The Deer Hunter (1978) – Filming Locations
Drama / War · Directed by Michael Cimino · Starring Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep
Three steelworkers enlist in the army and are sent to Vietnam, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love. What they encounter during the war changes their lives forever.
Where was The Deer Hunter filmed?
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, Pittsburgh – Opening wedding sequence and steelworker community establishing scenes showing the town's industrial character. The authentic Pittsburgh steel mills and blue-collar neighborhoods were essential to portraying the life and bonds of working-class American steelworkers before Vietnam
- Clairton, Pennsylvania, United States, Clairton – Steel mill sequences showing workers in their industrial workplace; townscape and local taverns. Cimino filmed extensively in this actual steel town south of Pittsburgh to capture the gritty realism of the workers' daily lives and the community that shaped them
- Bangkok, Thailand, Bangkok – Scenes of the soldiers in Vietnam and their descent into the underworld of Russian roulette gambling. Cimino used Bangkok locations as a stand-in for Saigon and the dark underbelly of Southeast Asia, depicting the psychological corruption and moral descent of the soldiers
- Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Phnom Penh – War sequences and the climactic Russian roulette scenes depicting the soldiers' trauma in Southeast Asia. Cimino filmed in Cambodia itself to authentically capture the Vietnam War setting and the physical and psychological devastation experienced by the characters
- Weirton, West Virginia, United States, Weirton – Additional steel mill and working-class community scenes showing the industrial landscape. The Weirton Steel Mill provided additional authentic industrial footage to reinforce the gritty reality of the steelworker characters' world