Michael Cimino on HEAVEN'S GATE (1980)
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2021
- An absolutely fascinating conversation with Michael Cimino moderated by Michael Henry Wilson. The director discusses American Cinema and the system some of the great American directors were part of years ago, the complex choreographic structure of some of the mass scenes in Heaven's Gate, the music in the film, some popular misconceptions about the film, etc. The conversation was filmed in the summer of 2013.
For educational purposes only. Non-commercial purposes.
![Final Cut: The Making & Unmaking of Heaven's Gate [HD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XnG-KZwrCxs/mqdefault.jpg)
![Final Cut: The Making & Unmaking of Heaven's Gate [HD]](/img/tr.png)
It's pretty clear that Cimino has a very pro active personality. He even challenges the interviews perceptions of his film. But he is certainly fascinating and very knowledgeable about many subjects!
He doesn't even understand how to hold a photo print, he's got his fingers all over the emulation! He had to have money to still have solid gold Daytona's and designer clothing and still be that inarticulate!
good god, his face so different !!!
my list of michael cimino films ranked...
1. year of the dragon
2. the deer hunter
3. heaven's gate
4. thunderbolt and lightfoot
5. the sicilian (european cut)
6. desperate hours
7. the sunchaser
8. no translation needed segment from to each his own cinema
MANY thanks for uploading this. I just got out of the cinema seeing this for the first time, the remastered version... what a treat to see it on the big screen!! It's a phenomenal attempt at a masterpiece!!!
This was an educational interview. Michael's filmmaking philosophy was intricate but at the same time, pragmatic.
A true artist. I, for one, believe Hollywood (the film industry) was in a better place when great directors like Hitchcock, Lean, Coppola, Scorsese, Allen, Kubrick, Friedkin, Lumet, Spielberg and a handful of others were better able to control their films from start to finish. When their names were as big as the actors. I know he doesn't like it and I appreciate the point he's making but nonetheless. Cimino was potentially one of those guys. He certainly had the talent and vision but unfortunately, was tagged with the failure of Heavens Gate, his monumental attempt to create an epic masterpiece. Sadly, after the collapse of United Artists, the system made producers the heavyweights (and those producers aren't the old school guys anymore) and truly great works became fewer and farther between until now, when we've reached the point of "film by committee", where the committee isn't qualified to make artistic/directorial/writing decisions but does anyway, often based on "what worked last year" or silly social issues rather than quality and artistic integrity. And by the way - who cares what China or some "social justice" idiots think about a film or what or who should be in it? The vast majority of great films that were ever made were made and made their money without China's blessing and the social justice idiots are far worse and more destructive to film, television, music, sports and anything else they stick their arrogant, ignorant noses in than the evangelicals ever were.
Fascinating man. Both an artistic genius and petulant egomaniac at the same time. I could listen to him talk about filmmaking for hours.
He never talked about filmmaking lol
@@space.midnight.cowboy 10:35
@@space.midnight.cowboy You're filmmaking.
@@space.midnight.cowboy I'm gonna talk about you.
Damn, Cimino looked really emaciated in the last years.
Aids, got to be.
And all that plastic surgery didn't help either
Well, he was an old guy... Late 70s
@@dbstewart4496 very tight lift !!! ouch
He was once very handsome. Better to age natural. Poor Kenny Rogers had bad eye work done it seemed. Yes better to just age
THANKS A LOT FOR SHARING THIS. I wish Cimino would have done more interviews, he could have clarified all the LIES they told about him and the filming of HEAVEN´S GATE.
The fact that Cimino could work after that so little it´s a Hollywood tragedy like don´t letting Orson Welles make movies, or butchering Sam Pecinpah´s work, or DW Grifith .... Cimino was like a cross between John Ford, Pecinpah and David Lean.
I was very very touched by The Deer Hunter and Year of the Dragon. It maked me wanted to learn history. Then of course I found out that 2-3 millions of vietnamese, most civilians, baies were exterminated by the USA who losted 58 thousend men there in 9 years. And lots of them killing each other or having an OD of heroin.
I hate the fact that Cimino could say that The Deer Hunter it´s not about Vietnam, when you see that you hate the fucking Nam the way they are torturing DeNiro and the others with the rusean roulette. It´s a LIE. But it works as a movie.
