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00:00:22In 1919, Charlie Chaplin, Marie Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith,
00:00:28perhaps four of the most famous people on earth, formed their own studio, United Artists.
00:00:35Hollywood had seen nothing like it before, a movie company to be run by the talent.
00:00:42For the next 60 years, United Artists made such classics as Some Like It Hot, Midnight Cowboy,
00:00:49Last Tango in Paris, One Floor of the Cuckoo's Nest, Annie Hall, Rocky, Raging Bull, and all of the James
00:00:55Bond pictures.
00:00:57But in the winter of 1979, two young executives, desperate for a picture that would propel them to the Academy
00:01:04Awards,
00:01:05decided to make a film that destroyed the company.
00:01:12The American film industry is still trying to cope with a major news story out of Hollywood this week.
00:01:17A $40 million film by an Oscar-winning director may be the biggest bomb in Hollywood history.
00:01:23One of the most ambitious, most expensive, longest Hollywood movies in many years has been yanked by United Artists.
00:01:30He wanted to make the great American movie, but he's come up with dust.
00:01:41Opening very strong on Saturday with $18.5 million.
00:01:44Over the top spot of the weekend box office that he filmed took in $26.6 million.
00:01:48Bringing its two-week total to almost $80 million.
00:01:51Today, the shelf life of most Hollywood movies is one weekend, sometimes even less.
00:01:57Years of work and a small fortune of investment all come down to this.
00:02:01Is some teenage kid going to buy a ticket to your movie on opening weekend?
00:02:09The nature of the film business is that success is a rarity.
00:02:13Failure is the norm.
00:02:15And if you want to be in the movie business, you have to be able to overcome the occasional flop.
00:02:24The occasional flop, that moment when the calculus of success fails, is every filmmaker's worst nightmare.
00:02:32But even the most spectacular flops seem like small ripples.
00:02:37News for a week or two, and then they quickly fade.
00:02:45But 25 years ago, there was one flop.
00:02:48One failure so spectacular that the tidal wave of change at Rod is still being felt today.
00:03:06The lore of Heaven's Gate?
00:03:08The lore of Heaven's Gate is, don't make a movie like that.
00:03:14Because it'll finish you off.
00:03:16The lore of Heaven's Gate is disaster.
00:03:20Failure.
00:03:21The ship going down.
00:03:22Titanic.
00:03:25Never let a director have his way.
00:03:30Betrayal.
00:03:33There's so many things come to my mind with Heaven's Gate.
00:03:36You know, Iraq even comes to mind.
00:03:40I think Heaven's Gate was used by powers that be to stop a way of filmmaking where the author was
00:03:50the director and was in control of the money.
00:03:55I love the movie.
00:03:57I love the movie.
00:03:58I really love the movie.
00:03:59I can watch that movie and I can't really see any fault in the movie.
00:04:07The making of Heaven's Gate.
00:04:09The making of Heaven's Gate, Michael Cimino's grand epic of the American West, is the story of ego run rampant,
00:04:15of epic mismanagement, of staggering extravagance.
00:04:18But it is also the story of one man's pursuit of perfection, and the creation of what many consider to
00:04:26be an extraordinary film.
00:04:27For 25 years, the sins of Heaven's Gate have obscured its virtues.
00:04:33It's thought of only as the biggest flop in Hollywood history.
00:04:38The truth, however, is at once more spectacular, and more tragic.
00:04:54As the 1970s drew to a close, Francis Ford Coppola was finishing Apocalypse Now.
00:05:00Woody Allen was shooting Manhattan, and Martin Scorsese was in pre-production on Raging Bull.
00:05:06All three films, each a masterpiece, were being made for a single studio, United Artists.
00:05:14United Artists was a special studio because they trusted filmmakers, they didn't sit and watch dailies, we didn't sit and
00:05:20look over their shoulder.
00:05:22It was a sense of mutual respect between the artists involved and the studio.
00:05:27And if we went with the picture and said, okay, you've got a picture now, go for it, that was
00:05:32it.
00:05:32They went off and they made the movie.
00:05:36UA had long been thought of as the premier studio in town.
00:05:40But in 1978, after an astonishing run, it suddenly found itself a laughing stock.
00:05:46Arthur Crimm and Bob Benjamin, the executives who had built UA's reputation as a filmmaker's studio,
00:05:52found themselves in a very public and very bitter fight with UA's parent company, Transamerica.
00:05:59Embittered by what they saw as threats to UA's autonomy, they quit to form their own studio, Orion, taking with
00:06:06them their most trusted executives.
00:06:09UA, at that time, was in shambles because a man named Arthur Crimm and all of his top executives had
00:06:18left in a dispute with the chairman of Transamerica.
00:06:21And Transamerica found itself owning a company, some middle-level executives, a great tradition, and a lot of ill will
00:06:30in Hollywood.
00:06:31There was a feeling that we had these gigantic shoes to fill.
00:06:39And the only way that we could fill them and create reputations for ourselves and the company was to fill
00:06:47them with people who were not part of the previous regime.
00:06:52It was wonderful to have the Woody pictures and the James Bond pictures and the Rocky pictures, but those pictures
00:06:58were all inherited.
00:07:00We needed to make our own marks. Michael Cimino was a way of making our own mark. We believed.
00:07:24Michael Cimino came in with his second film and just made this towering picture of the deer hunter.
00:07:33Very much in the way that Coppola and Bogdanovich and Scorsese and the rest had scored real big, real young,
00:07:39with very impressive pictures, but in a way even more so.
00:07:47We saw an advance print of deer hunter. I don't know how many weeks before it was to be released.
00:07:54And we were blown away.
00:08:05Stevie! Stevie! Stevie, come down!
00:08:15It was an overwhelming experience.
00:08:18We walked out of that screening room saying, we want to be making pictures with this man.
00:08:24This is a potentially great filmmaker.
00:08:28And we want to make, we want to make pictures with him.
00:08:31So let's see what he would like to make.
00:08:37What Michael Cimino wanted to make was the Johnson County War.
00:08:41A film about the West as it was.
00:08:44Not cowboys and Indians, but homesteaders fighting to lay claim to a better life.
00:08:51At the turn of the last century, great waves of European immigrants, Germans, Slavs, encroached on the grazing land of
00:08:59ranchers.
00:09:01In Johnson County, Wyoming, this conflict turned violent when the ranchers hired mercenaries to kill those immigrants it's suspected of
00:09:08stealing cattle.
00:09:12Sheikovac!
00:09:14Kastor!
00:09:16Sheikovac!
00:09:18Mitchell Kovac!
00:09:20Kastor!
00:09:24Kastor!
00:09:25Kastor!
00:09:26Kutugrevi! Kastor!
00:09:29Kastor!
00:09:29Kastor!
00:09:34What distinguished Cimino's script was it's claim that these murders were sanctioned by the Governor of Wyoming, the U.S.
00:09:41Congress, and the President of the United States.
00:09:44Cimino told UA he thought he could make it for the cost of an average movie,
00:09:49seven and a half million dollars.
00:09:53Over the next two years, that number would mushroom by 500%,
00:09:58all with the approval of the executives at United Artists.
00:10:02There would be appeals, threats, even prayers for cost-cutting, all to no avail.
00:10:07For Michael Cimino knew that the executives at UA were weak.
00:10:12That was evident from the beginning.
00:10:14When we went into the picture, there were two givens.
00:10:17The two givens were Christopher Walken and Chris Christopherson.
00:10:22And we said, okay, who's going to play the girl?
00:10:26A list was drawn up.
00:10:29All of the major female stars of the moment were on that list.
00:10:34Everybody kept saying no.
00:10:37Suddenly, we heard this name, Isabelle Huppert.
00:10:40When Michael said he wanted Isabelle Huppert,
00:10:43the question that was asked him, I'm sure by Stephen and I know by me, was,
00:10:47how's her English?
00:10:49He said, oh, she speaks it like we do.
00:10:52Excuse me.
00:10:54I thought it made absolutely no sense to have a French actress playing the madam of a bordello in Wyoming
00:11:02in the 19th century.
00:11:04But Michael wanted this actress, we were told.
00:11:07This was the only actress suddenly.
00:11:09Jane Fonda had said no.
00:11:10Diane Keaton had said no.
00:11:12Everybody else had said, so it was going to have to be Isabelle Huppert.
00:11:16Bach and Field offered Cimino a compromise.
00:11:19They'd fly to Paris, listen to Huppert read.
00:11:22If they could understand her English, fine.
00:11:25If not, Cimino would have to cast someone else for his female lead.
00:11:29He agreed to the deal.
00:11:32Isabelle Huppert read for the role.
00:11:35I thought she was dead wrong.
00:11:38And we said to Michael, Michael, it's not going to work.
00:11:40She can't speak English that, that we can understand and that an audience is going to be able to understand.
00:11:46Yes, maybe she can work on it and so on.
00:11:49But the answer is no.
00:11:50My phone rang a couple of days later, was Cimino on the phone?
00:11:52And he said, I've been thinking about that and it's still Isabelle Huppert.
00:11:58And I said, you know, this is a problem now because this is no longer about Isabelle Huppert.
00:12:02This is now about your word.
00:12:05You and I had an arrangement, which now doesn't mean anything.
00:12:10He said, what's your point?
00:12:11I said, my point is this, I'll give you 48 hours to tell me you didn't mean this phone call
00:12:15or I'm going to do my level best to make sure that we never make this movie.
00:12:22He told me to go f*** myself and hung up.
00:12:26At United Artists, the man who held ultimate authority over which films got made was Andy Olbeck.
00:12:31Little more than a glorified accountant.
00:12:34Olbeck was the man Transamerica had placed atop UA after Arthur Krim quit.
