After the critical and commercial success of “The Deer Hunter,” Cimino embarked on an even more ambitious project. Based on a script he originally submitted for production in 1971, “Heaven’s Gate” dramatizes the Johnson County War of 1892, a bloody battle that the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA) waged on local immigrant settlers (in fact, the original title of the film was “The Johnson County War”). After placing a bounty on several settlers, the WSGA hired killers to decimate the settlers, claiming that the offending immigrants were “anarchists” and cattle thieves. Kris Kristofferson and Christopher Walken, the latter of whom previously worked with Cimino on “The Deer Hunter,” co-star in the film with Isabelle Huppert, Brad Dourif, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Jeff Bridges, and Mickey Rourke in support. Unfortunately, the legacy of Cimino’s film – and his Malick-ian tendencies and whims – has mostly been similarly one-sided. Its production famously went over budget (it cost $44 million, which wasn’t chump change in 1979, and is almost $140 million when adjusted for inflation), and behind schedule (so much so that the movie exceeded its original $7.5 million budget by 400%). —Lookin Back At Heaven’s Gate
Just two years after Michael Cimino’s 1978 Vietnam epic, The Deer Hunter, took five Oscars, Hollywood’s newestwonder boy/auteur made one of its biggest flops ever, the $44 million Heaven’s Gate. The fallout turned him into a pariah, and then into the Howard Hughes of directors, living in virtual seclusion and refusing to be photographed, which sparked endless rumors. Now, posing for his first portrait in 20 years, Cimino gives the author the lowdown on his radically altered appearance, his first novel, and his latest screenplay—as well as an unprecedented glimpse into his decidedly eccentric mind. —Michael Cimino’s Final Cut
Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate tells an intriguing story, with on-camera input from many of the people involved, but not Mr. Cimino, and apt comparisons with other notorious film disasters. But Michael Epstein, the writer and director, wants to have it both ways. He spends much of his time making the case that Mr. Cimino was out of control, causing the movie’s problems, then pronounces the result “a beautiful, ambitious film waiting to be discovered.” Kris Kristofferson, the film’s star, expresses the opinion that “Heaven’s Gate” was “used by powers that be to stop a way of filmmaking, where the author was the director and was in control of the money.”
“Final Cut” is based partly on the 1985 book of the same name (with a different subtitle) by Steven Bach, a United Artists production executive when the film was made. He recalls, on camera, seeing Mr. Cimino’s first cut of the film. It ran 5 hours and 25 minutes. The film’s talking heads are entertainingly philosophical, like the costumer who says, “We thought we were making the next `Gone With the Wind.’ ” It’s also interesting to know that Jeff Bridges, who played John H. Bridges, kept the whorehouse set as a country home. —Behind the Scenes of a Colossal Flop
Here is a link to the complete playlist on YouTube: Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate
This documentary (made in 2004, 24 years after the movie’s original release), Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate (and based on an even better book) will prove an absolute delight for screenwriters who are curious about the script into production phase – and are even more concerned with how bizarrely the Hollywood system works. This documentary is candid and revealing in every sense. You won’t believe how out of control things get. At the end of the day, though, it all goes back to the script, doesn’t it? Had this movie had a crazy production and not emerged a relative bore (or a “cinematic waste,” as Roger Ebert put it), the production story would’ve been painted far differently, I’m sure: Cimino as a crazed genius struggling against movie executives who didn’t understand his wondrous vision. Sadly, this one didn’t turn out like Apocalypse Now. I advise you track down the script and then watch this: the insights are spectacular. —10 Essential Documentaries That Every Aspiring Screenwriter Needs To See
Previously on Cinephilia and Beyond:
The Deer Hunter — Michael Cimino commentary track
Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter Print for the Hero Complex Gallery “Oscar Legends” show : Pre-sale is going on now !!
Show starts Friday Feb. 15th @ 6pm at the SOMArts Cultural Center in SF
Thank you to Adam at Hero Complex, Sal at Cromeyellow, DT at Blurrpy, Aurélien at Cinemateaser for their amazing support !!
