The 1970s changed the face of cinema forever as a slew of wunderkinds emerged at roughly the same time to direct personal passion projects that shed the shackles of the old studio system in favor of more realistic and grounded stories. Several of those names are still actively working today – and the majority of them despise Marvel – but Heaven’s Gate ended up marking another paradigm shift as one decade gave way to the next.
Michael Cimino was one of the movement’s leading lights after his second feature The Deer Hunter instantly secured classic status to go along with its five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. For his next project, the writer and director opted to craft one of the most ambitious epics of all-time, which in turn yielded one of the industry’s biggest disasters.
To call Heaven’s Gate a nightmare would be an understatement of the greatest magnitude, because not only did it almost bankrupt studio United Artists, it additionally served as the catalyst for auteur-driven cinema to begin its downward spiral as the rest of Hollywood sat up and took notice of just how badly things can go when a creative mind is handed complete autonomy.
While its reputation has improved over time, Heaven’s Gate still tanked thunderously at the box office by recouping only $3.5 million of its $44 million and was initially dubbed one of the worst movies ever made, while Cimino’s methods during production have long since become the stuff of legend. Even now, Redditors still can’t believe the lasting legacy the film had on the entirety of the business, with the historical folly imploding so spectacularly that it arguably changed the course of celluloid forevermore.