The Heaven´s Gate it´s along Marlon Brando ONE EYED JACKS one of the most original westerns. Not about the MYTH of the old west, but about inmigration, economics, politics, crimilazation of the poor .... It´s the total opposite of the myth of the USA "A country of inmigrants. A country were if you are hard working you get the american dream". If you see the way they spit and insult to the inmigrants in Heavens Gate, you can see the MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN of Trump.
The movie it´s so relevant or more today.
Michael Cimino, a great one.
The Viet Cong didn't torture American P.O.W.'s? Of course they did --- maybe not w/ games of Russian Roulette, but too many of our soldiers did suffer atrocities after falling into enemy hands during the Vietnam War. If you're trying to claim otherwise, THAT'S the LIE.
I also question your figures --- more than 2 million Vietnamese people (mostly civilians and babies?) were "exterminated" by American troops? Where did you come up with that # --- from the Hanoi Jane Newsletter?
We know there were atrocities committed by American combatants . . . but that's not the film Cimino wanted to make. He wasn't producing a documentary film that would give a detailed historical account of America's involvement in the war, something that would objectively report opinions from both sides. He wanted to make an up-close-and-personal film showing the horrors of war experienced by 3 American servicemen and the emotional and physical scars they would carry with them forever.
Yes. I love Heavans gate. But in mentioning Trump, you have erred.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is a blight
on America. Trump was for LEGAL IMMIGRATION. As we all are. Also,
if you work hard at what you are
gifted at, and you sacrifice, you
don't have a chance at success in
America?
Cimino was not making a documentary. Cimino was making a fictionalized version of the Johnson County War. Heaven's Gate is a work of fiction. The North Vietnamese did not use Russian Roulette against American POWs in THE DEER HUNTER.
Lies they told about him? What about the lies Cimino told about himself? Cimino said he was born on February 3, 1943. He was born in 1939.
A couple of good points concerning Cimino but the vast majority of Vietnamese children/civilians who were exterminated, were exterminated by the NVA and Viet Cong. America got a hard lesson in war on what happens when you try so hard to spare civilians at the expense of strategy and your own soldiers. Also, the North Vietnamese were notorious for their torture techniques and willingness/eagerness to use them on enemy soldiers and civilians alike. Also Trump's America is an America where all who are here/come here legally and abide by the law are welcome and America comes first. From your comment, I can only assume you are one of the social justice idiots I referred to earlier who are destroying the film/television/sports (and many others) industries and making ever more impossible for an artist like Cimino to make great films.
What would his work have been like if he had to spend his own money to perfect his visions?
This is the only interview with Michael Cimino I've ever seen where he discusses Heaven's Gate In any depth & at length. I hope if the Criterion Collection ever does a reissue of HG they will include this as one of the "Extras".
Will say though Heavens Gate was so unfairly maligned some of it was so sumptuous and beautiful to look at
Wish there was more 80s interview with him
He seemed so different ( I know he had scores of surgery ) but in terms of how he was
The screenplay for Heaven's Gate is weak. I have seen it 4 times and disliked it 4 times.
dude is way more insightful than most filmmakers, got to watch more of what he did
QUESTIONS ABOUT HEAVEN'S GATE: 1. Where's the orchestra in the opening scenes? 2. Why do the students get into a fistfight? 3. Why is Billy working for the Association? 4. Why doesn't Ella leave the county? 5. How did Jim Averill know Ella was being assaulted? (he's seen standing on the roof of the cabin. Bird watching? E.S.P.? Detective work?) 6. How did Nate Champion know who the last rapist was? (did he see and recognize the guy fleeing the cabin?) How did he track him down to the army tent? 7. Why are Averill and Champion good friends when Averill 1. Knows that Champion is a murderer of immigrants-a hitman. 2. Champion works for the group Averill despises 8.Why do Averill, Bridges and Watson stop to change clothes at the cabin when they know their lives are in danger by the Association? 9. What's Billy's speech in the opening scenes about? It makes no sense. 10. Why do the prostitutes at the bordello all behave as if they never saw a horse before? (the scene when Jim shows Ella her present). 11. Why does Jim Averill bother to spend so much time reading the names from the death list in the skating barn, when he said earlier that everybody in the whole county is marked??? Why doesn't he just get up and tell everybody that they're doomed? Why does he waste precious time that could be spent getting ready for the assault? 12. Why does Jim tell Ella in the one scene that he's leaving town, saying goodbye to her when 1. Jim had established clearly that he was there to protect the immigrants from the Association. 2. The next scene shows him and JB drinking in Jim's room? 13. Why does the person in the barn take a gunshot at the mayor? 14. Why didn't Canton and henchmen shoot Jim on the battlefield just before Canton declares ceasefire? Why does Canton wait to follow Jim to the cabin and open fire on him and JB and Ella? In fact why was Jim just sitting there casually on the battlefield waiting for Canton and gang to ride up to him, when he knows that they want to kill him?
