According to Christopher Walken, the historical context wasn't paramount: "In the making of it, I don't remember anyone ever mentioning Vietnam." Robert De Niro added to this sentiment: "Whether the film's vision of the war actually happened or not, it's something you could imagine very easily happening. Maybe it did. I don't know. All's fair in love and war." Producer Barry Spikings, while proud of the film, regrets the way the Vietnamese were portrayed. "I don't think any of us meant it to be exploitive," Spikings said. "But I think we were ignorant. I can't think of a better word for it. I didn't realize how badly we'd behaved to the Vietnamese people." Michael Deeley, on the other hand, was quick to defend Michael Cimino's comments on the nature and motives of the film: "Il cacciatore (1978) wasn't really 'about' Vietnam. It was something very different. It wasn't about drugs or the collapse of the morale of the soldiers. It was about how individuals respond to pressure: different men reacting quite differently. The film was about three steel workers in extraordinary circumstances. Apocalypse Now (1979) is surreal. Il cacciatore (1978) is a parable. Men who fight and lose an unworthy war face some obvious and unpalatable choices. They can blame their leaders, or they can blame themselves. Self-blame has been a great burden for many war veterans. So how does a soldier come to terms with his defeat, and yet still retain his self-respect? One way is to present the conquering enemy as so inhuman, and the battle between the good guys and the bad guys so uneven, as to render defeat irrelevant. Inhumanity was the theme of Il cacciatore (1978)'s portrayal of the North Vietnamese prison guards forcing American POWs to play Russian Roulette. The audience's sympathy with prisoners who (quite understandably) cracked thus completes the chain. Accordingly, some veterans who suffered in that war found the Russian Roulette a valid allegory."

Film

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