ASTONISHING STORY OF DEER HUNTER.. 40 YRS ON
Me and de Niro had our safety line sliced by the helicopter.. we had to jump into the rocky river. Then we saw the snake – ACTOR JOHN SAVAGE
Trembling as he held a gun to his head in The Deer Hunter’s most famous scene, Robert De Niro had every reason to look terrified – making the film had been a game of Russian roulette in itself.
Now, 40 years after the film exposed the savagery and horror of the Vietnam War, two of the actors, John Savage and George Dzundza, reveal the real battles which went on behind the cameras.
Savage, “Bobby” De Niro’s co-star and life-long pal, tells how far the cast, including Christopher Walken, Jon Voight and Meryl Streep, were willing to go to get the movie’s powerful anti-war message to the big screen.
Savage, 69, who played Steven, recalls how they took their lives in their hands, dodging deadly log jams and snakes, and dangling out of a helicopter, seconds from being dashed to death 60ft below.
He says: “There is no way any studio today would allow their stars or crew to face the risks we did making The Deer Hunter. The film is about life on the edge. The shoot was very much like that.
“None of us realised how much danger we were in – it felt like we were going to war just to make this movie.
“Bobby was our leader, he and the director made sure this film would become special.”
It was also thanks to De Niro, then 35, that Savage won his role in the movie. He popped backstage after seeing Savage in a Broadway show in 1977.
Savage says: “He walked in with director Michael Cimino and said, ‘Savage, you were pretty good, eh?’ and then started talking about this film, The Deer Hunter, about a community in Pennsylvania. I knew the story as it was so close to my heart.
“Within weeks I got offered the part.” The Deer Hunter, which won five Oscars in 1979, tells the story of three Pittsburgh steel workers who struggle to recover mentally after being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War.
It is widely considered to have altered Americans’ view of the veterans who had come home from a discredited war to find they were now the enemy.
But, as Savage reveals, this momentous achievement could have cost the actors their lives. He says: “Bob, Chris and I are lucky to be alive. We almost got killed.”
Shooting the war scenes in Thailand, the cast and crew were dogged by the threat of kidnap. Savage says: “Back then that country was far from stable, and armed refugees and military groups were running wild. Many of them saw us as a way of making a quick buck.”
Director Cimino hired heavily armed guards but Savage, De Niro and Walken found themselves in more immediate danger, dangling from a bridge above the River Kwai for a flashback scene.
As the three held on to the bridge’s struts, an army helicopter accidentally sliced through their metal safety cables, leaving them clinging on for their lives above the rocks in the raging river 60ft below.
Savage says: “We knew we were in trouble when the cables got cut. Amazingly, Chris, who is an athlete and a dancer, pulled himself up and into the helicopter, which flew up leaving Bobby and I hanging from the sliced cable in an absolute panic knowing this could be the end of our lives. “Bob was right next to me and it’s like, ‘Sh**’, and he’s screaming in my face and I’m looking down, ‘What do we do? Should we drop – there’s rocks and sh** down there.’
“I was calling Bobby by his character name, yelling ‘Michael, Michael, I’m not sure we should drop in the water
dropped. d started John Don’t and the Bobby name We’re the we rocks laughing f***ing call looked yells God and me at knows going at and by me: the one my water just to ‘Jesus how, another die character said, took here.’ but Christ, and ‘I’m we us Then side both of we the stared looked production at up one to another see boat that below. the on pter cable was on wavering the bridge, as it but was luckily stuck body crawled out and pushed it off. d that not happened, the ’copter have crashed down on us too.” then, De Niro noticed a snake, a anded Krait, on his friend’s leg. age says: “A snake was wrapped d my leg. I was still in disbelief at happened, so kind of froze. One of the guys on the boat calmly removed it and then cut its head off. Later he told me its bite was deadly.”
The three leading men found themselves in deep water again shooting the famous logs scene in a fast-moving river.
Savage says: “We hung off the logs as the water pushed them around. I got pushed down in shallow water, trapping my legs in the wet sand. Suddenly the rest of the logs were coming toward us and about to cover me entirely and drown me.
“I heard Chris shout, ‘We’re getting stuck.’ Then Bobby went under too as the logs rolled out of control. Chris somehow pulled me out.
“The panicked camera team rammed the boat into the logs to stop us getting crushed or drowned. The impact dislodged the camera and it fell in – the footage lost for ever.
“Bobby somehow got out of the water, on to the log and used the boat to push our log away from the danger area.”
Even when the cameras stopped rolling, the drama continued for the cast as they watched co-star John Cazale battle terminal cancer, bravely supported by his girlfriend Streep.
Cazale, 42, who had been dating Streep for three years, knew he was dying of lung and bone cancer.
Savage says: “John was in a bad way, so after shooting we would often go up to their hotel room. Meryl was always by his side, caring for him. We all knew this was his farewell, but his spirit was so strong with so much laughter on those nights.
“He would tell jokes, bust our balls and laugh loads in front of us.”
Sadly Cazale, who played Stosh, died shortly after filming wrapped in March 1978.
The Deer Hunter is most remembered for the Russian roulette scenes, when De Niro and Walken fire a partially loaded pistol at their own heads.
But Dzundza, who played John Welsh, reveals the scenes almost failed to make the final cut, with studio bosses wanting them out. Dzundza, 73, says: “Those scenes were a metaphor for combat – the fact that you could be instantly killed at any moment. It was a way of giving that feeling to the audience.”
Eventually, after Cimino and De Niro battled with distributors and the movie studios, audiences were served up with a disclaimer, a first in movie history.
Universal released The Deer Hunter in just two movie theatres in December 1978 to qualify for Oscar consideration.
After winning five Oscars it went on general release and earned $70million, having cost $15million to make.
Dzundza says: “Any film of true value speaks for itself. It’s like a good poem, and if a poem is good, it’s good.”
Savage adds: “The Deer Hunter is a piece of American history.”
Bobby and I were left hanging from the sliced cable in a panic JOHN SAVAGE ACTOR WHO PLAYED STEVEN