Anatomy of a Scene: Breaking down the Russian Roulette scene in ‘Deer Hunter’
By the late 1970s, Robert De Niro was coming into his own as a once-in-a-generation actor. Across his role in the Godfather franchise and his menacing portrayal of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, De Niro was prepared to go to the darkest corners of the human psyche to get what he was right for the scene. In the lead-up to his role in Deer Hunter, De Niro faced his greatest challenge by putting his life in his character’s hands.
Amid its contemporaries in the ‘70s, Deer Hunter is one of the ideal anti-war films. Following the story of childhood friends Mike and Nick, De Niro originally signed on to play Mike because he loved the script, telling GQ, “It was so simple, and it seemed so real to me. The characters spoke to me. I liked that they didn’t say much, that there wasn’t anything that was condescending or patronising toward them”.
Much like its contemporaries like Platoon and Apocalypse Now, the depiction of these horrific scenes is akin to a horror film, especially in the Russian Roulette scene where Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken have to take turns putting a gun to their head. After being captured by the Viet Cong and losing friends along the way, Mike and Nick (played by Christopher Walken) are forced to play Russian Roulette as the prisoners around them bet on who will die first.
Despite the insane set-up, Jodie Foster recalled the power in this scene, telling the American Film Institute, “As each one passes the gun to the other, they have to anticipate that they’re gonna watch their best friend’s head blow off, with each click of the gun their bond is cemented even more”.
Although the practice may have been horrifying to watch, it was even more disturbing behind the scenes.
Director Michael Cimino made the scene a little more interesting when it came down to Mike and Nick as the lone survivors of the game. As soon as cameras rolled, Cimino told the Vietnamese actor to slap Walken across the face in the shot, leading to Walken’s genuine reaction after getting hit.
The most realistic part of the scene came at De Niro’s suggestion, asking for a live round of bullets to be put in the gun. So when the audience is looking at two boyhood friends holding a gun up to their heads, De Niro was using a real bullet and could have easily shot himself had the crew not paid special attention to make sure that the bullet wasn’t next in the chamber when the next take started.
While the original plan seemed outrageously dangerous, the results were electric, bringing genuine reactions out of both Walken and De Niro as they try desperately to keep themselves from accidentally killing each other. Whereas most actors would be scared to death, De Niro is fully immersed in the character of Mike, being both supportive and on the verge of insanity, laughing through his turn as he places the gun to his temple.
As the scene plays out, the audience sees the genuine humanity of both Mike and Nick, balancing their levels of compassion and desperation towards each other. When both of them take a turn without getting shot, Mike whips their captors into a laughing frenzy before seizing control of the situation and blowing the rest of them away.
Although the scene was meant to be a harrowing look at what happens to prisoners of war, the risky side of acting informed De Niro’s future projects, even halting his work on Raging Bull for this film to ensure he could do justice to Mike’s character. Outside of his insane work ethic both in front of and behind the camera, producer Michael Deeley mentioned to GQ that this was the way of the world for De Niro, saying, “when you engage Robert De Niro, you are not only getting one of the finest screen actors ever, but you are working with an actor who cares about the whole picture”.
Revisit the scene below.
