‘Deer Hunter’ director Michael Cimino dies at 77

Cimino, hailed as one of the giants of American cinema at his peak in the 1970s, also made the notorious flop Heaven’s Gate which some critics later hailed as a masterpiece.

Michael Cimino, who won Oscars as director and a producer of “The Deer Hunter”, has died. During intermission, my Dad, his friend and I got into a conversation about Meryl Streep and her Oscar nominations, the first of which came with The Deer Hunter. Cimino made his debut with Thunderbolt and Lightfooting (1974) with Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges.

“Heaven’s Gate”, based on a screenplay that Cimino himself wrote, was about migrant homesteaders, rich cattle ranchers, mercenaries and USA marshals in the state of Wyoming in the 1890s. Michael Cimino was found dead in his home.

But after that movie’s runaway success, Cimino followed up in 1980 with “Heaven’s Gate”, an epic Western that New York Times critic Vincent Canby called “an unqualified disaster”.

In a statement released following Cimino’s death Robert de Niro said: “Our work together is something I will always remember”.

The film came in way over budget at $36 million, three times the average cost of a movie in those days, and Cimino’s career never fully recovered. His death was announced by Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux in French via Twitter saying, “Cimino died peacefully, surrounded by his family and two women who loved him”.

Notoriously dodgy with press, Cimino often gave out contradictory versions of his life and history, including his birth date, though it is generally accepted as being in the year 1943.

Cimino, 77, who directed a total of eight films, will be remembered for a his wonderful career highs and much-publicised lows. “I took an ad out in the trades and tried to explain why I neglected to thank certain people and to make up for the shortfall of my dumb-ass acceptance speech”, Cimino told the Hollywood Reporter in 2015 about the Oscars ceremony.

But Heaven’s Gate, which also starred Walken, became synonymous with over-budget and out-of-control productions, and a cautionary tale for giving artistic-minded directors too much power in the new Hollywood that had been defined by directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.

A 2012 restoration and subsequent re-release of “Heaven’s Gate” allowed Cimino to see his masterwork undergo a critical re-evaluation. I dont believe in defeat. “You cant look back. Everybody has bumps, but as Count Basie said, ‘Its not how you handle the hills, its how you handle the valleys.”.

Mr. Cimino graduated from Michigan State University and later received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in painting from Yale University, according to university records.