The Deer Hunter

Director: Michael Cimino, Michael Cimino

1978 / 183min / 35mm

Cimino’s second and most acclaimed film begins as a beautifully detailed immersion into the lives of western Pennsylvania steel mill employees from Slavic immigrant stock at work and at play, then follows three of them—Robert De Niro, John Savage, and Christopher Walken—as they’re shipped off to do another dirty job given to poor boys of their generation, off in Vietnam. The knockout cast, including Cazale, ailing and in his final role as one of the trio’s mill co-workers and hunting buddies, embody a spirit of working-class pride and camaraderie under constant stress, while Vilmos Zsigmond’s painterly cinematography captures the distinct tones of home front and battlefield, first in subtle shades of brown-gray, then shocking bursts of jungle green and fire red.