REMINISCING — French filmmaker Jean-Baptiste Thoret, right, chats with John F. “Boom Boom” Buchmelter III, who played a bar patron and was in the wedding scene in “The Deer Hunter.” Thoret, in Mingo Junction to work on a documentary about the towns and people that were part of the Academy Award-winning film, is hosting a special showing at Mingo Junction’s Parkview Inn beginning at 6 p.m. today. He’s hoping to talk with extras who were part of the movie before and after the showing. -- Contributed

MINGO JUNCTION — More than 40 years after “The Deer Hunter” hit the silver screen, a French filmmaker is in town working on a documentary about how it impacted the town and the people who were part of it.

Far from being a trip down memory lane, filmmaker Jean-Baptiste Thoret said his focus is what’s happened in the lives of the extras as well as the town in the years since.

“I want to go back not only to ‘Deer Hunter,’ but what happened to the people who were there,” he said Thursday. “Their lives didn’t stop after Michael Cimino left. I want to follow their lives since — what happened after that. Something great happened (here) years ago — but what’s happened since then?”

Cimino co-wrote, directed, and produced “The Deer Hunter,” the story of how the war in Vietnam effected three steelworkers from a small town in Pennsylvania sent to fight in it. It starred Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken.

Filming locations include Mingo Junction, Steubenville, Follansbee and Weirton.

Thoret is hosting a showing of “The Deer Hunter” from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. today at the Parkview Inn in Mingo Junction. He’ll be there a few minutes before as well as 30-45 minutes after the showing to talk.

“He’s hoping some extras show up and talk with him about things they remember,” Jim Freiling, a member of the Mingo Business Association and Thoret’s unofficial tour guide, explained.

Thoret said he’s interested not just in their shared experiences during the filming of “The Deer Hunter,” but also what’s happened in their lives in the 40 years since.

“I would like to see what happened to people after (the movie was filmed),” Thoret said.

Thoret said he wants to see how people who were part of the story 40 years ago react to seeing it again all these years later, especially in a group setting.

“I’ll shoot the moment, how people react, what they say, what they want to say,” he said, explaining that he sees “The Deer Hunter” as a “kind of documentary of Mingo Junction in 1977.”

“Looking at it through the eyes of a Mingo Junction resident is going to be different than anywhere else in the world,” he added.

“The Deer Hunter” was filmed in 1977 and had limited release in December 1978 to allow it to be considered for the 1979 Academy Awards.

Cimino’s film had its local premiere on March 15, 1979, at what was then known as Cinema III at the Fort Steuben Mall.

The writer and director died in 2016 at the age of 77.

“The Deer Hunter” is considered to be one of the most significant films of all time. In 1996, it was selected for preservation in the United States Film Registry by the Library of Congress.