4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

In life, Michael Cimino was often controversial.

Cimino hit box office gold with his first film as a director, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.  With his second film, The Deer Hunter, he won the Academy Award for Best Director.  With his third film, Heaven’s Gate, he nearly bankrupted United Artists.

Heaven’s Gate was Cimino’s passion project, an epic western that was based on the historical Johnson County War.  Considering that Cimino had just won an Oscar, expectation were high when production began in 1979.  Soon, however, ominous reports started to come back from the set.  It was said that Cimino was a perfectionist and a megalomaniac who was demanding so many takes and retakes that the filming was quickly falling behind schedule.  The modestly budgeted production soon went overbudget and overschedule.  After nearly a year of shooting, Cimino finally allowed the studio executives to view his first cut.  It was over five hours long.

Though the film was eventually edited down to a more manageable length, the damage had been done.  By the time Heaven’s Gate was finally released, the title was already being used a byword for fiasco.  The film lost a ton of money and, at the time, it was savaged by critics.  Cimino would only direct four more films after Heaven’s Gate and none of them were a success at the box office or with critics.

However, once the initial hype died down, some critics started to take another look at Cimino’s films.  Heaven’s Gate has been reevaluated and is now considered by many to be a minor classic.  Cimino’s Year of the Dragon has also developed a strong cult following.  Though Cimino himself died in 2016, he is a director who is currently in the process of being rediscovered.

Today would have been Michael Cimino’s birthday.  Because he told so many conflicting stories about his past, there is some controversy about the year of Cimino’s birth.  Most people agree that it was probably 1939.  Today, on his birthday, let’s take a moment to honor this unfairly dismissed talent.

4 Shots From 4 Films

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974, directed by Michael Cimino)

The Deer Hunter (1978, directed by Michael Cimino)

Heaven’s Gate (1980, directed by Michael Cimino)

The Year of the Dragon (1985, directed by Michael Cimino)