00:12:39Unlike Krim, Olbeck made sense of the movie business through spreadsheets.
00:12:44He placed his faith in numbers.
00:12:46This made him the perfect studio head for Transamerica and the worst one possible for United Artists.
00:12:53Andy says, so David, what is your, what is your problem with the movie?
00:12:57I said, my problem with the movie is I no longer know what his word means, Andy, and I don't
00:13:01know what the movie could cost.
00:13:02I don't know anything anymore because of what just happened.
00:13:05I said, David, what's your worst number?
00:13:07I said, Andy, you know, we're waiting for a budget.
00:13:09It could be 11-5, but after today, I don't know what.
00:13:12I could pick a number.
00:13:1620.
00:13:19Oh, okay.
00:13:20Norbert, David says 20.
00:13:22What do you think?
00:13:24Norbert says, I can cover 20 out of foreign.
00:13:26And he says that Isabel Huppert is not a problem for him.
00:13:29Everybody likes that in foreign.
00:13:31So Andy says, so David, I mean, look who we have here.
00:13:35I mean, Norbert says he can cover the entire worst-case number you have out of foreign, and he likes
00:13:39Isabel Huppert.
00:13:40So we don't have a problem, right?
00:13:53So I called Michael, and I told him that.
00:13:57And he was not surprised.
00:14:07I was afraid to look silly, isn't it?
00:14:11Nah, I'll bring it up to you.
00:14:13I personally believe she's wonderful in the picture.
00:14:17But the important factor, David is absolutely right, the important factor was the psychological power play that was being conducted
00:14:25there, and Michael won it.
00:14:39A few months after Cimino won the power struggle to cast Isabel Huppert, his coronation as the newest king of
00:14:46Hollywood was affirmed.
00:14:47The deer hunter took home five Academy Awards, including one for Best Director and another for Best Picture.
00:14:55Exactly one week later, Michael Cimino began filming Heaven's Gate.
00:15:01What does obsessed with detail mean?
00:15:06One is recreating a period, and one hopes that one doesn't make a mistake, so that someone in the audience
00:15:17says,
00:15:17Aha, that didn't exist then, and it jeopardizes mistakes like that can jeopardize the audience's belief in the picture.
00:15:30And then the story is thrown in jeopardy, and the whole movie is thrown into jeopardy.
00:15:34So if that is obsessive, then I'm guilty of that.
00:15:42On April 16th, 1979, one week to the day after he won the Academy Award for Best Director,
00:15:49Michael Cimino began principal photography on Heaven's Gate.
00:15:58Cimino's ambition for his new film was not small.
00:16:01Heaven's Gate was going to be the gone with the wind, the Dr. Zhivago, the Lawrence of Arabia of the
00:16:07American West.
00:16:08It would be a towering achievement, the best Western ever made.
00:16:13For Michael Cimino believed that this was his moment, that Heaven's Gate would seal his place in cinematic history.
00:16:21He was half right.
00:16:25The scale of production on Heaven's Gate was immense.
00:16:29Whole towns were taken over for weeks at a time, and converted into fully functioning period sets.
00:16:35Over 1,200 extras from Montana and Idaho, including many who had genuine Slovakian and Ukrainian accents, were hired.
00:16:43But it was not scale that Cimino was after.
00:16:46It was authenticity.
00:16:47He intended for his audience to genuinely be transported back to the west of the 1890s.
00:16:54His picture was going to be real, or as real as he could make it.
00:16:59He created something that we fondly called Camp Cimino.
00:17:03Have you heard about this?
00:17:057 o'clock, you go and you take riding lessons.
00:17:08And then at 9 o'clock, you have cockfighting lessons.
00:17:12Then you have your Yugoslavian, your Slavic dialect lesson.
00:17:16I mean, we had a bus that picked us up in the morning, and the first thing we did is
00:17:20we would go shooting off rounds of blanks.
00:17:23We had gun, blank gun lessons.
00:17:27Then, after that, we went riding.
00:17:29We had riding lessons.
00:17:31And then after that, we went and had roller skating lessons.
00:17:35I had to dance.
00:17:37I must have waltzed across Texas.
00:17:39By the end of the thing, I had to take dance lessons every day.
00:17:43Waltzing lessons.
00:17:44And roller skating.
00:17:47God, I almost killed myself on that roller skating scene.
00:18:03I had the period roller skates for him, strapped them on.
00:18:07They had instructors, and they'd skate for a couple of hours a day for maybe a week or two weeks
00:18:15until they were ready and they could do it.
00:18:20It was taxing, but I think that was a good example where, like, everybody sort of, like, just gave what
00:18:25they could because it just seemed exciting and wonderful looking.
00:18:28And it sort of, even when you were about to drop from heat exhaustion, you just would love to see
00:18:33how this thing is finally going to turn out.
00:18:38And this is really true.
00:18:39They really have this kind of thing where the cowboys would just come in and scrape the couch off their
00:18:44boots and lash these wheels on their feet.
00:18:48And get drunk.
00:18:48Can you imagine what that must have been like?
00:18:53We all learned for that.
00:18:55We could skate backwards.
00:18:56We could waltz on skates.
00:18:57You know, we were, we had a great time on it.
00:19:04And we did that for, like, at least six weeks before I ever shot a single thing.
00:19:10It was really, literally, we called it Camp Chimino.
00:19:14While the size and scope of Chimino's epic was impressive, it was not extraordinary.
00:19:20Hundreds, if not thousands of films, from Ben-Hur to Close Encounters, had been made on such a massive scale.
00:19:27What separated Heaven's Gate from almost every film that came before or after it was the extreme, almost fanatic attention
00:19:35to detail its director paid to every single shot.
00:19:40It was very unusual the way he worked.
00:19:43He would actually paint by selecting extras and put them into the right place in a set.
00:19:50Like, pretty much like a painter would paint them.
00:19:53He painted by picking up people and put them into the right place.
00:19:57He would line up all the extras and go down the line, picking the right people for that particular scene.
00:20:05And it took time, you know, a couple of hours to get select, maybe 50 people.
00:20:14No, you don't stand there.
00:20:16You stand over there next to her, and you come over here.
00:20:34There's an armed mob of paid men about to invade your county.
00:20:44Then, once we started to shoot, you know, sometimes we would go for three takes, sometimes we would go for
00:20:51ten takes.
00:20:53And many, many times we had to go for 40 takes.
00:21:01I'm not used to seeing 57 takes.
00:21:05I'm really not.
00:21:07I'm not used to doing a minimum of 32 takes.
00:21:10Zay, advance the idea that poor people have nothing to say in the affairs of this country.
00:21:16He wanted it tried a bunch of different ways.
00:21:19It was like workshopping on film.
00:21:22You know, we did the happy version.
00:21:24We did the crying version.
00:21:26We did the furious version.
00:21:28I mean, each scene was taken to these degrees beyond which you weren't going for the ultimate take.
00:21:37You were going for a lot of choices.
00:21:40I'm sure the reason for the multiple takes of different scenes was because of his attention to detail
00:21:47and his concern that he'd get it right, that it was going to last,
00:21:55that this was something for the ages.
00:22:00I can honestly say we all thought we were making the next Gone with the Wind
00:22:05because that's what Michael imbued in you,
00:22:07that you were making this wonderful, fabulous, important movie
00:22:13and everybody gave their all.
00:22:15We really believed in him.
00:22:17I mean, he was a wonderful, charismatic person.
00:22:20And if you were on the inside circle with Michael, there was nothing like it.
00:22:24You know, you just felt you were riding on air and you could do anything.
00:22:31The confidence Cimino imbued in others came not just from the force of his personality
00:22:36but also the scale of his success.
00:22:39The deer hunter had been a towering achievement.
00:22:42It brought with it respect and newfound power.
00:22:46On Heaven's Gate, the producer was Cimino's long-time friend and associate,
00:22:50Joanne Corelli.
00:22:52Corelli had never produced before.
00:22:54She had held a lesser title on the deer hunter
00:22:57and owed her promotion to Cimino.
00:22:59In theory, she had final word on matters of budget.
00:23:02But no one at UA or on the set had any doubt that Heaven's Gate was Michael's show.
00:23:09He was the one in charge.
00:23:11And there is no strong producer to be there and say,
00:23:15Michael, it's already 10 o'clock.
00:23:17Move on.
00:23:18There was nobody there to do that for him.
00:23:20So he was his own boss, basically.
00:23:24You know, Joanne Corelli was a producer, but they were friends.
00:23:27So, you know, she could not say much about it.
00:23:31She just had to let him go.
00:23:34One day, we were shooting a scene with Christofferson drunk in his hotel room
00:23:39and the mayor and the group of town's gentlemen come in.
00:23:43I had to wake up from a sound drunken sleep
00:23:46and crack this bullwhip across the camera.
00:23:52I did it every time.
00:23:55So I knew, at least it wasn't driving me crazy,
00:23:57that I was messing up every time, as some other ones did.
00:24:01But I did watch Chris kind of come back out and crack the whip again.
00:24:08And I noticed he hit his face.
00:24:10You know, if you crack a whip wrong, it'll come right across your face.
00:24:14He got himself once.
00:24:15And, yeah, it's a pretty, I think he got, maybe he got somebody else once.
00:24:23I mean, it really, wow.
00:24:25That's all we shot that day was 52 takes of the master.
00:24:32That was it.
00:24:34And it went on and on and on and on.
00:25:01From somebody on the outside, it would look like it was almost too, too much.
00:25:05But it never appeared that way to me.
00:25:11It was like, oh, this guy really cares.
00:25:13I bet Michelangelo cared.
00:25:16I bet Picasso cared.
