The Deer Hunter - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Deer Hunter or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Deer Hunter

[nina]

Joe Grifasi plays an old-fashioned crooner in this film. Peter Gallagher plays a similar role in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), in which Grifasi also appears. Both actors would go on to play prominent supporting roles on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) (Gallagher as Deputy Chief William Dodds, Grifasi as D.A./Judge Hashi Horowitz).

[clayton]

This movie is considered widely to blame for the introduction of Russian Roulette to pop culture.

[bernice]

The deer hunting scene was shot in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. The mountain shown in the background is Mount Shuksan. The volcano shown is Mt. Baker. The waterfall is Nooksack Falls.

[alyssa]

Robert De Niro spotted Meryl Streep in her stage production of The Cherry Orchard and had suggested that she play Linda.

[linda]

John Cazale and Robert De Niro played members of the Corleone family in The Godfather: Part II (1974), although they had no scenes together. De Niro's character, Vito Corleone, was the father of Cazale's, Fredo Corleone. John Savage appeared in The Godfather: Part III (1990), as Andrew Hagen, the son of Consigliere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall).

[ken]

The woman who was given the task of casting the extras in Thailand had much difficulty finding a local to play the vicious-looking individual who runs the game. The first actor hired turned out to be incapable of slapping Robert De Niro in the face. The caster thankfully knew a local Thai man with a particular dislike of Americans, and cast him accordingly. De Niro suggested that Christopher Walken be slapped for real by one of the guards without any warning. The reaction on Walken's face was genuine.

[toni]

Robert De Niro, who prepared for his role by socializing with steelworkers, was introduced by his hosts and new friends as Bob, and no one recognized him.

[chris]

Russian Orthodox Cathedral (St. Theodosius) is located near the corner of Thurman Avenue and Starkweather Avenue, in Cleveland, Ohio.

[morris]

When the film was first shown at the Berlin festival in 1979, one of the biggest incidents of its history resulted when the Soviet delegation walked out in protest against the way the film portrayed the people of Vietnam. The ensuing domino effect led to the walk-outs of the Cubans, East Germans, Bulgarians, Poles, and Czechoslovakians, and two members of the jury resigned in sympathy.

[lena]

The studio wanted to replace John Cazale when he was ruled un-insurable. Robert De Niro put up the money for the insurance. Cazale died shortly after filming was completed.

[jesus]

John Cazale was very weak with lung cancer when filming began, and for this reason, all of his scenes were filmed first. Michael Cimino knew from the start that Cazale was dying from cancer, but the studio did not. When they found out, they wanted to replace Cazale. When Meryl Streep learned of their intentions, she threatened to quit if they did. Cazale died in March 1978 shortly after filming was completed. He never saw the completed film.

[jesse]

According to Deric Washburn, he and Michael Cimino spent three days together in Los Angeles at the Sunset Marquis hammering out the plot. The script eventually went through several drafts, evolving into a story with three distinct acts. Washburn did not interview any veterans to write the script, nor do any research. "I had a month, that was it," he explains. "The clock was ticking. Write the fucking script! But all I had to do was watch television. Those combat cameramen in Vietnam were out there in the field with the guys. I mean, they had stuff that you wouldn't dream of seeing about Iraq." When Washburn was finished, he says, Cimino and associate producer Joann Carelli took him to dinner at a cheap restaurant off the Sunset Strip. He recalls, "We finished, and Joann looks at me across the table, and she says, 'Well, Deric, it's fuck-off time.' I was fired. It was a classic case: you get a dummy, get him to write the goddamn thing, tell him to go fuck himself, put your name on the thing, and he'll go away. I was so tired, I didn't care. I'd been working twenty hours a day for a month. I got on the plane the next day, and I went back to Manhattan and my carpenter job."

[miriam]

This film was Michael Cimino's breakthrough and downfall. The success of this film gave Cimino free reign of his next film, and he decided to make Heaven's Gate (1980). However, Cimino ran into production problems during the making of the film, and overran the budget. As a result, it was one of the biggest box-office flops in film history and nearly caused United Artists to go bankrupt, destroying Cimino's reputation and career.

[addison]

The film took five months to mix the soundtrack. One short battle sequence, two hundred feet of film in the final cut, took five days to dub. Another sequence re-created the 1975 American evacuation of Saigon. Michael Cimino brought Stanley Myers out to the location to listen to the auto, tank, and Jeep horns as the sequence was being photographed. The result, according to Cimino: Myers composed the music for that scene in the same key as the horn sounds, so the music and the sound effects would blend with the images to create one jarring, desolate experience.