But his best was yet to come. His next film would make all of Hollywood sit up and take notice. The Deer Hunter is an intense, touching drama about the effects of the Vietnam War on three young Pennsylvania boys. This movie can be very difficult to watch at times and is brutal in its portrayal. The russian roulette scenes are almost more than one can bear to watch. This film won Cimino the Oscar for both Best Director and Best Picture. Only his second directorial effort but he was hitting them hard.
Then tragedy strikes. Because of the immense success of The Deer Hunter, United Artists gave Cimino free rein. The result was a film that nearly bankrupted the studio; a film that was pulled from theaters three days after its release; a film that was panned by every critic in the country; a film that nearly ruined Cimino's career. This infamous movie, Heaven's Gate, if the truth be known, is not as bad as film history has made it out to be. Yes, the story is very thin and the characters do seem to be drifting from a lack of motiviation but there are moments of in which the brilliance of Cimino's vision can be seen as clearly as in The Deer Hunter. The locations are beautiful and the attention to detail in this period piece set in the late 19th century are superb. Now if Cimino could just have found something for the characters to do. It is based on events that occured in Montana between immigrant settlers and big cattle ranchers. But beyond that Cimino does not seem to be able to do much with this story. Perhaps some editing on the nearly 220 minutes of this film might have helped.