00:25:19You know, anybody who believes in his artistic vision, I bet they care.
00:25:28I probably didn't care that much.
00:25:31But I was glad to be working with somebody who did.
00:25:36In the coming months, there would be an avalanche of bad press about Heaven's Gate,
00:25:40consuming any consideration for the artistic value of Cimino's film.
00:25:45A picture would be painted of chaos and incompetence.
00:25:49But that simply was not true.
00:25:51On Michael Cimino's set, there was the opposite,
00:25:54a calm, determined, relentless pursuit of perfection.
00:25:57Unfortunately, that costs a lot of money.
00:26:02It didn't take long for Stephen Bach and David Field to realize
00:26:05that something was disastrously wrong with Heaven's Gate,
00:26:08at least from the perspective of the studio paying the bills.
00:26:11In fact, they knew something had to be done one week into production.
00:26:16For at the end of the first six days of shooting,
00:26:19Michael Cimino had fallen five days behind schedule
00:26:22and spent $900,000 for a minute and a half of usable film.
00:26:27Two weeks in, he was ten days behind schedule and 15 pages behind.
00:26:33By then, Michael Cimino had exposed two hours of film,
00:26:37less than three minutes of which he was willing to approve,
00:26:40all at a rough cost of a million dollars per usable minute.
00:26:44The alarm bells went off at UA.
00:26:50All right, let's just take that last little bit again.
00:26:53Atmosphere here on the sidewalk, you know what your instructions are.
00:26:56Quiet, please.
00:26:57Quiet.
00:26:58Ready?
00:26:58Here we go.
00:26:59Stand by and roll, please.
00:27:00Be careful, Mark.
00:27:01And action.
00:27:03Hollywood in the 1970s was infatuated with the director.
00:27:07For nearly a decade, it lavished its attention and money
00:27:10on director-driven films.
00:27:13Cut, Prince.
00:27:14But by 1979, auteurs were no longer such a wise investment.
00:27:19Peter Bogdanovich had permanently damaged his career with At Long Last Love.
00:27:23William Friedkin had failed spectacularly
00:27:26when he remade the French classic Wages of Fear.
00:27:29Even Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg had suffered their own setbacks.
00:27:33New York, New York in 1941.
00:27:37And then there was Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate.
00:27:43In time, Hollywood would pass judgment on this debacle.
00:27:48UA should have fired Cimino.
00:27:49They should have shut down production.
00:27:51But to the executives at UA who were not operating with the benefit of 2020 hindsight,
00:27:57the solution to their Cimino problem wasn't so clear.
00:28:01What we wanted was a picture.
00:28:03We never didn't want the picture, you see.
00:28:08If we had been able to sit back and say,
00:28:10oh, who the hell cares?
00:28:12We don't want the picture anyway.
00:28:14Let's just cut it off now, settle the lawsuits,
00:28:17and the money that we would have spent on Heaven's Gate,
00:28:20we'll spend on these ten other pictures,
00:28:22which are nice pictures that we can't now afford to make
00:28:25because we're putting all the money in Montana.
00:28:28It was never that.
00:28:29We always wanted the picture, rightly or wrongly.
00:28:34The executives at United Artists had entered Heaven's Gate
00:28:37believing it would propel them to the Academy Awards,
00:28:40validate them in the wake of Arthur Crim's departure.
00:28:44But just weeks into production,
00:28:46it was alarmingly clear that more than status was at stake.
00:28:50Heaven's Gate was shaping up to be the longest,
00:28:53most expensive film in Hollywood history,
00:28:55the kind of picture that ends careers.
00:29:00UA knew they had to contain the damage,
00:29:02rein in Cimino.
00:29:04But as they started to search for answers,
00:29:06it was also clear they had no experience to draw on.
00:29:11I had not been that close to a shooting movie in my life.
00:29:15This is my...
00:29:19I mean, well...
00:29:22A year before,
00:29:23I'd been on the third, fourth floor of 20th Century Fox
00:29:26as a glorified story editor for Alan Ladd Jr.
00:29:28I mean...
00:29:30I didn't know what I was doing.
00:29:32None of us had been through an experience like this before.
00:29:37But other people in the movie business had.
00:29:39So we looked at what are the basic options in film history.
00:29:45So there was a Cleopatra option.
00:29:49Cleopatra was the most notorious Hollywood debacle before Heaven's Gate.
00:29:54Made in 1963,
00:29:56its production costs became so overwhelming
00:29:58that 20th Century Fox was forced to shut its doors for four months,
00:30:02take everyone off payroll,
00:30:04and hope for the best.
00:30:06It was only the public's fascination
00:30:08with the off-screen romance
00:30:10of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
00:30:12that saved the film
00:30:13and the studio from total disaster.
00:30:17The Cleopatra option is
00:30:19let it go where it goes and pray.
00:30:21That was something we could not allow to happen.
00:30:25We could not allow Heaven's Gate
00:30:27to close the doors of UA
00:30:28and send everybody home
00:30:30and pray that the picture would work at the box office.
00:30:33So that wasn't going to work.
00:30:37Well, the next option that I remember we discussed
00:30:40was the Queen Kelly option.
00:30:44Queen Kelly was a 1928 Gloria Swanson film
00:30:48directed by Eric von Stroheim.
00:30:50Von Stroheim's vision was epic,
00:30:52but the film's overt sexuality
00:30:55and von Stroheim's unbridled spending
00:30:57forced Joseph P. Kennedy,
00:30:59the film's backer and Swanson's lover,
00:31:01to shut down production.
00:31:03That was one of our options.
00:31:05We just eat what we've already spent
00:31:08and send everybody home and forget about it.
00:31:12That would have been a very damaging thing for us to do.
00:31:16We would have been Philistines
00:31:18by firing this man
00:31:20who has just won five Academy Awards.
00:31:24So this was not a good option.
00:31:31But there was another one.
00:31:33And the other one was Apocalypse Now.
00:31:37Apocalypse Now suffered from heart attacks,
00:31:40suffered from typhoons.
00:31:41It had gone triple budget or whatever it went,
00:31:45and yet a terrific, wonderful, admirable movie emerged.
00:31:52And we thought,
00:31:53if we can somehow or other
00:31:57pull in the reins,
00:31:58be persuasive, cajole, spank,
00:32:02whatever we have to do,
00:32:04somehow we're going to pull Apocalypse Now
00:32:08out of Heaven's Gate.
00:32:13Having settled on the Apocalypse Now option,
00:32:16Bach Enfield started to look for ways to contain costs
00:32:19to streamline production in Montana.
00:32:22The only problem was that Heaven's Gate
00:32:24was not suffering from heart attacks or typhoons.
00:32:27No acts of God were disrupting anything.
00:32:30The only disaster, natural or otherwise,
00:32:33was the director.
00:32:36They don't know Chimino.
00:32:39They only knew him when they look at,
00:32:41well, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot's first project,
00:32:44first film,
00:32:45was on schedule, on budget.
00:32:49Deer Hunter went over,
00:32:51but there were legitimate reasons.
00:32:53And it wins the Academy Award,
00:32:55and it's beautiful.
00:32:56But they don't know what transpired in his career
00:33:00prior to Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.
00:33:04Take me alone
00:33:06If you love me
00:33:07Take me along
00:33:09If you love me
00:33:10Take me along
00:33:12I love you little cutie,
00:33:14but the office is my duty.
00:33:15Michael Chimino began his directing career in advertising,
00:33:20working on commercials for Kodak, Pepsi, and United Airlines.
00:33:24With you
00:33:25The clients of the agencies liked Chimino.
00:33:29His visuals were fabulous,
00:33:31but the amount of time it took was just astronomical.
00:33:37Because he was so meticulous and took so long.
00:33:41If you will take me along
00:33:43Nothing was easy with Michael.
00:33:51In a world where spending two hours lighting a prop
00:33:54is not only common but celebrated,
00:33:56Michael Chimino excelled.
00:33:58But making minute movies for Madison Avenue
00:34:00couldn't fulfill his ambitions.
00:34:03Chimino needed to paint on a much larger canvas.
00:34:12In the early 70s,
00:34:14Chimino left New York for Hollywood
00:34:16where he quickly co-wrote two movies,
00:34:18Silent Running
00:34:19and the Clint Eastwood vehicle, Magnum Force.
00:34:22Both were solid hits.
00:34:24And on his third film,
00:34:26Chimino got his first chance to direct.
00:34:30Have a cigar!
00:34:35Where the hell did these come from?
00:34:37I've been saving for a celebration.
00:34:39Clint gave him a big break to direct this film.
00:34:43And Clint, as an actor and as a producer,
00:34:46doesn't like to do a lot of takes.
00:34:48You know, he'll do maybe three.
00:34:49And I would always go to Mike, I remember,
00:34:51and say, I think I can do, can I do one more?
00:34:53I think I've got an idea.
00:34:54And he said, well, I'll have to ask Clint, you know.
00:34:56Clint would always say, give the kid a shot.
00:35:00I don't think of us as criminals, you know.
00:35:05I feel we accomplished something.
00:35:07A good job.
00:35:08Clint was the only guy that ever said no.
00:35:11You all right, kid?
00:35:12You don't look too well.
00:35:15Michael said, okay, let's go for another take.
00:35:17It was take four.
00:35:18Clint would say, no, we got enough.
00:35:19We got it.
00:35:21And we move on.
00:35:22And that's the way it went.
00:35:24And if he took too long in getting it ready,
00:35:28he said, looks good.
00:35:29Let's go.
00:35:33For a month, United Artists sat in Los Angeles
00:35:36searching for ways to speed up production on Heaven's Gate.
00:35:39But it amounted to little more than wringing their hands.
