To celebrate the film’s 40th Anniversary, Michael Cimino’s epic masterpiece The Deer Hunter has been stunningly restored with a brand new 4k restoration, releasing on Blu-ray, The Collector’s Edition and EST 20th August, and on 4K Ultra HD 15th October. For one day only, Park Circus will showcase the film in cinemas from 4th July – the release date coinciding with America’s Independence Day.
Winner of no less than five Academy Awards® in 1978 including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken, The Deer Hunter is widely acknowledged as one of cinema’s great masterpieces and contains some of the most memorable scenes in film history. With the film painting a sobering portrait of a small Pennsylvania steel town rocked by loss when three of its sons go off to fight in Vietnam, Cimino’s ambitious and daring vision is showcased in this bold and brilliant war classic – that, 40 years on, is even more striking than ever before.
When Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage) and Nick (Christopher Walken) are captured by the Vietcong, they are forced to play Russian Roulette by their brutal captors, who make bets on their survival. The experience of capture leaves them with terrible physical and spiritual wounds, and when Michael returns to Saigon to fulfill an old promise to one of his friends, he makes an unexpected, horrific discovery.
Also featuring astonishing performances from Meryl Streep as the woman both Michael and Nick fall in love with, and John Cazale (The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon) as their unhinged and insecure friend Stan.
For the 40th Anniversary restoration of The Deer Hunter, STUDIOCANAL went back to the original 35mm negative, which was scanned at 4K resolution in 16bit. The restoration was completed at Silver Salt in London, who created a restored 4K DCP and UHD version for the home entertainment release.
The 2 disc Blu-ray will include the feature and the following extras:
New Interview with critic and author David Thomson
1979 ITV South Bank Show Interview with Michael Cimino
Intro by Mickey Rourke
Realising the Deer Hunter – interview with Michael Cimino
Shooting the Deer Hunter – interview with Vilmos Zsigmond
Playing the Deer Hunter – interview with John Savage
Michael Cimino Audio commentary
Vilmos Zsigmond & journalist Bob Fisher audio commentary
Deleted and extended scenes (incl. Russian Roulette)
The Collector’s Edition (4 discs) will include the two Blu-ray discs as above, a first-ever 4K Ultra HD and the original soundtrack PLUS:
A 64-page booklet which includes material written by Jay Glennie and adapted from his forthcoming numbered limited edition large format book ‘One Shot: The Making of The Deer Hunter’, a new essay from David Jenkins, Editor of Little White Lies and pages from the original 1978 press book
A 72-page script of early incarnation of the script entitled ‘The Man Who Came to Play’ by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker
X 5 Artcards
