He leaves behind a slender but fascinating body of films, though his later years were marred by self-sabotage and stalled projects.
Advertisement
Cimino, 77, who directed a total of eight films, will be remembered for a his wonderful career highs and much-publicised lows. He began his career making commercials and, after moving to Los Angeles, went on to share screenwriting credits on 1971’s ecological science-fiction film “Silent Running” and 1973’s Dirty Harry sequel “Magnum Force”.
Cimino’s career never fully recovered. I think what you feel and what you think and what you are is what the film is. Initially intending to take the reins himself, Eastwood ultimately agreed to give this cocky young aspiring auteur a shot at directing him and a young Jeff Bridges as ill-matched partners in crime embarking on a bank-heist spree under the big skies of Montana.
Cimino leaves no survivors, but in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate he gifted three films to the world which are cherished by cinema lovers and will continue to be passed down the decades as rights-of-passage movies.
“The Deer Hunter”, released in 1978, was a gut-wrenching tale of a group of American friends in Pennsylvania whose lives were scarred by the Vietnam War. It comes as no surprise that Quentin Tarantino is a fan.
A scene where the characters are forced to play Russian roulette has become iconic, and it also featured John Savage, John Cazale and Meryl Streep.
His birthday is usually cited as February 3, 1939, though many facts about Cimino’s life, including his birth date, were shrouded in conflicting information. Nominated for nine Oscars, it won five including Best Picture and Best Director.
Albeit future eras of movie producers and cinephiles would view Heaven’s Gate as a clique great and cutting edge ideal work of art, Cimino’s vocation never completely recouped from the film’s underlying basic and business drubbing. “Everybody who didn’t get to do a film blamed ‘Heaven’s Gate, ‘ saying all the money went to ‘Heaven’s Gate'”. Cimino’s workprint ran to more than five hours, but almost two hours of footage was gone by the time the film had a disastrous one-week run in the fall of 1980.
When Heaven’s Gate first released, it was widely considered to be a flop.
Advertisement
The film spelled doom for the rest of the director’s career, as he slowly faded into oblivion. Cimino, whose film “The Deer Hunter” became one of the great triumphs of Hollywood’s 1970s heyday, and whose disastrous “Heaven’s Gate” helped bring that era to a close, has died. Cimino issued a non-denial denial that was more cryptic than illuminating.
