‘One Shot the making of The Deer Hunter’ book looks at the personality clashes on set and the singular working methods of Michael Cimino and through first‐hand accounts and extensive research, we find out what it was like to work on the famed film. Glennie examines how with Cimino at the helm the film, initially contracted to have a running time of two hours, became a three hour and four minute epic, resulting in the budget doubling from $7 million to $14.5 million and the departure of two producers.įrom Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Chris Walken, famed cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and their colleagues on the film we gain an understanding of the pressures and pleasures of shooting a film on location with a director who is determined to fulfil his vision. A controversial film about a controversial war ‘One Shot’ details how Cimino took the playing the of Russian Roulette as a metaphor of the US involvement in Vietnam and in turn gave us one of cinemas greatest anti‐war films ever. Released to celebrate the film winning the most coveted of movie awards, the Best Picture Oscar in 1979 ‘One Shot’ includes exclusive interviews with cast & crew (including Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Chris Walken, John Savage and many more), EMI Film producers, Universal Studio executives and a loving foreword from Jeff Bridges for his friend, director Michael Cimino.įeaturing stunning on‐location images, many of which have never been published before, this book is the definitive account of the unlikely and often difficult journey from page to screen of Michael Cimino’s iconic film. The large format book takes a comprehensive look at the landmark British film. ‘One Shot’ the making of The Deer Hunter is written by Jay Glennie, with unparalleled access to the Robert De Niro Archives. If, like me, you watched it on VHS twenty years ago and then mostly forgot about it, the book offers a nice alternate way in which to re-experience it.A behind‐the‐scenes‐ look at the making of the Oscar winning film. If you're a fan of the movie, then I see no reason to bother with this. A little more research would've been nice, too, since certain scenes involving deer hunting in the Allegheny Mountains and fighting in the jungles of Vietnam don't strike me as 100% convincing.īut for what it is, THE DEER HUNTER is a perfectly acceptable novelization for those of us who don't consider the movie an unassailable masterpiece. But, man, I would've loved to see him really bite into the meat of this story and give it a good chewing over, as opposed to simply nibbling around the edges. Even still, it's a thoroughly engrossing read. (Heck, even the proofreading is sloppy.) Apart from a handful of beautifully written descriptive paragraphs, it mostly comes across as a hastily fleshed-out screenplay. Corder (a pseudonym for Jerrold Mundis) makes no attempt to dig deeper into the psychological hangups of these characters, and one senses he penned this under a tight deadline. Maybe it's because the book is a bit breezier, or maybe I'm just not much of a Robert DeNiro fan.Īnyhow, it's a very workmanlike novelization considering the movie went on to win Best Picture. I can't think of a single reason to prefer this over the movie version, yet prefer it I do. The story speaks to all service members who have served in armed conflict and come home to fight another war. And Nicky (Christopher Walken's character) was the vulnerable one, being unable to mentally process the extreme duress and ultimately becoming the 'casualty of war.'įor me the book was more captivating than the movie and I enjoyed it. Stevie (John Savage's character) was the physically weak and fragile one. Mike (Robert De Niro's character) was the strong one, the true Deer Hunter. The characters in the book were well-written and developed. The characters all suffer from psychological trauma and deal with it in their own ways. They move on, rotate back to America, but things are not the same for any of them. They eventually escape, float down river, and regain contact with American forces. This was a very gripping part in both the book and the movie. To the guards amusement, the group is forced to play a game of Russian roulette. These men, like many Vietnam veterans, served their country and returned with combat-related psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.Īfter an engagement with enemy forces, the group are taken prisoner by Viet Cong. The plot follows a group of friends and the trauma of war that links them all together. I think this is both an underrated movie and book.
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