Michael Cimino on DeBaser: reviews, quotes and works

Michael Cimino

Director

Forcinephiles, students of film history, fans of american auteurs, and viewers into war and western epics
6 Reviews 15 Definitions 43 Charts

The Profile

Michael Cimino (1939–2016) was an American film director and screenwriter best known for The Deer Hunter—winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director—and for the ambitious western Heaven's Gate.

Won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Deer Hunter (1978); The Deer Hunter won five Oscars including Best Picture. Heaven's Gate (1980) was a notorious box-office failure whose fallout contributed to United Artists being sold to MGM. Later films include Year of the Dragon (1985).

Reviews praise Cimino’s ambition and craft: The Deer Hunter is framed as a human drama beyond the war film label, with standout performances and photography. Heaven’s Gate is seen as a colossal, controversial epic—savaged on release, later reassessed for its artistry and scope. Year of the Dragon divides: stylish, well-mounted, but charged with clichés. Overall sentiment trends positive toward Cimino’s bold, risk-taking cinema.

Notable Quotes

❝ Without any doubt, a five-star film.

❝ Scandalously, the film will be nominated for the Razzie Awards and the director will win the award for worst direction.

❝ Destroyed by criticism from a country where President Reagan was emerging, tormented by cuts that resulted in numerous different but never complete versions, paradoxically, defined as one of the most beautiful western films in cinema history.

❝ The setting is truly excellent: the characters move in a dirty Chinatown bustling with people of all kinds, acting in polluted streets, dimly lit venues, and dilapidated basements.