doesn't return, 522 00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:00,800 but Robert De Niro does, she attaches herself to him. 523 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,280 "This is my way to exist, this is my way to be." 524 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:06,200 It's a very... it's really interesting. 525 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:07,600 When you think that, you know, 526 00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:10,960 Meryl Streep arrives on set to play this character, 527 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:13,400 as a woman who is very in charge of her career and life, 528 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,120 and is about to forge one of the greatest Hollywood careers, 529 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,160 in charge of all the decisions she makes. 530 00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:22,040 And the first part that she has to create from scratch, 531 00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:24,440 she creates someone who is entirely dependent on men 532 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:26,080 for her own existence. 533 00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:27,600 It's very interesting actually, 534 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,360 because Meryl Streep was dating John Cazale at this time, 535 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:31,880 and John Cazale was very unwell. 536 00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:34,480 He had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at that point, 537 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:37,480 and so a big part of why she ended up taking the role, 538 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:39,440 was that, you know, they wanted her for it, 539 00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:41,560 she said she felt it was, a little bit at first, 540 00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:43,720 of a bit of a stock girlfriend character. 541 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:45,840 But she came to imbue that role with so much more, 542 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:47,920 and part of that was for her own personal reason - 543 00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:50,520 she didn't wanna be separated from her boyfriend when he was, 544 00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:52,240 you know, seriously unwell. 545 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,480 And so she took on the part. 546 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:56,440 There was also the problem of the insurance, 547 00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:58,760 which was that nobody would want to insure an actor 548 00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:00,600 who was basically on death's door. 549 00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,240 So there are various stories around how they got around it, 550 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:05,000 but there was a point where the producers 551 00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:07,800 were actually asking Cimino to rewrite a version of the script 552 00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:10,480 in case John Cazale didn't make it to the end of filming. 553 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:12,320 Thank God that didn't happen, 554 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:14,640 and Cimino was completely against the idea anyway. 555 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,880 There are also very fine performances from John Savage as Steve, 556 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,080 who returns from Vietnam in a wheelchair. 557 00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:26,000 And George Dzundza as John, another who is left behind. 558 00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:28,520 Pierre Segui as the French businessman, 559 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:30,800 who runs the Russian roulette den in Saigon, 560 00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:34,160 had been a military pilot in the Indo-China War, 561 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:36,760 and also appeared in Apocalypse Now. 562 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:39,280 The cast were asked to go beyond themselves. 563 00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:43,520 Cimino instructed De Niro, Walken and Savage 564 00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:47,560 to never take off their uniforms, no matter how filthy they became. 565 00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:50,160 They didn't shave, they didn't wash. 566 00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:54,640 Trapped in water-logged cages, drifting volatile rivers, 567 00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:56,640 leaping from helicopters. 568 00:31:56,680 --> 00:32:00,760 The cast inspired each other to reach a new level of realism. 569 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,680 (STEVE CRIES OUT, CHOKES) 570 00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:07,720 (COUGHS) 571 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:11,520 (GROANS) 572 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:16,840 I can't feel my legs. 573 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:20,880 MIKE: Alright, alright, come on. 574 00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:25,760 My arm. 575 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:31,800 Push yourself up. 576 00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:35,800 The entire film was shot on location. 577 00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:38,120 Cleveland was used for the steelworks, 578 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,560 Clairton in Pennsylvania was used for the town exteriors, 579 00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:44,200 and the Cascade mountains in Washington 580 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:46,800 for the scenes of the friends hunting deer. 581 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:50,360 The wedding sequence that lights up the beginning of the film 582 00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,160 would run for 40 daring minutes, 583 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,080 a feast of naturalistic detail. 584 00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:59,760 In his travels, Cimino had attended a Serbian wedding. 