MM = Midnight Marauder
Previously on Cinephilia & Beyond:
- The Deer Hunter — Michael Cimino Commentary Track
- Here’s to one of the greatest actor’s of a generation. Still missed and a gift to all who’ve seen him, here’s to the great, John Cazale
John Cazale, Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro on the set of The Deer Hunter.
Previously on Cinephilia & Beyond:
- The Deer Hunter — Michael Cimino Commentary Track
- Here’s to one of the greatest actor’s of a generation. Still missed and a gift to all who’ve seen him, here’s to the great, John Cazale
(via lettertojane)
Source: filmcigarettes
After the critical and commercial success of “The Deer Hunter,” Cimino embarked on an even more ambitious project. Based on a script he originally submitted for production in 1971, “Heaven’s Gate” dramatizes the Johnson County War of 1892, a bloody battle that the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA) waged on local immigrant settlers (in fact, the original title of the film was “The Johnson County War”). After placing a bounty on several settlers, the WSGA hired killers to decimate the settlers, claiming that the offending immigrants were “anarchists” and cattle thieves. Kris Kristofferson and Christopher Walken, the latter of whom previously worked with Cimino on “The Deer Hunter,” co-star in the film with Isabelle Huppert, Brad Dourif, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Jeff Bridges, and Mickey Rourke in support. Unfortunately, the legacy of Cimino’s film – and his Malick-ian tendencies and whims – has mostly been similarly one-sided. Its production famously went over budget (it cost $44 million, which wasn’t chump change in 1979, and is almost $140 million when adjusted for inflation), and behind schedule (so much so that the movie exceeded its original $7.5 million budget by 400%). —Lookin Back At Heaven’s Gate
Just two years after Michael Cimino’s 1978 Vietnam epic, The Deer Hunter, took five Oscars, Hollywood’s newestwonder boy/auteur made one of its biggest flops ever, the $44 million Heaven’s Gate. The fallout turned him into a pariah, and then into the Howard Hughes of directors, living in virtual seclusion and refusing to be photographed, which sparked endless rumors. Now, posing for his first portrait in 20 years, Cimino gives the author the lowdown on his radically altered appearance, his first novel, and his latest screenplay—as well as an unprecedented glimpse into his decidedly eccentric mind. —Michael Cimino’s Final Cut
Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate tells an intriguing story, with on-camera input from many of the people involved, but not Mr. Cimino, and apt comparisons with other notorious film disasters. But Michael Epstein, the writer and director, wants to have it both ways. He spends much of his time making the case that Mr. Cimino was out of control, causing the movie’s problems, then pronounces the result “a beautiful, ambitious film waiting to be discovered.” Kris Kristofferson, the film’s star, expresses the opinion that “Heaven’s Gate” was “used by powers that be to stop a way of filmmaking, where the author was the director and was in control of the money.”
