Michael Ciminos first time out of the box gave us a tasty tidbit and the hope of greater things to come. The film was Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which won an Oscar for Jeff Bridges in a heist flic co-starring with Clint Eastwood as two mismatched good old boys involved in repeating a robbery Clint had pulled years earlier. It garnered good reviews but it did nothing to prepare us for what came next from Cimino. With his next work , Cimino literally punched the World film audience in the gut. The Deer Hunter is one of the most powerful movies ever made. How could it have been any better, perfectly cast, Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale, George Dzundza and Christopher Walken in one of the most moving and gripping performances ever booked. This was simply marvelous. A harder film to watch is hard to imagine. Stunning imagery and genius storytelling seemed to be Michael Ciminos stock in trade. I dont know what happened. From the fetid,steamy, claustrophobic jungle of Vietnam, Cimino moved next to a different killing ground, the no less violent but wide open,Johnson County, Wyoming, where the cattle ranchers declared open season on the immigrant homesteaders of the 1890s, in effect putting a bounty on their heads. Visually stunning in its sweep, but its voice was dark and dense making it almost incomprehensible to the movie going public craving another work of The Deer Hunters starkly, beautiful majesty. What killed it was cost over runs, fights with the studio, bad press and word of mouth in addition to Ciminos huge ego. It was too, too much. But in reality its not that bad, I recently purchased a beautiful Criterion Blu-Ray of the film and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It did for me what a director shoots for, it left me wanting more. Tomorrow: Peter Bogdonovich
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 01:08:42 +0000
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