I can answer Question#5. When Ella and John arrive back at Ella's bordello after the scene af Nate's cabin, Ella tells John to "go and get Mr. Averill and tell him to come here as fast as he can". Most of your questions are actually pretty good...Heaven's Gate is a deeply flawed film that started off with a screenplay with virtually no character development and many narrative anomalies and inconsistencies. Yet, IMO, even with all these admitted faults, Heaven's Gate must still be recognized (and the recognition has been occurring, gradually) as one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time. Very, very few films have ever come close to (and none have surpassed) Heaven's Gate's level of period detail. This achievement alone makes Cimino 's film worthy of entry into the canon of "Great Movies".
Love his face
He looks ridiculous.
I wonder if that house he's in burned in the fires; and God, even that cult named themselves after his picture!
Thank you for Sharing this with us. Question what year was this made?
2013!
@@visualstorytellers2137 Thank you
I think this is an interesting interview as the subject says several things that he then proceeds to contradict. Then he says a few things that seems to me to be true. About himself and about this work. One has to shift through these statements for the truth.
Cimino left one important thing out of the scene at 21:55. The orchestra! We hear the music but there are no instruments in the scene.
That is true but then again it is a movie. In Kubrick's 2001we dont see the orchestra either.
I am early on in this interview but can’t help but feel cimino is being slightly disingenuous when saying directors shouldn’t be known
just a cursory glance at heavens gates quad posters where his name is as big as the title .
But did he have any say on what went on the poster? The thing is that the failure of Heaven's Gate is now a thing of legend and Cimino a byword for hubris, so of course his name would be displayed and those distributing the movie know that the curious will be attracted.
The graduation scenes would have been better with younger kristofferson and Hurt lookalikes.
Was he a burn victim or did he partake in just a bit too much plastic surgery?
Probably went to the same plastic surgeon as his friend and three time collaborator Mickey Rourke!
Has to be the latter.
Most likely plastic surgery. There were vicious rumors that he was a pre-op transgender at the end of his life. Cimino always denied it, but his appearance wasn't helping.
What the hell?
Mr. Wilson is getting eviscerated by Cimino. Poor guy looks nervous, flustered. Wilson's questions about magic hour and studying Western artists ... bluntly shot down by Cimino.
I noticed that too.
Cimino struggles to express himself in this inverview, just as he struggled to realise his 'vision' in Heaven's Gate. Yes, there were some stunning set pieces and sublime moments but set pieces and moments can't carry a film. Heaven's Gate was a B/C grade turkey, stuffed with cheese and seasoned with all the usual Western tropes.
9:18 onward explains the film's failure very well. Heaven's Gate is the quintessential 'beautiful to look at but lacking an interesting story and characters' kind of film....I used to think Cimino was just incompetent and should have been fired by UA, then I used to think the critics and viewing public at the time were too dense to appreciate good art in film. Now I think the film actually failed because whole story of the film isn't that interesting...especially for one that takes that long to tell. They spent millions to make a film about the Johnson County War? So what....? I suppose Cimino thought that story was interesting and he was allowed to waste all that money because he did well with the Deer Hunter ...but that was a very different story and characters that connected with the American public....this one didnt...at all. The Johnson County War was fairly obscure conflict over an old immigration and cattle business issue that people of the 1980's couldn't relate to at all. When I first saw this film I never had any idea what the story was about...at all. All I saw where a bunch of A-list actors killing each other for no apparent reason and then it just ends on a boat.....