In a special bonus episode of our podcast, we’re remembering legendary director Michael Cimino, who passed away July 2Â at the age of 77.
The director broke through with his 1978 best picture Oscar winner, The Deer Hunter, which embodied the style and ethos of the New Hollywood movement that produced epics like The Godfather and Chinatown before it. Cimino’s follow up was Heaven’s Gate, an ambitious take on the western starring Kris Kristofferson as a federal marshal investigating a government-sanctioned plot to steal land from European settlers in Wyoming. Heaven’s Gate is widely known to be one of the biggest box-office flops in history, effectively ending the New Hollywood era and causing United Artists to go under. But the film has been reappraised in recent years, and many believe it to be a misunderstood classic. After a sold-out screening of the film’s Director’s Cut at the 50th New York Film Festival back in 2012, an emotional Cimino took the stage saying, “It’s difficult to be rational in this moment . . . it’s taken 33 years to get here.”
The evening was moderated by former Film Society programmer Scott Foundas. Listen to the episode below, or click here to listen and subscribe on iTunes.