00:35:43Michael Cimino, with Joanne Corelli as his producer,
00:35:46continued to fall behind schedule one day for each day's shot.
00:35:51U.A. quickly calculated the cost to complete
00:35:54if Cimino was left unchecked.
00:35:56Their numbers were shocking.
00:35:59At Cimino's current pace,
00:36:01Heaven's Gate would finish principal photography
00:36:03200 days late
00:36:05on a picture that was only supposed to take 69 days to film.
00:36:10Then there was the matter of cost,
00:36:12including post-production, prints, advertising, and interest.
00:36:16U.A. calculated that Heaven's Gate,
00:36:18whose approved budget had been $12.5 million,
00:36:22would cost the studio $50 million,
00:36:25making it the most expensive motion picture ever.
00:36:29Buck and Field flew to Montana to confront their director.
00:36:35Michael always said,
00:36:36you always tell the studio what they want to hear,
00:36:39and then you just do what you're going to do.
00:36:41And Michael gave us very specific scenes
00:36:44that we were to show them,
00:36:45nice, long vistas, you know.
00:36:47I mean, if you look at any individual scene
00:36:49in a long shot, it's amazing.
00:36:55I mean, the detail that went into everything.
00:36:57And it's all there on film.
00:37:00The footage was ravishing.
00:37:03There was nothing that anybody on Earth
00:37:05could say to criticize the footage.
00:37:08So we knew that it wasn't a case of a production
00:37:10that was falling apart.
00:37:11We never thought that it was a case
00:37:13of Michael was sitting in his trailer
00:37:15eating chocolates and watching television
00:37:16when he should have been out on the set.
00:37:18That was never the issue.
00:37:20The issue was, we didn't agree
00:37:22that you could take this much time
00:37:25to achieve perfection.
00:37:28And if you continue to take this much time
00:37:30to achieve perfection,
00:37:32you're going to break our bank,
00:37:34and there's not going to be any company
00:37:36to release the picture.
00:37:39The folly of letting Chimino mind his own store
00:37:41became increasingly clear to UA.
00:37:44What they needed was someone in Montana
00:37:46to look after their interests,
00:37:48to voice their concerns.
00:37:50And so, in a break with UA tradition,
00:37:53Derek Cavanaugh, a mid-level executive
00:37:55with extensive production experience
00:37:57was installed on the Heaven's Gate set.
00:38:00UA took pains to tell Chimino
00:38:01that this was not a hostile move.
00:38:04Cavanaugh was simply there
00:38:05to help Joanne Corelli speed up production
00:38:07and keep down costs.
00:38:08But Michael Chimino saw it differently.
00:38:12I was the enemy, yes,
00:38:13I was the representative
00:38:14of those people
00:38:16on the other side of the fence,
00:38:21whom Michael should have considered
00:38:23to be supportive
00:38:25and not in any way
00:38:30an opponent.
00:38:33That night, Michael Chimino dictated a memo.
00:38:37He addressed it to David Field,
00:38:39but also posted it for all to see.
00:38:42It read,
00:38:43Derek Cavanaugh is not to come
00:38:45to the location site.
00:38:47He is not to enter the editing room.
00:38:49He is not to speak to me at all.
00:38:53It was time for option four,
00:38:55fire the director.
00:38:58Yes, I am insistent
00:39:00on certain things,
00:39:02on certain locations,
00:39:03on ways of doing things,
00:39:06all in the interest of trying
00:39:07to do it in the best possible way.
00:39:10And in that respect,
00:39:11every movie director is a dictator.
00:39:14Every movie director
00:39:15is a bit of a tyrant.
00:39:16It goes with the job.
00:39:21Well, you know,
00:39:22it's unfair to judge artists at work.
00:39:27But I certainly thought
00:39:30maybe in those days
00:39:30that everything could have been
00:39:32going a little bit faster
00:39:33and still get the same result.
00:39:35But, you know,
00:39:36you cannot criticize somebody
00:39:38who wants to do
00:39:38the best film in his life
00:39:40and wants to make it right.
00:39:42Vilmos told me at one point,
00:39:45I think Michael has fallen in love
00:39:47with this film.
00:39:49And if there was any excess,
00:39:51it might have been that.
00:39:53There was one day,
00:39:54it was the early morning,
00:39:55and we had started work
00:39:57at four in the morning
00:39:59with a dawn shot.
00:40:01And we shot in the morning,
00:40:02and the sun was there.
00:40:04And then the clouds came in,
00:40:06and we lost the light total.
00:40:08It was totally overcast.
00:40:10And Michael, we waited.
00:40:13And we waited,
00:40:14and we waited,
00:40:15and we waited,
00:40:16and we sat,
00:40:17and we sat,
00:40:17and we sat.
00:40:26No one went by,
00:40:28and we didn't stop for lunch.
00:40:31And so went three o'clock,
00:40:33four o'clock,
00:40:34five o'clock.
00:40:37Michael was waiting
00:40:38for this weather to clear,
00:40:40and it was like three o'clock
00:40:41in the afternoon,
00:40:42and we hadn't had lunch yet.
00:40:43So all these,
00:40:44the crew guys,
00:40:45everybody's on meal penalty,
00:40:46and it kept adding up,
00:40:47and adding up,
00:40:48and adding up.
00:40:48It was amazing.
00:40:51Then finally,
00:40:52second aid here,
00:40:54took the courage,
00:40:55and walked up,
00:40:55and said,
00:40:56Michael,
00:40:56what about lunch?
00:40:59And then Michael,
00:41:00to me,
00:41:00you know,
00:41:00he was just like,
00:41:01he was in a daze
00:41:02of creating,
00:41:04you know,
00:41:05he said,
00:41:05lunch?
00:41:06This is bigger than lunch.
00:41:11It was bigger than lunch.
00:41:19Most directors are there
00:41:21to put their ideas onto film.
00:41:24They're not interested in
00:41:25how much does this cost,
00:41:27or, you know,
00:41:27what we know.
00:41:28You have to break now for lunch.
00:41:29Why?
00:41:30I don't have to break now for lunch.
00:41:32I can see the sun coming over the hill.
00:41:34You know,
00:41:34there's that beautiful cloud.
00:41:35That's,
00:41:36that will be there for all eternity
00:41:37if I get it on film.
00:41:39Nobody cares about the lunch hour
00:41:4020 years from now,
00:41:42but they'll be able to see that,
00:41:43that visual that I've created
00:41:46forever.
00:41:48And that's what it's about.
00:41:51Unless you're paying the bills,
00:41:52but Michael wasn't paying the bills.
00:41:56We did believe that he had decided,
00:41:58I don't care what it costs.
00:42:00I don't care what happens
00:42:01to UA or at UA.
00:42:04I'm making my movie,
00:42:06and it's going to be
00:42:07the greatest movie
00:42:08I know how to make.
00:42:10And once we decided that was it,
00:42:14we then realized
00:42:15we were truly in trouble.
00:42:18because then you're saying,
00:42:20Michelangelo,
00:42:20put down your paintbrush.
00:42:22And he's saying,
00:42:23make me.
00:42:26By mid-July 1979,
00:42:29Michael Cimino had burned through
00:42:30hundreds of thousands
00:42:31of feet of film
00:42:32and was almost 200%
00:42:34over his original budget estimate.
00:42:37The futility of trying to push,
00:42:39cajole,
00:42:40or beg Cimino
00:42:41into moving faster
00:42:42was now obvious,
00:42:44even to the most inexperienced
00:42:46UA executive.
00:42:48More drastic options
00:42:49were in order.
00:42:50I said to him,
00:42:51I know what you think of me
00:42:53and how ill-equipped
00:42:56and diminished
00:42:57I am as an executive.
00:42:58So,
00:42:59how about this?
00:43:01You have told me
00:43:02about how wonderful
00:43:03Barry Spikings is
00:43:04in EMI
00:43:05and how good they were
00:43:05on Dear Hunter.
00:43:07How about,
00:43:08if Andy Ollbeck
00:43:08in Transamerica let me,
00:43:10I'm going to call
00:43:11Barry Spikings
00:43:11and I'm going to offer him
00:43:12half this movie
00:43:13for whatever it costs
00:43:14to complete.
00:43:16and,
00:43:17if Andy lets me do it,
00:43:19domestic distribution
00:43:21so that when you get
00:43:22all the awards
00:43:22for this movie,
00:43:23you don't have to see
00:43:24any of us,
00:43:25you can stand back up there
00:43:26with him,
00:43:27your pal.
00:43:28What do you say?
00:43:29If he says yes,
00:43:30I'm out,
00:43:31you shoot the damn thing
00:43:32however you and he decide.
00:43:33If he says no,
00:43:36you shut the f*** up
00:43:37and finish this movie
00:43:38the way I just told you.
00:43:41Miss Vikings came,
00:43:43saw footage,
00:43:43saw the books,
00:43:47didn't want it.
00:43:50And then,
00:43:51the question was,
00:43:54fire him.
00:43:56Bring in somebody else
00:43:57to finish this movie
00:43:58in which we have
00:43:59by this time
00:44:00spent 15 or 20 million dollars
00:44:03and don't have a movie
00:44:04to show for it.
00:44:05How?
00:44:07There was nothing
00:44:08without Michael.
00:44:08Michael wrote it.
00:44:09He conceived
00:44:10the whole project.
00:44:12every single minutiae
00:44:15on that film
00:44:16was Michael.
00:44:18Everybody would have walked,
00:44:20I'm sure.
00:44:21I mean,
00:44:22they'd have been
00:44:22a laughing stock.
00:44:25I mean,
00:44:25they were
00:44:26ultimately
00:44:26anyway,
00:44:28but
00:44:29they had a chance
00:44:30this way.