585 00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:05,040 He saw the bride and groom sip together from the same cup of wine. 586 00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:08,440 If they spilled a drop, it would mean bad luck. 587 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:12,480 In the film, we see a small stain form on the bride's dress. 588 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,240 The opening wedding sequence in The Deer Hunter 589 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:18,120 is critical to the film. 590 00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:20,720 It's a very unusual piece of character development 591 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,640 in Hollywood terms. Most of the time in a screenplay, 592 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,440 you'd find a character developed through a series of maybe three 593 00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:28,280 or four actions at the beginning of the film, 594 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:29,640 where you go, "Oh, I understand, 595 00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:31,880 they've saved the cat, they've looked after the kid." 596 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,160 We get the senses of the sort of person they are. 597 00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:36,920 Michael Cimino wasn't interested in that kind of shorthand. 598 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:39,960 The script had a wedding sequence in it, 599 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,600 which lasted on the page for 21 minutes of the film. 600 00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:47,520 And Michael Cimino, in the end, delivered over 50 minutes. 601 00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:49,760 It took him five days to shoot. 602 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:54,520 And he gave the extras real alcohol, and he filmed and filmed and filmed, 603 00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:56,800 take after take after take, until towards the end, 604 00:33:56,840 --> 00:34:00,640 the actors were tired, they were chaotic, they were falling over. 605 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:03,120 And a lot of the sequences which end up in the final film, 606 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:06,280 are actually accidents on set, or things that weren't scripted. 607 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:08,760 Because Michael Cimino wanted the naturalism, 608 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:11,639 the realness of a wedding where people were drunk and tired 609 00:34:11,679 --> 00:34:13,600 and falling over and messing around. 610 00:34:13,639 --> 00:34:15,920 And so it becomes increasingly sloppy 611 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:18,159 in an incredibly realistic way. 612 00:34:18,199 --> 00:34:22,719 By the end of that 51 minutes, you know these people. 613 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:26,120 He's given you enough detail, without underlining it, 614 00:34:26,159 --> 00:34:28,000 without hammering it home, 615 00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:29,800 "Oh, this is a person who will do this thing, 616 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:31,320 this is the kind of person they are." 617 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,600 You just feel that you've seen into their lives, you've... 618 00:34:34,639 --> 00:34:37,719 you know, you've snuck into that wedding and you've watched. 619 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:41,639 For the shocking contrast of Vietnam, they shot in Thailand. 620 00:34:41,679 --> 00:34:44,560 Cimino wanted to revitalise a landscape 621 00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:46,840 he felt audiences had become inured to 622 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:49,719 after night upon night of news footage. 623 00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:52,199 They filmed in Bangkok for Saigon, 624 00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,880 and on the famous River Kwai for the devastating middle act 625 00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:57,920 in the prison camp. 626 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:02,000 NORMAN: What's fascinating about their entry into Vietnam 627 00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:03,880 is that their war doesn't last very long. 628 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:05,760 They go from one status, 629 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:10,480 straight into the terrible sort of cages in the water, 630 00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:13,080 in which they are sort of taunted and beaten. 631 00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:15,400 And eventually forced 632 00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,920 to play out this game of Russian roulette. 633 00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:21,520 Walken said, "I'm not entirely sure 634 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:24,560 how I'm going to actually be able to play this sort of terror." 635 00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:26,840 I mean, they were in terrible conditions, anyway. 636 00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:29,960 But I'm not sure I've got the sort of wherewithal to do this. 637 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,000 And De Niro said to Cimino, he says, 638 00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:35,560 "Why don't you get the guy playing the main guard, 639 00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:37,080 the main sort of torturer, 640 00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:38,640 to actually really slap us, 641 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:41,080 you know, whenever we hesitate, just slap us." 642 00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,320 And Walken said... I mean, him as well. 643 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:47,400 Walken has subsequently said, you know, he said, you know, 644 00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:51,000 "Once you've been slapped 50 times around the head quite hard, 645 00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:54,360 really, you don't have to act having the shakes." 646 00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,080 (CHUCKLES) He said it was, it really worked. 647 00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,200 He said it wasn't pleasant, but it really worked. 