LOS ANGELES, April 10 — To win five of the six major Academy Awards last night, “The Deer Hunter” and “Coming Home” had to defeat more than the pictures nominated against them. They had to conquer a number of Hollywood ghosts and truisms, Chief among the phantasms was the movie industry's fear that nobody would go to see a movie about the Vietnam War.
The producers of “The Deer Hunter” were so worried about getting an audience for their $13 million picture that they bullied a rival producer, Allan Carr, into watching a private screening of the film last July. Mr. Carr, an entrepreneur of immense physical proportions whose box‐office success in the last few years has more than matched his stout figure, sat all alone in the 1,100‐seat theater and sobbed. It was a symbolic foreshadowing for the movie that would win five Academy Awaits, including best picture.
Mr. Carr, whose own movie “Grease” ‐ was well on its way to making $100 million, said: “I probably would never have gone to see ‘The Deer Hunter’ ‐ or any movie that was three hours long and about Vietnam. But, by the time it was half over, I was so emotionally undone. I was crying. I felt I was seeing a genuine masterpiece. It's not the kind of picture I could make, but I could appreciate it.”
‘New York Syndrome’
More important, Mr. Carr felt that “The Deer Hunter” was a salable masterpiece. He volunteered his services free of charge to devise a marketing strategy for the picture. “Universal kept asking, ‘Who will see this movie?’ I said, ‘If you sell it right, everybody! Intellectuals will go to see it, and so will the Clint Eastwood audience.’ ”
Mr. Carr persuaded Universal not to release the film, as it had intended, last September. Instead, he orchestrated a limited‐run in New York and here at the end of last year. “I wanted to play the picture in New York for one week and take it away. The New York syndrome is that if you can't get into something ‐ a hit play like ‘A Chorus Line’ ‐ it becomes something special. At every Christmas cocktail party in New York, people would be asking each other if they had been able to get into one of the eight performances of ‘The Deer Hunter.’ Then we'd bring the picture back when the academy nominations were announced. On a piece of paper that day in July, I wrote ‘9 to 11 nominations.’ It got nine nominations.”
Mr. Carr's attempt to convince Universal executives had the unexpected help of Lorraine Gary, the actress and wife of Sid Sheinberg, president of Universal's parent company. “When Lorraine saw the movie,” Mr. Sheinberg said, “she didn't, couldn't say a word for an hour afterward. She was fanatical about it.”
“Universal,” Mr. Carr said, “would hear from me about it in the daytime and from Lorraine about it at night. We persuaded them to treat the movie as a special event.”
On the other hand, there was no trouble marketing “Coming Home.” The problem was in making it. •
Praise Is Showered
It took nearly 10 years for “Coming Home” to get from Nancy Dowd's original script, titled “Buffalo Ghost,” to the stage of the Los Angeles Music Center, where an ecstatic Jon Voight and Jane Fonda cradled Oscars for best actor and actress. By that time, according to Miss Dowd, her angry and blistering story, based on her own experiences, had been softened.
Bruce Gilbert, associate producer of “Coming Home,” insists that the genesis of the movie was always himself and Miss Fonda, and that Miss Dowd was provided with the characters and asked to write a script. In any case, the film makers felt her script was unworkable. Waldo Salt was brought in as screenwriter, and he added a love affair between Miss Fonda's Army wife and Mr. Voight's paraplegic veteran. Miss Dowd, Mr. Salt and Robert C. Jones won Oscars for her story and their script; but Miss Fonda‐who had subsidized the writing of “Buffalo Ghost” ‐ pointedly neglected to thank Miss Dowd, a former friend, while showering praise on Mr. Salt as the first Hollywood heavyweight to believe in the project.
“United Artists,” Mike Medavoy, former bead of production at the company, said, “decided to take a chance on ‘Coming Home’ when we were presented with Waldo Salt”s script. But it was a big gamble, and everybody knew it. Almost everybody worked for less than their current rate. Jane only took $100,000 and a percentage of the gross after break‐even. We were also backing Coppola's ‘Apocalypse Now,’ and we had foreign distribution of ‘The Deer Hunter,’ and one of our executives said, ‘Oh my God, we may be thrown out of the country!'”
Despite the fears of unnamed executive, the country proved itself more ready for Vietnam than Hollywood expected.
Other Winners
The roster of other Oscar winners includes the following:
DIRECTING: Michael Cimino, “The Deer Hunter.”
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Maggie Smith, “CaMond* Suite.”
ACTOR LN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Christopher Walken, “The Deer Hunter.”
SCREENPLAY BASED ON MATERIAL FROM ANOTHER MEDIUM: Oliver Stone, “Midnight Express.”
ART DIRECTION: Paul Sylbert and Edwin O'Donovan, and George Gaines, “Heaven Can Wait.”
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Nestor Almendros, “Days of Heaven.”
COSTUME DESIGN: Anthony Powell, “Death on the Nile.”
FEATURE‐LENGTH DOCUMENTARY: “Scared Straight.”
SHORT DOCUMENTARY: “The Flight of Gossamer Condor.”
FILM EDITING: Peter Zinner, “The Deer Walter.”
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: “Get Out Your Handkerchief.”
ORIGINAL SCORE: Georgie Moroder, “Midnight Express.”
ADAPTATION SCORE: Joe Renzetti, “The Buddy Holly Story.”
ORIGINAL SONG: Paul Sahara, “Last Dance” from “Thank God It's Friday.”
ANIMATED SHORT: “Special Delivery.” LIVE‐ACTION SHORT: “Teenage Father.”
SOUND: Richard Portman, William McCaughey, Aaron Rochin and Darrin Knight for “The Deer Hunter.”
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS: “Superman.”
United Preys International