00:44:32There was no chance
00:44:33the other way.
00:44:37having exhausted
00:44:38all other options,
00:44:39UA finally decided
00:44:40it had no choice
00:44:41but to fire
00:44:42Cimino's producer
00:44:43and take over
00:44:44the day-to-day operations
00:44:46on Heaven's Gate.
00:44:48We said
00:44:48Joanne
00:44:49is no longer
00:44:50producing the picture.
00:44:52United Artists
00:44:53is now producing
00:44:54the picture
00:44:55and you,
00:44:56Michael Cimino,
00:44:57are our employee.
00:45:00And as our employee,
00:45:02we can tell you
00:45:03these are the rules.
00:45:05You violate those rules
00:45:08and you are in breach
00:45:09of contract.
00:45:10And when you are
00:45:11in breach of contract,
00:45:12you lose
00:45:13all of the things
00:45:15that you want.
00:45:16The most important issue
00:45:18was if you violate
00:45:20enough of these provisions
00:45:22of the contract
00:45:22now that you are
00:45:23an employee
00:45:24of United Artists,
00:45:26not a partner
00:45:27but an employee,
00:45:28you will lose
00:45:29final cut.
00:45:31And this was the issue
00:45:32that was paramount
00:45:34beyond any other issue
00:45:36for Michael.
00:45:40It had taken
00:45:41nearly three months
00:45:42and $18 million
00:45:43before UA
00:45:44canceled the blank check
00:45:45they had given Cimino.
00:45:47In its place,
00:45:48the studio imposed
00:45:49a new production schedule
00:45:51and told Cimino
00:45:52that they would not
00:45:52spend one penny
00:45:53more than $25 million.
00:45:58Cimino protested,
00:45:59but it didn't matter.
00:46:00He had no choice
00:46:01but to live
00:46:02within UA's constraints.
00:46:04If he didn't,
00:46:05he'd lose the power
00:46:06to make his film,
00:46:07Lou's final cut.
00:46:09And so,
00:46:10he sped up.
00:46:13By late August,
00:46:15Cimino was actually
00:46:16two days ahead
00:46:17of UA's new schedule
00:46:19and on target
00:46:20to meet the revised budget.
00:46:22But it was too late.
00:46:23The real damage
00:46:24of Cimino's obsessions
00:46:26had already been done.
00:46:31Les Gapé
00:46:32was a freelance writer
00:46:33living in Montana.
00:46:34Early in production,
00:46:35he had requested access
00:46:36to the Heaven's Gate set.
00:46:38He was told
00:46:39that Heaven's Gate
00:46:39was closed,
00:46:40that Michael Cimino
00:46:41was not allowing
00:46:42any press.
00:46:44Rebuffed as a journalist,
00:46:46Gapé applied
00:46:47for a job
00:46:48as an extra
00:46:48and worked on the movie
00:46:50for two months.
00:46:51He got $30 a day
00:46:52for his troubles
00:46:53and his story.
00:46:56Gapé's article,
00:46:58which first appeared
00:46:58in the Los Angeles Times,
00:47:00painted a picture
00:47:01of excess
00:47:02and incompetence.
00:47:03Extras were fainting,
00:47:05horses were hurt,
00:47:06and there were
00:47:06all those takes
00:47:07of the same scene
00:47:08over and over again.
00:47:11Heaven's Gate,
00:47:12as Gapé told it,
00:47:13was a farce,
00:47:14not a masterpiece.
00:47:17The press loved it.
00:47:19The story,
00:47:19or some version of it,
00:47:21ran in almost
00:47:22every media outlet
00:47:23in the country
00:47:24and many outside it.
00:47:26Everyone seemed
00:47:27downright gleeful
00:47:28at the prospect
00:47:28of this Oscar-winning
00:47:30director failing
00:47:31spectacularly.
00:47:34It created an environment
00:47:36where people
00:47:36were waiting for
00:47:37not a masterpiece,
00:47:39something else.
00:47:42And that just
00:47:43kept rolling
00:47:43and feeding on itself.
00:47:46Here we go.
00:47:47Stand by and roll, please.
00:47:48Bad press
00:47:49and angry studio,
00:47:50all of it
00:47:51might have cowed
00:47:52a less confident director.
00:47:53But for Michael Cimino,
00:47:55none of it registered.
00:47:57He just kept working,
00:47:59undeterred,
00:47:59at the same crushing pace.
00:48:02Action!
00:48:06In late August,
00:48:0760 days after production
00:48:09was supposed to be finished,
00:48:10filming began
00:48:12on the climactic
00:48:13battle sequence.
00:48:14Cimino supposedly
00:48:15was now bound
00:48:16to UA's new schedule
00:48:17and budget.
00:48:18Still,
00:48:19he shot
00:48:20what and where
00:48:21he wanted,
00:48:22even if that meant
00:48:23traveling three hours
00:48:24each way
00:48:25to the only set
00:48:26he would approve.
00:48:29Was that what it was?
00:48:30Three hours each way?
00:48:31I can't remember.
00:48:31I blocked it out,
00:48:32but that was tough.
00:48:34Yeah.
00:48:37You'd get up
00:48:37at 3.30 in the morning
00:48:40with a pillow
00:48:41and you'd go
00:48:42and get in these vans
00:48:45and you'd,
00:48:46you know,
00:48:46you knew how to be there
00:48:48really quick
00:48:48so that you were
00:48:49one of the first ones
00:48:50in and would get
00:48:50the optimum spot
00:48:52to be in.
00:48:53Everybody had their spot
00:48:54in the van
00:48:55and everybody would show up
00:48:56in the hotel lobby
00:48:57with pillows and blankets
00:48:59and you'd get in the van
00:49:01and everybody would go
00:49:02to sleep for two hours.
00:49:05And most of it
00:49:06was dirt roads.
00:49:08So it was like
00:49:09blam, blam, blam, blam,
00:49:11for, for, for hours.
00:49:13It was,
00:49:13it was a real force march.
00:49:16The lunches were,
00:49:17I, I didn't even eat,
00:49:19I would go straight in there
00:49:20and go to sleep
00:49:21in that little honey wagon there
00:49:23and sweat like a trooper,
00:49:26you know,
00:49:26and go back to work.
00:49:33I don't know how long
00:49:35we shot those battle scenes,
00:49:36but it was frightening
00:49:37some of those things.
00:49:39Each time,
00:49:40I would just pray to God,
00:49:42you know,
00:49:42I wasn't going to get hurt
00:49:43or anybody else
00:49:43was going to get hurt
00:49:44and we would just go,
00:49:45yeah, charge!
00:49:46And just full blast.
00:49:50I mean,
00:49:50it was exhilarating,
00:49:52but even in a real battle,
00:49:53you don't, you know,
00:49:54re-cock and keep doing it
00:49:55over and over.
00:49:58You'd race
00:49:58madly around
00:49:59in this circle
00:50:00at a dead gallop
00:50:01as fast as you can
00:50:02and firing and firing
00:50:03and firing
00:50:04and we would do that
00:50:05for three minutes,
00:50:08four minutes.
00:50:09So you've got
00:50:10all this noise and chaos,
00:50:11they're firing back.
00:50:12Fire!
00:50:14You have wagons in the mix,
00:50:16dust so thick
00:50:17you can hardly see.
00:50:21The extras especially,
00:50:23I think,
00:50:23were quite scared,
00:50:25you know,
00:50:26because there are these
00:50:26130-year-old,
00:50:28you know,
00:50:29buckboards,
00:50:30whether they were real
00:50:31or replicas,
00:50:33you know,
00:50:33careening around.
00:50:36And, you know,
00:50:37it's not like driving a Hummer.
00:50:39You know,
00:50:40it's scary.
00:50:42Fire!
00:50:43Fire!
00:50:43Fire!
00:50:44Fire!
00:50:44There were times
00:50:45when there was
00:50:45coming down,
00:50:47I suppose,
00:50:47for Michael
00:50:48through the ADs
00:50:49of like,
00:50:49you know,
00:50:50we're going again,
00:50:51you know,
00:50:52faster,
00:50:53you know,
00:50:54louder,
00:50:54bigger,
00:50:57more.
00:51:09On September 29th,
00:51:111979,
00:51:12filming finished
00:51:13on the battle sequence.
00:51:14Three days later,
00:51:16principal photography
00:51:17on Heaven's Gate
00:51:18ended.
00:51:22Michael Cimino
00:51:23had shot a record
00:51:231.5 million feet
00:51:25of film,
00:51:26225 hours of footage,
00:51:28and spent in excess
00:51:30of 100%
00:51:31over his approved budget.
00:51:33But at least
00:51:34everyone thought
00:51:35the worst
00:51:35was finally over.
00:51:37They had no idea.
00:51:45It's hard to shock
00:51:47Hollywood.
00:51:49Drugs,
00:51:51sex,
00:51:52even embezzlement,
00:51:54are all excused
00:51:55as just another part
00:51:56of the business.
00:51:58It takes a lot
00:52:00in this town
00:52:00to ruin a career.
00:52:03But there is one sin
00:52:04for which Hollywood
00:52:05has always been
00:52:06unforgiving.
00:52:08failure.
00:52:16I went to this party
00:52:17that was given
00:52:18by Michael Douglas,
00:52:19and there were
00:52:20a lot of people,
00:52:21a lot of directors
00:52:21there,
00:52:22and producers.
00:52:23And most of these
00:52:24people were,
00:52:26were the more
00:52:27of the arty band,
00:52:29which was UA's
00:52:30type of,
00:52:31they would do films
00:52:32that UA would finance,
00:52:33and they weren't getting
00:52:34their film screen lighted.
00:52:36and they were told
00:52:37because of all the money
00:52:38it was going to Michael,
00:52:39and they were furious.
