It was called a "runaway," and never has a term been more appropriate. In this case, it was a movie running millions of dollars over budget with an end nowhere in sight. By the time the smoke had cleared, hundreds of people lost their jobs, one of the most storied film companies in history went belly up and a huge western epic became the greatest financial bomb of all time.
The 1980 film Heaven's Gate has become synonymous with failure, its very name punned whenever big-budget productions flirt with disaster (Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves was termed "Kevin's Gate" before release). Steven Bach's Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists gives a terrific blow-by-blow account of this gargantuan flop. A former producer at United Artist who suffered the ax after Heaven's Gate, Bach penned this detailed tome a couple of years after fallout.
The book, recently re-released with a new introduction and epilogue, should be a fascinating account for film lovers. Final Cut details the history of United Artists and filmmaking in the 1970s - a truly golden era. At United Artists, David Lean drops by on occasion, Alan Pakula broods over Comes A Horseman, William Goldman struggles with The Right Stuff, Francis Ford Coppola premieres Apocalypse Now, Woody Allen helms Manhattan and Martin Scorsese prepares Raging Bull. But the man of the hour in 1978 is a quiet guy named Michael Cimino. He just won an Academy Award for directing The Deer Hunter, and now he wants to make a western - a big, big western.
Bach accurately reveals the difficulties United Artists was going through at this time, losing several long-time executives who jump ship to form the Orion film company. Bach and company, wishing to re-establish United Artists as a major player, take on Cimino's western project. Heaven's Gate was originally expected to cost $9 million, but before the cameras even began clicking, it spiraled to $13 million. In Final Cut, Cimino's got big ideas, and they're getting bigger.
Cimino sets up shop in Montana, the location work a two-hour's drive from the nearest cement road. He's making a film about the Johnson County Range War, an obscure historical footnote which took place in Wyoming during the 1890s. After 15 days of filming, the movie is 13 days behind schedule with the cost increasing to $17 million. Cimino ships an antique train across five states to the Montana wilds. He hires over 700 extras. He signs a cast of mainly unknowns including Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, John Hurt and Sam Waterson. And he films only during the twilight hour, a period right before dusk so scenes will have a golden hue. But what terrifies United Artists most is Cimino is filming 50-60 takes per scene, and printing almost every take. Such obsession was unheard of.
Bach and David Fields (the two VP executives at United Artists at that time) fly to Montana and attempt to communicate to Cimino the dangerously growing situation. Cimino responds by barring all executives from the set. The film appropriately skyrockets to $25 million. As Bach reveals in Final Cut, Cimino's western was now going to have make blockbuster numbers just to turn a profit, performing in the Jaws and Star Wars neighborhoods. United Artists attempts to fire Cimino, at one point even asking David Lean to take over. Cimino realizes the dire situation, finally bucks up and finishes the film. With promotional and post-production fees, Heaven's Gate was going to cost United Artists $44 million - the most expensive film in history up to that time.
![The Deer Hunter (Widescreen Edition) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GTMCQ4T9L._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Chris, i thouroughly enjoyed this, man. Those tales of hollywood disaster are always strangely enjoyable. You almost make me wanna watch heavens gate again.
2 - Chris Kent
Thanks El Senor Duke. I read this book over the July 4th holiday and decided to write a post. Not too happy with it as I didn't convey appropriately how fine this book is. A fascinating account by a man in the Hollywood loop for a few years of extraordinary filmmaking. Cimino claims this book is a "work of fiction." Bach has some interesting observations, most specifically how this film ended the syle of creative filmmaking during the 1970s and also why filmmaking is such an awkward and potentially dangerous form of creative art. It exposes a brief moment before films became pre-sold packages and when artistic merit still had box office clout.
I've always thought part of the success of The Deer Hunter was the presence of Robert De Niro - he was very much the glue that held that awkward film together. There was no De Niro on the set of Heaven's Gate - just Kris Kristofferson and the Montana scenery.