648 00:35:59,240 --> 00:36:01,240 Go ahead, Nicky, go ahead, Nicky. 649 00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:03,840 It's gonna be alright, it's gonna be alright. 650 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:06,080 Go ahead, go ahead, Nicky. 651 00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,120 (GUARD LAUGHS, SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE) 652 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,600 (GUARDS CHATTER IN OWN LANGUAGE) 653 00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:26,880 (TENSE MUSIC PLAYS) 654 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,280 Over the years, the film has courted controversy 655 00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:58,280 for its portrayal of the Viet Cong and their use of Russian roulette. 656 00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:03,240 Cimino claimed reports existed of Russian roulette dens in Vietnam, 657 00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:06,720 but more important was its dramatic function. 658 00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:11,040 It was a device to capture a soldier's constant anxiety, 659 00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:14,120 never knowing if this was going to be the day you die. 660 00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:20,240 (GUARD SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE) 661 00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:28,000 Its legacy is an Oscar-winning film, won Best Picture and Best Director. 662 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:29,960 Yup. It, for a short space, 663 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:33,280 made Cimino sort of the chosen son of Hollywood.Yes. 664 00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:36,360 Yet it's never shaken off this idea 665 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:39,800 that its portrayal of Vietnam is somehow negative. 666 00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:41,840 Context is everything. 667 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:45,200 The question that politically, 668 00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:47,640 the world was divided on Vietnam. 669 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:50,680 This was really what, in a way, 670 00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:53,520 was the beginning of the realisation 671 00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:55,840 that the Cold War could never be won. 672 00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:58,360 The realisation that the superpowers 673 00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:02,960 would mince any millions of people necessary to death 674 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:06,360 in the meat grinder of the Cold War conflict. 675 00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:11,680 So focusing on these soldiers and on these blue-collar characters, 676 00:38:11,720 --> 00:38:15,960 rather than on the suffering of the Vietnamese... 677 00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:21,880 ..was in itself, inimical, I would say, to liberal opinion. 678 00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,680 Now, that is true, 679 00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:29,040 but film is not a realist medium. 680 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:34,280 And I think at the time, I remember when I wrote up that interview, 681 00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:39,120 I said the portrayal was of America with a gun to its own head. 682 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:41,520 That sense of, 683 00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:43,760 well, this is deeply troubling. 684 00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:47,200 This is not a celebration of nationhood, 685 00:38:47,240 --> 00:38:50,000 this is an attempt to clutch at something 686 00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:53,840 that's almost beyond reach in terms of hope. 687 00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:58,880 So it shows us that the POW camps are these horrendous places, 688 00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:03,000 and by 1978, many of the ones who did return had come home, 689 00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:05,560 so there was some understanding in the American public and in, 690 00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:08,800 you know, international understanding of what had happened 691 00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:10,960 to a lot of these men in these camps. 692 00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:13,920 Having said that, it's not entirely realistic. 693 00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:17,280 It isn't really based on any kind of documentary reality, 694 00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:19,360 it is, essentially, melodrama. 695 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,160 So it's worth taking it with a grain of salt. 696 00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:25,600 But having said that, it's still a pretty remarkable accomplishment 697 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:29,560 for a second-time ever director, to go all the way to Thailand, 698 00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:33,200 which had no infrastructure for filmmaking really at the time, 699 00:39:33,240 --> 00:39:37,200 on the verge of a military coup, and make this film. 700 00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:40,200 Crowning its success at the box office, 701 00:39:40,240 --> 00:39:42,160 The Deer Hunter would win five Oscars. 702 00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:44,200 Best Sound, Best Editing, 703 00:39:44,240 --> 00:39:46,520 Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken, 704 00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:50,320 and the ultimate achievement of Best Director and Best Picture. 