00:52:42And I went back
00:52:43and I said,
00:52:43and I told Michael,
00:52:45I said,
00:52:45you know,
00:52:45man,
00:52:47this thing better be good,
00:52:49because if it isn't,
00:52:50they're going to kill you.
00:52:54Michael Cimino
00:52:55returned to Hollywood
00:52:56six months after
00:52:57the deer hunter
00:52:58had swept the Oscars,
00:53:00confident that he had
00:53:01shot another masterpiece.
00:53:03United Artists also
00:53:05remained committed
00:53:06to Cimino
00:53:06and his vision.
00:53:08Despite the turmoil
00:53:09of production,
00:53:10they still believed
00:53:11in Heaven's Gate.
00:53:12All that remained
00:53:13was to edit down
00:53:15the mountain of footage
00:53:16Michael Cimino had shot.
00:53:18When we got back,
00:53:19we had,
00:53:20it's quite funny actually,
00:53:22we had bars put up
00:53:23on the cutting room windows,
00:53:25and then we had
00:53:26all the locks changed
00:53:27so that nobody
00:53:28could come in.
00:53:30He said,
00:53:30you know,
00:53:31we're not showing it
00:53:31to them,
00:53:32you know,
00:53:32I'm not showing it
00:53:32to them until I'm ready.
00:53:34He wasn't afraid
00:53:35of anybody,
00:53:36you know,
00:53:37and I mean,
00:53:37sometimes we'd be there
00:53:38and a call would come
00:53:39in from somebody,
00:53:41and he would,
00:53:42you know,
00:53:42he'd get on the phone
00:53:42and he'd scream
00:53:43and yell
00:53:44and swear at them
00:53:44and tell them
00:53:45this and that
00:53:45and the other
00:53:46and, you know,
00:53:46they weren't going
00:53:47to mess with him
00:53:47and he'd slam down
00:53:48the phone
00:53:48and then he'd just
00:53:49turn to me
00:53:49and he'd smile,
00:53:50you know,
00:53:51and we'd just keep going.
00:53:55For month after month,
00:53:57Michael Cimino
00:53:57and UA had locked horns.
00:53:59They had fought over
00:54:00casting,
00:54:01schedule,
00:54:01budget.
00:54:02That there was now
00:54:03tension during editing
00:54:05surprised no one.
00:54:06Nevertheless,
00:54:07it took its toll.
00:54:10After nearly a year
00:54:11of production
00:54:12on Heaven's Gate,
00:54:13David Field
00:54:14would resign
00:54:14from United Artists.
00:54:16He gave no official
00:54:18reason for his departure
00:54:19other than to say
00:54:20it was for personal reasons.
00:54:23I have one regret
00:54:24in my life
00:54:25and my working life
00:54:26and that's that
00:54:27I left United Artists.
00:54:30I don't know
00:54:31what would have happened
00:54:32had I stayed.
00:54:34Maybe nothing
00:54:34would have changed.
00:54:36But I fault myself
00:54:38for walking away
00:54:39in the middle of that.
00:54:44With David Field gone,
00:54:46Stephen Bach
00:54:47was left as the sole
00:54:48executive in charge
00:54:49of production at UA.
00:54:51One of his first tasks
00:54:52was to oversee
00:54:53the shooting
00:54:54of even more film
00:54:55on Heaven's Gate.
00:54:57By completing
00:54:58principal photography,
00:54:59according to UA's
00:55:00imposed schedule
00:55:01and budget,
00:55:02Michael Cimino
00:55:03had won the right
00:55:04to shoot the movie's
00:55:05prologue,
00:55:06Graduation Day
00:55:07at Harvard,
00:55:0820 years before
00:55:09the main action
00:55:10of the film.
00:55:15Shot in Oxford, England
00:55:17after Harvard
00:55:18refused permission,
00:55:19the prologue
00:55:20was as complicated
00:55:21and ambitious
00:55:22as anything shot
00:55:23in Montana.
00:55:24The only difference
00:55:25was that UA severely
00:55:27limited the time
00:55:28and money
00:55:28they gave Cimino.
00:55:32At the end
00:55:33of every day's shooting,
00:55:35a phone call
00:55:36went out
00:55:37from Oxford
00:55:37to tell me
00:55:38that the day's shooting
00:55:40had been completed
00:55:41on budget
00:55:41and on schedule.
00:55:43And Michael
00:55:44had been told,
00:55:45if I get a call
00:55:46that says
00:55:47we shot five minutes
00:55:49longer
00:55:50than we said
00:55:50we would
00:55:51and we spent
00:55:52$500 more
00:55:54than we said
00:55:54we would,
00:55:55I will pull the plug
00:55:57and there will be
00:55:57no prologue,
00:55:58there will be
00:55:58no epilogue.
00:55:59And Michael
00:56:00believed it.
00:56:06A little late
00:56:06in the game.
00:56:07A little late
00:56:08in the game.
00:56:15Michael Cimino
00:56:16had entered
00:56:16the editing room
00:56:17with over
00:56:18a million feet
00:56:18of film,
00:56:19some 220 hours
00:56:21of footage.
00:56:22From that,
00:56:23he was contractually
00:56:24obligated
00:56:25to deliver
00:56:25a final cut
00:56:26no longer
00:56:27than three hours
00:56:27in length.
00:56:29Editing this amount
00:56:30of film
00:56:30under normal
00:56:31circumstances
00:56:32would have been
00:56:32a Herculean task.
00:56:34But UA made
00:56:35it nearly impossible
00:56:36by demanding
00:56:37that Cimino
00:56:38make their
00:56:38Christmas release.
00:56:41Well,
00:56:42Christmas because
00:56:42of the Oscars.
00:56:43Always the Oscars.
00:56:44That's the big drive
00:56:45with any film
00:56:46of any importance.
00:56:48You want to make
00:56:48that December release.
00:56:51And we worked,
00:56:52I mean,
00:56:53there weren't enough
00:56:54hours that we never
00:56:54stopped.
00:56:55I mean,
00:56:55there were days
00:56:55where we would go
00:56:56three days
00:56:57without sleeping.
00:56:59And so when you
00:57:00get to that point,
00:57:01you don't really know
00:57:02what you're doing anyway.
00:57:04Because you're just
00:57:04so tired.
00:57:06In late June,
00:57:08after eight months
00:57:09of editing,
00:57:10Michael Cimino
00:57:11announced that
00:57:11he was ready
00:57:12to show the executives
00:57:13at United Artists
00:57:14Heaven's Gate.
00:57:16We got to the screening
00:57:17room and we saw
00:57:18Michael,
00:57:19spoke with Michael.
00:57:20I thought Michael
00:57:21looked exhausted,
00:57:23truly,
00:57:24truly depleted.
00:57:25I remember asking
00:57:28how close are we
00:57:29to a final cut.
00:57:32And he said,
00:57:33it's a little long.
00:57:34I can lose
00:57:35maybe 15 minutes.
00:57:38And we sat down
00:57:40and we watched
00:57:41the movie.
00:57:43And the movie
00:57:44that we saw
00:57:45was five hours
00:57:47and 25 minutes long.
00:57:51The battle sequence
00:57:52alone
00:57:53was as long
00:57:55as most feature
00:57:56motion pictures.
00:58:03I was angry.
00:58:05I was angry.
00:58:06I was angry.
00:58:08The company
00:58:09had been
00:58:10put through
00:58:12turmoil.
00:58:14Other projects
00:58:15had gotten cancelled
00:58:16or never made.
00:58:18Relationships
00:58:19within the company
00:58:20were deeply strained,
00:58:21some of them
00:58:22irreparably.
00:58:25The company
00:58:26was exposed
00:58:28in the industry
00:58:30at large
00:58:31in a way
00:58:32that few companies
00:58:34have been.
00:58:36And the internal
00:58:39hope that had
00:58:40kept us all going
00:58:41for those two
00:58:42or three years
00:58:43of this process
00:58:44now,
00:58:45which was
00:58:46that it was
00:58:47going to be
00:58:47a masterpiece
00:58:48and that would
00:58:49justify everything
00:58:50that we had
00:58:51gone through
00:58:53was suddenly
00:58:54gone.
00:58:58Michael Cimino
00:58:59re-entered his
00:59:00editing room
00:59:00to begin another
00:59:01round of 18-hour days.
00:59:03Access to him
00:59:04became impossible.
00:59:05By mid-October,
00:59:07he had brought
00:59:07his epic down
00:59:08to just over
00:59:09three and a half
00:59:10hours.
00:59:11Amazingly,
00:59:12no one at UA,
00:59:13not Stephen Bach,
00:59:14not Andy Olbeck,
00:59:15no one saw the
00:59:17final version of
00:59:18Heaven's Gate
00:59:18before its release.
00:59:20Insisting on doing
00:59:21so was useless
00:59:22anyway.
00:59:23No changes
00:59:24could be made
00:59:25without endangering
00:59:26the New York
00:59:26premiere.
00:59:28Michael Cimino
00:59:29had gotten
00:59:30final cut.
00:59:36I can remember
00:59:37going to the
00:59:39first screening,
00:59:41the premiere
00:59:42in New York,
00:59:43and we were all
00:59:44very excited,
00:59:45and Mike
00:59:46was quite anxious
00:59:47because I don't know
00:59:48if he even saw the film
00:59:49before it was shown.
00:59:50I mean,
00:59:50it was wet
00:59:51right out of the soup.
00:59:53He had just put it
00:59:54together,
00:59:54and he just
00:59:56barely made
00:59:57the deadline
00:59:58to get it
00:59:58all together.
01:00:00And, you know,
01:00:01the movie comes on.
