It's such a good film. And very interesting to see that this scene is completely different from the script and vastly superior. No need for any speeches when these fantastic actors say so much with just their looks. Or does the speech happen before this clip starts? I can't remember. The silence makes it much more poignant and sad. It's extra sad to see John Cazale in his last role. He only made five feature films and they're all classics: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather: Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter. He was suffering from bone cancer as they were filming this so they scheduled his scenes first. The studio wanted him replaced but Meryl Streep, whom he was dating at the time, threatened to quit if they did. He died before the movie was released.

The way it's shot is so much better. When you have great actors you can rely on them to convey emotion without spelling it out in dialogue. In the script, the playing of the piano feels awkward and the singing feels forced. Having it arise from casual humming works much more naturally...and having the singing start with the high feminine voice, then having the deeper male voices come in, and then ending with both in unison has an emotional rhythm itself. I agree Teddy, I seem to remember someone actually saying those words "That fucking guy, he saved my Life. He saved Sal's...What Merle liked, he liked things right... But then there wasn't any place for that... that he could find." - so wonder if it was right before this scene... But maybe I've read part of the script before.

Teddy and Laura, you get the proverbial gold star for the day because you hit squarely on the head the point I was hoping people would see. Again: movies are primarily a visual medium. As screenwriters, in almost all types of stories and scene settings, our default mode has to be to think about visual elements first, dialogue second. Now if you're Aaron Sorkin or Neil Simon, perhaps a different story. But having seen Moneyball last night, while there is some great dialogue in it, the movie is surprisingly visual, I mean really very much so [great job directing by Bennett Miller]. If you've seen Drive, that movie also reminds us of film being a visual medium. And so here in the last scene of The Deer Hunter, a movie I remember being profoundly moved by, I know the instinct to want to say something big and sweeping. But with that cast of actors and at that moment within the story universe, what they put on screen compared to the script is infinitely better. And Teddy to your point re Cazale: Thanks for noting that. Such a sad thing, but as you say, every film he was in, and every role he played was a strong one.