“Final Cut” is based partly on the 1985 book of the same name (with a different subtitle) by Steven Bach, a United Artists production executive when the film was made. He recalls, on camera, seeing Mr. Cimino’s first cut of the film. It ran 5 hours and 25 minutes. The film’s talking heads are entertainingly philosophical, like the costumer who says, “We thought we were making the next `Gone With the Wind.’ ” It’s also interesting to know that Jeff Bridges, who played John H. Bridges, kept the whorehouse set as a country home. —Behind the Scenes of a Colossal Flop
Here is a link to the complete playlist on YouTube: Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate
This documentary (made in 2004, 24 years after the movie’s original release), Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate (and based on an even better book) will prove an absolute delight for screenwriters who are curious about the script into production phase – and are even more concerned with how bizarrely the Hollywood system works. This documentary is candid and revealing in every sense. You won’t believe how out of control things get. At the end of the day, though, it all goes back to the script, doesn’t it? Had this movie had a crazy production and not emerged a relative bore (or a “cinematic waste,” as Roger Ebert put it), the production story would’ve been painted far differently, I’m sure: Cimino as a crazed genius struggling against movie executives who didn’t understand his wondrous vision. Sadly, this one didn’t turn out like Apocalypse Now. I advise you track down the script and then watch this: the insights are spectacular. —10 Essential Documentaries That Every Aspiring Screenwriter Needs To See
Previously on Cinephilia & Beyond:
The Deer Hunter — Michael Cimino commentary track
“Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of ‘Heaven’s Gate,” a documentary 10 times as engrossing as the film that is its subject. “It takes a lot in this town to ruin a career,” says the documentary’s narrator, Willem Dafoe, after photos of Hugh Grant, Winona Ryder and Robert Downey Jr. flash across the screen. “But there is one sin for which Hollywood has always been unforgiving: failure. That’s what happened to Michael Cimino, the writer, director and general moving force behind `Heaven’s Gate.’ “
Mr. Cimino, a former television-commercial director, was 40 and had just won the best director and best picture Oscars for his second film, “The Deer Hunter” (1978), when he began filming “Heaven’s Gate.” It was a western story, set in Wyoming in 1892, about the Johnson County War, which he interpreted as a government-sanctioned slaughter of immigrants. Mr. Cimino was fanatic about period authenticity, no matter the cost (the construction of an entire town, for example, and antique roller skates for hundreds of extras), but mysteriously accepted Oxford as an embarrassingly unconvincing stand-in for Harvard. He wanted and got Isabelle Huppert as his female lead, although no one else thought she spoke English well enough. He did unheard-of numbers of retakes. “It was like workshopping on film,” says Brad Dourif, who played Mr. Eggleston. The budget swelled to $36 million, almost five times the average Hollywood movie budget then, and, followed by the film’s two-part failure — a re-edited version was released in 1981 — destroyed United Artists financially.
“Final Cut” tells an intriguing story, with on-camera input from many of the people involved, but not Mr. Cimino, and apt comparisons with other notorious film disasters. But Michael Epstein, the writer and director, wants to have it both ways. He spends much of his time making the case that Mr. Cimino was out of control, causing the movie’s problems, then pronounces the result “a beautiful, ambitious film waiting to be discovered.”
Kris Kristofferson, the film’s star, expresses the opinion that “Heaven’s Gate” was “used by powers that be to stop a way of filmmaking, where the author was the director and was in control of the money.”
“Final Cut” is based partly on the 1985 book of the same name (with a different subtitle) by Steven Bach, a United Artists production executive when the film was made. He recalls, on camera, seeing Mr. Cimino’s first cut of the film. It ran 5 hours and 25 minutes.
The film’s talking heads are entertainingly philosophical, like the costumer who says, “We thought we were making the next `Gone With the Wind.’ ” It’s also interesting to know that Jeff Bridges, who played John H. Bridges, kept the whorehouse set as a country home.
FINAL CUT
The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate
Directed by Michael Epstein; written by Mr. Epstein, partially based on the book “Final Cut” by Steven Bach; director of photography, Michael Chin; edited by Penny Elliott Hays; music by Joel Goodman; produced by Mr. Epstein and Rachael Horovitz. At the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, South Village. Running time: 90 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Willem Dafoe (Narrator), Jeff Bridges, Kris Kirstofferson, Brad Dourif and Vilmos Zsigmond.
Source: The New York Times
Director Michael Cimino recalls the making of The Deer Hunter.
- 379 Plays
- The Deer Hunter — Michael Cimino Commentary Track
Download External AudioInterviews with Cimino are rare, and he gives his part in the Heaven’s Gate very little discussion. George Hickenlooper’s book Reel Interviews and Peter Biskind’s highly critical book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls deal almost exclusively with the film and resulting scandal. Hickenlooper’s book includes one of the few candid discussions with Cimino; Biskind focuses on events during and after the production as a later backdrop for the sweeping changes made to Hollywood and the movie brat generation. The European DVD release of The Deer Hunter contains an audio commentary with Cimino, as does the American one of Year of the Dragon.
“The Deer Hunter” screenplay by Deric Washburn [pdf]. (NOTE: For educational purposes only)