705 00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:52,840 The film was established as a classic, 706 00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:55,320 Cimino as a great new talent, 707 00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:59,400 a reputation that would be consumed in the budgetary 708 00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:03,400 and artistic excesses on his next film Heaven's Gate. 709 00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:07,560 Cimino had consciously focused on the effect of the war 710 00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:09,640 on blue-collar men. 711 00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:12,760 Through this prism, the political ramifications 712 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:16,600 of the great American folly could be prised open. 713 00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:21,000 The ordinary man's love of his country is movingly captured, 714 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:24,560 as the remaining friends gather and sing God Bless America 715 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:26,240 at the end of the film. 716 00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:30,200 The moment is unspeakably sad, yet defiant. 717 00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:33,960 I mean, one of the things that did happen 718 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:36,000 with the release of The Deer Hunter, 719 00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:39,320 was that it gave an insight into the American public 720 00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:43,840 about the sort of things that the soldiers had gone through. 721 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:47,240 Even not specifically about the Russian roulette, 722 00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:51,960 but the sort of pressures and the psychological damage, 723 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:55,080 particularly, that they would have gone through, 724 00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:58,760 which is not visible - I think that's what's important. 725 00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:01,120 Physically, if they were physically damaged, 726 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,080 they had the veteran's, you know, hospitals and things like that. 727 00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:06,000 If they were psychologically damaged, 728 00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:08,040 they had almost no support whatsoever. 729 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:13,040 And that, I think... that alone opened up the whole debate 730 00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:17,520 about post traumatic stress syndrome, all those things, 731 00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:22,440 the damage that was done to these men internally, 732 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:27,280 in their heads, that you can't actually see, 733 00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:29,680 suddenly became real. 734 00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:33,760 Cinematically, it was as if the floodgates had opened. 735 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:38,440 With The Deer Hunter, a new anti-heroic realism was established, 736 00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:41,520 not only in the depiction of combat, 737 00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:45,840 but in revealing the psychological impact war had on soldiers. 738 00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:48,680 Apocalypse Now was nearing completion. 739 00:41:48,720 --> 00:41:51,120 Oliver Stone was writing his exploration 740 00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,840 of the Vietnam experience with a platoon. 741 00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:57,480 Hal Ashby, Barry Levinson, Brian De Palma, 742 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:01,760 Stanley Kubrick and Spike Lee would be drawn to its flame. 743 00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:04,960 American film would never be the same. 744 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,280 Watching the film again after all these years, 745 00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:10,880 I found myself crying as I watched the last scene, 746 00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:13,320 and I was sitting alone watching the film. 747 00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:16,520 It's very rare to have that experience of viewing a film 748 00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:19,040 for the fourth or fifth time in one's life, 749 00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:21,360 and be so transported. 750 00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:23,360 And that's not just about the performance. 751 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:25,640 It is the dramatic construction of this idea, 752 00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:27,600 the idea you're referring to. 753 00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:29,360 Where, somehow, 754 00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:33,120 the social commentary, which is realism, 755 00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:37,480 the mythic construction of the film, which is epic... 756 00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:41,360 ..and the intimacy of how it touches us 757 00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:43,960 in respect of our own feelings about each other. 758 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,160 And how all men, at some level, 759 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:50,080 are touched by this idea of the bond between men. 760 00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:52,640 I think it brings those together 761 00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:55,720 in a really unusual and quite unique way. 762 00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:58,240 It's remarkable to see the film survive so well 763 00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:01,000 after, you know, 40 years. 764 00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:03,960 (TUNE OF "GOD BLESS AMERICA" HUMMED) 765 00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:17,280 766 00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:22,080 767 00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:27,960 768 00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:33,160 with the light from above 769 00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:39,960 through the prairies 770 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:45,760 771 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:50,640 772 00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:56,760 773 00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:02,040 774 00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:07,480 775 00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:10,886 Subtitles by Sky Access Services www.skyaccessibility.sky