Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, and the Price of a Vision

The first biography of critically acclaimed then critically derided filmmaker Michael Cimino—and a reevaluation of the infamous film that destroyed his careerThe director Michael Cimino (1939–2016) is famous for two films: the intense, powerful, and enduring Vietnam movieThe Deer Hunter, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1979 and also won Cimino Best Director, andHeaven’s Gate, the most notorious bomb of all time. Originally budgeted at $11 million, Cimino’s sprawling western went off the rails in Montana. The picture grew longer and longer, and the budget ballooned to over $40 million. When it was finally released,Heaven’s Gate failed so completely with reviewers and at the box office that it put legendary studio United Artists out of business and marked the end of Hollywood's auteur era.
Or so the conventional wisdom goes. Charles Elton delves deeply into the making and aftermath of the movie and presents a...