01:00:09Good morning,
01:00:10Mr. Alvin.
01:00:11Good morning,
01:00:12George,
01:00:12Ms. Hagelston.
01:00:17I remember
01:00:18my first impression
01:00:19of seeing it
01:00:20was, you know,
01:00:22this kind of
01:00:23the splendor of it
01:00:24was wonderful,
01:00:25but the rhythm
01:00:27of it was so
01:00:28unusual
01:00:28and so kind of
01:00:30slow
01:00:30and not what
01:00:32you expected
01:00:33to see
01:00:35that
01:00:37the audience
01:00:38certainly
01:00:39was frustrated.
01:00:52Then you heard
01:00:53that terrible
01:00:57applause
01:00:57at the end,
01:00:58you know,
01:00:58it was just,
01:00:59you know,
01:01:00oh,
01:01:00it was terrible.
01:01:01And then hearing
01:01:02the,
01:01:02then going,
01:01:03then the next day
01:01:04we got up
01:01:05and on the way
01:01:06to the airport,
01:01:07we were going up
01:01:08to Toronto
01:01:08for the next show
01:01:09and picking up
01:01:10that review
01:01:11on the way
01:01:12to the airport
01:01:12and reading it.
01:01:17The next day's papers
01:01:19sealed the fate
01:01:19of Heaven's Gate,
01:01:20Michael Cimino,
01:01:21Stephen Bach
01:01:22and Andy Albeck.
01:01:24Vincent Canby
01:01:25in the New York Times
01:01:26wrote with abandon
01:01:27and malice.
01:01:29Heaven's Gate
01:01:30fails so completely,
01:01:31he began.
01:01:32You might suspect
01:01:33Mr. Cimino
01:01:34sold his soul
01:01:35to the devil
01:01:35to obtain the success
01:01:36of the deer hunter
01:01:37and the devil
01:01:38has come round
01:01:39to collect.
01:01:41Watching the film
01:01:42is like a forced
01:01:43four-hour walking tour
01:01:44of one's own living room.
01:01:46Heaven's Gate
01:01:47is an unqualified disaster.
01:01:51Well,
01:01:52I read Vincent Canby's,
01:01:53I don't read reviews,
01:01:54that's the first thing.
01:01:55I read Vincent Canby's
01:01:56because it actually
01:01:57had the line in it,
01:01:58like being given
01:01:59a four-hour tour
01:02:01of your own living room
01:02:01and I just wanted to see
01:02:02how bad can a review be
01:02:04and it was really scathing,
01:02:07angry review.
01:02:08I mean,
01:02:09basically,
01:02:11everything that,
01:02:12that,
01:02:12that people hated
01:02:14about the direction
01:02:15of film
01:02:15was
01:02:17piled on to Michael.
01:02:18I think the critics
01:02:19were reviewing
01:02:20the production history.
01:02:22They were rewriting
01:02:24their reviews
01:02:25for the deer hunter,
01:02:26which they thought
01:02:27they had overpraised.
01:02:29They were getting back
01:02:30at what they perceived
01:02:32as a hostile treatment
01:02:34from the director.
01:02:36I think they were
01:02:37slapping United Artists
01:02:40for having allowed
01:02:41this to happen.
01:02:43but I never felt
01:02:44that there was
01:02:46a real serious attempt
01:02:49to see
01:02:50what is this picture
01:02:51trying to do
01:02:52and does it succeed
01:02:53on its own terms.
01:02:58It didn't succeed
01:03:00on the terms
01:03:00they wanted
01:03:01to lay on the picture
01:03:02and that was
01:03:04what they were writing about
01:03:05was their terms
01:03:06for the picture,
01:03:07not the picture's terms.
01:03:12On November 24th, 1980,
01:03:15after a one-week run
01:03:16in New York,
01:03:17United Artists
01:03:18and Michael Cimino
01:03:19took out a full-page ad
01:03:20in Variety
01:03:21in The Hollywood Reporter.
01:03:23It read,
01:03:24Dear Andy,
01:03:25so much energy,
01:03:27time, and money
01:03:28have gone into
01:03:29the making of Heaven's Gate
01:03:30that I am asking you
01:03:32to withdraw the film
01:03:33from distribution
01:03:34to allow me
01:03:35to present to the public
01:03:36a film finished
01:03:37with the same care
01:03:38and thoughtfulness
01:03:40with which we began it.
01:03:42It was signed,
01:03:43Sincerely,
01:03:44Michael Cimino.
01:03:47The American film industry
01:03:48is still trying to cope
01:03:49with a major news story
01:03:50out of Hollywood
01:03:51this week.
01:03:52A $40 million film
01:03:53by an Oscar-winning director
01:03:55may be the biggest bomb
01:03:57in Hollywood history.
01:03:58Get the story now.
01:03:59Writer-director
01:04:00Michael Cimino
01:04:01who spent two years
01:04:02and $36 million
01:04:04on Heaven's Gate.
01:04:05For two years,
01:04:06Michael Cimino
01:04:06had worked ceaselessly,
01:04:08risked everything,
01:04:09put his whole self
01:04:10into Heaven's Gate
01:04:11only to have
01:04:12the critics eviscerate it.
01:04:14The more you saw
01:04:15that there was nothing
01:04:16on that screen there,
01:04:17nothing at all.
01:04:18I mean,
01:04:18not even a good performance.
01:04:19You couldn't even single out
01:04:20one great performance.
01:04:22You know,
01:04:22always,
01:04:22usually every movie
01:04:23has one great scene.
01:04:24Even bad movies
01:04:25have at least something
01:04:27good you can say
01:04:27about them
01:04:28and this one
01:04:28had nothing.
01:04:30It was,
01:04:31you know,
01:04:32it was like,
01:04:33how can they not
01:04:33like our child?
01:04:35You know,
01:04:35I mean,
01:04:35that's how you feel.
01:04:36It's sort of,
01:04:37it's very personal.
01:04:39You know,
01:04:39and you don't want
01:04:40to believe
01:04:40that you have
01:04:41an ugly baby.
01:04:42Nobody does.
01:04:43You know,
01:04:43every baby's beautiful.
01:04:44And, you know,
01:04:45don't they see
01:04:46the qualities
01:04:46and don't they understand?
01:04:48You just think
01:04:49they're ignorant.
01:04:53Michael was blown
01:04:54out of the water.
01:04:57I always felt
01:04:58like it was like,
01:05:00it was like
01:05:00you had a beloved child,
01:05:03you know,
01:05:04of yours,
01:05:05murdered
01:05:06and then the murder
01:05:07blamed on you.
01:05:10And it was unjust.
01:05:14Heaven's Gate
01:05:15had been pulled
01:05:16by United Artists
01:05:17at Chimino's request
01:05:18after only a one-week run
01:05:20in New York.
01:05:21UA had hoped
01:05:22to give the film
01:05:23a second life,
01:05:24but it was a decision
01:05:26that quickly backfired.
01:05:28Heaven's Gate
01:05:28was transformed
01:05:29from a simple flop
01:05:30into a full-blown
01:05:32media event.
01:05:33The notion
01:05:34of industry stories
01:05:35and business stories
01:05:37seeping into
01:05:38the national media
01:05:39had already begun
01:05:40in a certain way
01:05:41and this was something
01:05:42that really kind of
01:05:43burst the floodgates.
01:05:45One of the expensive movies
01:05:45ever made
01:05:46and in its original version
01:05:47has been yanked
01:05:48by United Artists.
01:05:49It was panned so bad
01:05:50that it was immediately
01:05:51withdrawn
01:05:51so that large parts
01:05:52could be cut out.
01:05:53Tell us United Artists
01:05:54knew Heaven's Gate
01:05:55was in big trouble
01:05:56six months ago.
01:05:57Somebody ought to have said
01:05:58stop to this film,
01:06:00but no one did.
01:06:02It was a disaster.
01:06:05It was a disaster
01:06:07creatively because people
01:06:08misunderstood and thought
01:06:09that we United Artists
01:06:11had forced Michael
01:06:12to do the withdrawal
01:06:13and the cutting,
01:06:14which wasn't true at all.
01:06:15It was totally
01:06:15Michael's idea
01:06:16as far as I've ever heard.
01:06:17I don't care where
01:06:18the idea came from,
01:06:19it was a horrible idea
01:06:21to pull the film
01:06:24because it was an admission
01:06:25that everybody thought
01:06:26Canby was right.
01:06:30Michael always did
01:06:32what Michael wanted to do
01:06:33and now he wanted
01:06:34to make it shorter
01:06:36because he wanted
01:06:38the film to see
01:06:38the light of day
01:06:39and he wanted people
01:06:41to like the film.
01:06:43You know,
01:06:43he wanted it to be seen.
01:06:46So he was then determined
01:06:47that he was going to try
01:06:48and bring it down
01:06:50and make it more presentable.
01:06:52Although he may not
01:06:53personally agree with that,
01:06:54he was going to do his best
01:06:55to try and make it
01:06:56more presentable.
01:07:00Michael Cimino
01:07:01had barely re-entered
01:07:02the editing room
01:07:03when the bloodbath started.
01:07:05The first body to fall
01:07:06was Andy Albeck's.
01:07:08We had a bad year,
01:07:09he told friends privately.
01:07:10When you have a bad year,
01:07:12you fire the boss.
01:07:14In Albeck's place,
01:07:16Transamerica installed
01:07:17Norbert Auerbach,
01:07:19the UA executive
01:07:20who had guaranteed
01:07:21David Field's
01:07:22worst case number
01:07:23two years earlier.
01:07:27In late April, 1981,
01:07:30five months
01:07:30after its disastrous
01:07:31first screening,
01:07:33a radically re-cut version
01:07:34of Michael Cimino's
01:07:35Heaven's Gate
01:07:36opened in Los Angeles.
