The Deer Hunter is a 1978 English language film that tells the fictional story of a group of Rusyn American steel workers during the Vietnam War era. Most of it is set in either Vietnam or their hometown of Clairton, Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Besides the Pittsburgh area filming was also done in nearby Cleveland and Mingo Junction, Ohio. It stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep.

Plot:

The story is essentially told in three acts. In it, Mike, Steven, Nick, Stanley, John and Axel are a group of American steel workers -- who are also avid deer hunters -- of Rusyn ancestry.

The first act of the film covers the life of the friends in Western Pennsylvania -- at work, at home, at a bar, and at the Russian Orthodox Church. Its apogee is the celebration of the shotgun wedding of Steven and Angela, who is pregnant with what is implied to be Nick's child. The wedding itself is extensively portrayed and fleshed out, complete with various wedding traditions highlighted by the Orthodox Wedding ceremony of crowning. Steven and Angela leave the church with the choir singing "Mnogaja ljeta" ("God Grant you many years"). The reception involves singing and dancing to Rusyn and Russian songs, other cultural traditions, and generally wild and drunken celebrations for all involved. Following a bit of streaking through town, Nick makes Mike promise that he will not "leave him behind" should something happen to them in Vietnam, because after one final hunting trip, Steven, Mike, and Nick are to leave for a tour in the ongoing Vietnam War, longing to go where "the bullets are flyin'".

On the hunting trip, Mike, who is known for killing the best deer every year, is quite harsh with Stanley for joining them unprepared. During the actual hunting scenes, Orthodox liturgical music is heard. The hunt is successful for Mike, and a deer is brought home on the hood of Mike's Cadillac.

The second act cuts directly to an ongoing war scene in Vietnam where Mike, a member of a special forces unit, is reunited with Steven and Nick as he is in the act of killing. The scene cuts to a river pontoon-prison, where the three friends are captives of the Viet Cong. They are forced to play Russian roulette against each other for the gambling amusement of their Vietnamese captors. Mike first considers abandoning Steven (whom he believes has been broken mentally and cannot survive), but eventually engineers an escape for all three men by killing their captors during the game. Soon after an American patrol helicopter appears but is only able to rescue Nick. Mike and Steven fall back into the river and eventually swim ashore. Steven's legs are broken by the fall; Mike carries him until they reach a South Vietnamese convoy, with whom he then leaves Steven. Mike then continues his tour of duty and returns home alone.


The wedding celebrationMeanwhile Nick is recuperating in a hospital in South Vietnam, and goes AWOL when he takes up with a rogue Frenchman in the city of Saigon who promises him riches if he participates in Russian roulette competitions. Back in the US, Mike becomes romantically involved with Nick's girlfriend, Linda. The friends go on a hunting trip where Mike plays Russian roulette on Stan, yet had the opportunity to kill the best deer and let it live. Mike also reunites with Stevie, who has had both his legs amputated and his left arm paralyzed, and recovering in a Veterans' Administration hospital. Stevie shows Mike the large amounts of cash he has been receiving by mail, which suggests that Nick is alive and still in Vietnam.

Mike then travels to Saigon just before its fall in 1975, where with the help of the Frenchman he finds Nick and learns that his best friend is still involved in the underground Russian roulette circuit. Nick appears at first to have no recollection of his friend or their lives in Pennsylvania. He is under the influence of heroin, as is indicated by track marks on his forearm. They then face each other in the game surrounded by screaming gamblers. During the final match, Mike "buys" Nick and tries to persuade him to come home. Nick finally acknowledges that he does remember Mike, by repeating a line the two used together while deerhunting ("one shot"). With that, Nick pulls the gun away from Mike, shooting himself right in front of Mike.

Mike brings Nick's body back to America, sadly fulfilling his promise from the night of the wedding. The film ends on the morning of Nick's funeral at his Russian Orthodox parish. We see everyone leave the church after the wedding with the singing of the joyous "Mnogaja ljeta" but for the funeral they leave the church with the somber singing of "Vechnaya Pamyat" or "Memory Eternal". The film ends with the surviving friends having a private breakfast together while quietly singing “God Bless America”.