Michael Cimino’s one and only regret from ‘The Deer Hunter’: “I feel very, very upset”
It often only takes one movie to make a career, and the reverse is also true; sometimes, it only takes one to break it. Few in modern cinema have exemplified that particular phenomenon better than Michael Cimino, who went from Hollywood’s new hero to its latest zero in the blink of an eye.
Establishing himself as a talented filmmaker right out of the gate when he made his feature-length directorial debut with 1974’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, the Academy Award-nominated crime caper that paired Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges for a madcap misadventure, his sophomore effort was an entirely different beast.
Although he’d scripted his first film, it wasn’t what anyone would call the unmistakable work of an auteur. However, The Deer Hunter most certainly was, with Cimino writing, directing, and producing one of the defining movies of the 1970s, which also saw him engage in his first, but by no means last, battle with the studio to get it released in line with his creative vision.
Universal didn’t see the appeal in a potent three-hour drama, and repeatedly insisted that he trim down its length in post-production. Cimino stood his ground, and despite facing threats from the boardroom that they’d happily sit on the film and withhold it from audiences until they got their way, it premiered on December 8th, 1978, as the 184-minute epic he always wanted it to be.
Of course, history always remembers the victor, and when The Deer Hunter won five Academy Awards, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, he was vindicated and then some. Unfortunately, giving Cimino everything he wanted wasn’t a burst of lightning that would strike twice, as Heaven’s Gate would show.
Running rampantly over its initial budget and falling miles behind schedule, the period piece was such a disaster on so many levels that it’s been pinpointed as the exact moment the ‘New Hollywood’ bubble burst. Cimino’s career never recovered, and while it’s since been reappraised as something of a misunderstood gem, his previous film had already secured his legacy.
Having fought the studio and won, delivered one of the decade’s finest movies and a stone-cold classic of American cinema, you wouldn’t think he had any regrets from The Deer Hunter. And yet, there was one thing that haunted him for years afterwards, and it had nothing to do with the picture itself.
“I feel very, very upset that when it came time for me to get an Academy Award, that I didn’t especially thank Clint Eastwood,” Cimino confessed to The Hollywood Reporter. “Clint should have been the first person I thanked, because without him, I would not have had the chance to make Deer Hunter.”
Eastwood had taken a risk on the first-timer when he approved him for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, and despite being one of the biggest stars in the business who’d already dabbled in directing a couple of times himself, he gave the novice director the leeway to make his debut the way he saw fit, which stood him in good stead for The Deer Hunter. Almost four decades later, and Cimino still hadn’t forgiven himself.
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