01:07:38Okay, Michael Cimino.
01:07:39Mr. Cimino is here.
01:07:41And as Michael makes his way...
01:07:43Cimino has worked
01:07:44literally day and night
01:07:45re-editing Heaven's Gate.
01:07:46It now runs
01:07:47two and a half hours.
01:07:48That's an hour and ten minutes
01:07:49shorter than it was
01:07:50thanks to some 300 changes.
01:07:52ballpark figure,
01:07:54$35 million
01:07:55the first time around.
01:07:56I did a little arithmetic.
01:07:58A hundred American families
01:08:00making $25,000 a year each
01:08:03could live 14 years
01:08:04on $35 million.
01:08:07Is it obscene
01:08:08to spend that much money
01:08:09for a single movie?
01:08:11I think that one has to
01:08:14understand what
01:08:15the motives were.
01:08:18Is it obscene
01:08:20to spend
01:08:21$30 or $40 million
01:08:23on a blatantly
01:08:24commercial effort
01:08:26whose sole purpose
01:08:28is to make more money?
01:08:30Is that obscene?
01:08:31The nature of
01:08:33Gene Shalott's questions
01:08:34to ask how many
01:08:36starving orphans
01:08:38could have been fed forever.
01:08:40That doesn't have anything
01:08:41to do with
01:08:42the picture as a picture.
01:08:45And it was
01:08:46the
01:08:49perceived enormity
01:08:50of waste
01:08:51and arrogance
01:08:53with money
01:08:54that people
01:08:56were focusing on.
01:08:59There was, however,
01:09:01one dissenting rave.
01:09:02Kevin Thomas,
01:09:04the L.A. Times
01:09:05film critic, wrote,
01:09:06Heaven's Gate
01:09:07is an experience
01:09:08that leaves you feeling
01:09:09you have witnessed
01:09:10a true screen epic.
01:09:12He called the acting
01:09:13splendid
01:09:13and noted
01:09:14the level of craftsmanship
01:09:16could scarcely be higher.
01:09:18It is time,
01:09:19he concluded,
01:09:20to sit back
01:09:21and enjoy
01:09:22all that Michael Cimino
01:09:23has wrought.
01:09:25Thomas later noted,
01:09:26I don't think
01:09:27in 20 years
01:09:28of movie reviewing
01:09:29I've ever been
01:09:30so totally alone.
01:09:36Vincent Canby
01:09:37of the New York Times
01:09:38has seen the new
01:09:39shorter version
01:09:40and he wrote
01:09:41that the movie
01:09:42looks like a fat man
01:09:43who's been on
01:09:44a crash diet.
01:09:45Thinner
01:09:45but not appreciably different.
01:09:47Worst movie I ever saw.
01:09:49Really.
01:09:49Terrible movie.
01:09:50Gorgeous music,
01:09:51gorgeous photography
01:09:53but it's a real
01:09:54fanny twitcher.
01:09:55I think it still
01:09:56needs some pruning
01:09:57frankly.
01:09:58It was a little long,
01:09:59it was a little boring
01:10:00and I don't think
01:10:01it was a story
01:10:01people wanted to hear.
01:10:05The press's obsessions
01:10:06starting with
01:10:07Les Capet
01:10:08and bleeding
01:10:09into Vincent Canby
01:10:10overwhelmed
01:10:11whatever virtues
01:10:12Cimino's film had.
01:10:14Heaven's Gate
01:10:15cost United Artists
01:10:1644 million dollars
01:10:17to make and release.
01:10:19In the end,
01:10:20its total gross
01:10:21was 1.3 million.
01:10:23It was time
01:10:24to dump
01:10:25the next body
01:10:26overboard.
01:10:28I knew that
01:10:29I was going
01:10:29to be fired.
01:10:30It was in the air
01:10:31there was just
01:10:32no way
01:10:33that I was going
01:10:33to survive.
01:10:35Who else
01:10:35are they going
01:10:35to fire
01:10:36to make a point?
01:10:37They were going
01:10:38to make a corporate
01:10:39point that something
01:10:40disastrous has happened
01:10:42and we have
01:10:43lanced the boil
01:10:44by firing
01:10:45Stephen Bach.
01:10:47A few days
01:10:48after Stephen Bach
01:10:49was fired
01:10:50Transamerica
01:10:51announced that
01:10:51it was selling
01:10:52United Artists
01:10:53to MGM.
01:10:55It was tired
01:10:55of having
01:10:56its corporate image
01:10:57tied to a failing
01:10:58studio.
01:10:59Tired of the
01:11:00movie business.
01:11:02The studio
01:11:03that Mary Pickford
01:11:04Charlie Chaplin
01:11:05Douglas Fairbanks
01:11:06and D.W. Griffith
01:11:08had started
01:11:0860 years earlier
01:11:09was gone.
01:11:11Hollywood gasped.
01:11:13The unthinkable
01:11:14had happened.
01:11:14A single film
01:11:16had sunk a studio
01:11:17or so it seemed.
01:11:22Michael Cimino
01:11:23and Norbert Auerbach
01:11:24were at the Cannes
01:11:25Film Festival
01:11:25when the headlines
01:11:26broke.
01:11:27Auerbach,
01:11:28shocked by the news,
01:11:30took the occasion
01:11:30to blame Heaven's Gate
01:11:31for all that was
01:11:32wrong in Hollywood.
01:11:35I didn't realize
01:11:36the extent of it
01:11:37really until Cannes
01:11:39when I looked
01:11:41at the newspaper
01:11:42and a thing
01:11:43that was written
01:11:44by Auerbach
01:11:45who was the
01:11:46president of the U.S.A.
01:11:47who said that
01:11:48unless control
01:11:49of the money
01:11:49was taken away
01:11:51from the creative
01:11:52people
01:11:53that the industry
01:11:54was headed
01:11:54for disaster
01:11:57and we ran
01:11:58into each other
01:11:59in the hallway
01:11:59on the way
01:12:00to this press
01:12:01thing
01:12:02where we're all
01:12:03going to be
01:12:03sitting on a stage
01:12:04and he and his
01:12:05lawyer were there
01:12:07and I said
01:12:08who are you
01:12:08going to give it
01:12:09to?
01:12:09The uncreative
01:12:10people?
01:12:12And so
01:12:13the uncreative
01:12:14people won
01:12:16and that's
01:12:17what happened
01:12:18to the business.
01:12:20you could argue
01:12:21almost that
01:12:22post Michael
01:12:23Cimino
01:12:23the time
01:12:24of the director
01:12:24was over.
01:12:26He single-handedly
01:12:27whether fairly
01:12:28or unfairly
01:12:29was the signpost
01:12:31that said
01:12:32from now on
01:12:32we're not going
01:12:33to let directors
01:12:33have that kind
01:12:34of power anymore
01:12:36because we don't
01:12:37want our studio
01:12:37maybe to go next
01:12:38or we don't want
01:12:39anybody to do
01:12:39that to us.
01:12:44Heaven's Gate
01:12:45was received warmly
01:12:46even enthusiastically
01:12:47by the critics
01:12:48in Europe
01:12:49where today
01:12:50it is recognized
01:12:51as an accomplished
01:12:52work of art.
01:12:54But in America
01:12:55a cloud
01:12:56still hangs over
01:12:57Michael Cimino's
01:12:58Heaven's Gate.
01:12:59It is known
01:12:59as the biggest
01:13:00flop ever
01:13:01the film
01:13:02that bankrupt
01:13:03a studio.
01:13:05The truth is
01:13:06Transamerica
01:13:07was a multi-billion
01:13:08dollar conglomerate.
01:13:10It rode off
01:13:10the entire loss
01:13:11of Heaven's Gate
01:13:1244 million
01:13:14two days
01:13:15after its
01:13:15New York premiere.
01:13:17Its stock fell
01:13:18half a point
01:13:19which had fully
01:13:20recovered the next
01:13:21day.
01:13:25In the 25 years
01:13:26since Heaven's Gate
01:13:27much has changed.
01:13:29Box office totals
01:13:30are now tracked
01:13:31by every media outlet
01:13:32in the country
01:13:33and films are judged
01:13:34as success or failure
01:13:36in a single weekend.
01:13:38The business of Hollywood
01:13:40has overwhelmed
01:13:41everything else
01:13:41and it's hard to see
01:13:43how the movies
01:13:44are better off
01:13:44for it.
01:13:47And what
01:13:48of Heaven's Gate?
01:13:49For most
01:13:50it's just
01:13:51a cautionary tale
01:13:52an interesting footnote
01:13:54but for others
01:13:55Heaven's Gate
01:13:56is a beautiful
01:13:57ambitious film
01:13:59just waiting
01:14:00to be rediscovered.
01:14:01Give it a listen
01:14:30to the story
01:14:31whatцев
01:14:34I would respond to Heaven's Gate the same way Jack Kennedy responded to the Bay of Pigs.
01:14:38I take full responsibility, and all other questions are answered by the film itself.
01:14:47I think if you're a boxer and you step into the ring, you can't complain about getting hit.
01:14:56I think about Heaven's Gate all the time because I live in the whorehouse set from Heaven's Gate in Montana.
01:15:04That's my home there.
01:15:06When we were finished shooting that set, the owners of the land were going to burn it down.
01:15:11Michael said, does anybody want this set?
01:15:13And I shot my hand up, numbered the logs, and moved it a couple hundred miles south, and that's where
01:15:19it stands today.
01:15:24around me
01:15:25Atun
01:15:25When I Huge
01:15:25And I Used To With The High
01:15:25There
01:15:26Atun
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