<P> Deeley felt the revised script, now called The Deer Hunter, broke fresh ground for the project . The protagonist in the Redeker / Garfinkle script, Merle, was an individual who sustained a bad injury in active service and was damaged psychologically by his violent experiences, but was nevertheless a tough character with strong nerves and guts . Cimino and Washburn's revised script distilled the three aspects of Merle's personality and separated them out into three distinct characters . They became three old friends who grew up in the same small industrial town and worked in the same steel mill, and in due course were drafted together to Vietnam . In the original script, the roles of Merle (later renamed Mike) and Nick were reversed in the last half of the film . Nick returns home to Linda, while Mike remains in Vietnam, sends money home to help Steven, and meets his tragic fate at the Russian roulette table . </P> <P> A Writers' Guild arbitration process awarded Washburn sole "Screenplay by" credit . Garfinkle and Redeker were given a shared "Story by" credit with Cimino and Washburn . Deeley felt the story credits for Garfinkle and Redeker "did them less than justice ." Cimino contested the results of the arbitration . "In their Nazi wisdom," added Cimino, "(they) didn't give me the credit because I would be producer, director and writer ." All four writers--Cimino, Washburn, Garfinkle, and Redeker--received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for the film . </P> <P> The Deer Hunter began principal photography on June 20, 1977 . This was the first feature film depicting the Vietnam War to be filmed on location in Thailand . All scenes were shot on location (no sound stages). "There was discussion about shooting the film on a back lot, but the material demanded more realism," says Spikings . The cast and crew viewed large amounts of news footage from the war to ensure authenticity . The film was shot over a period of six months . The Clairton scenes comprise footage shot in eight different towns in four states: West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Ohio . The initial budget of the film was $8.5 million . </P> <P> Meryl Streep accepted the role of the "vague, stock girlfriend", in order to remain for the duration of filming with John Cazale, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer . De Niro had spotted Streep in her stage production of The Cherry Orchard and had suggested that she play his girlfriend Linda . Before the beginning of principal photography, Deeley had a meeting with the film's appointed line producer Robert Relyea . Deeley hired Relyea after meeting him on the set of Bullitt (1968) and was impressed with his experience . However, Relyea declined the job, refusing to disclose his reason why . Deeley suspected that Relyea sensed in director Cimino something that would have made production difficult . As a result, Cimino was acting without the day - to - day supervision of a producer . </P>

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