Distinctly Montana Magazine

69 w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m EXIT Realty Bitterroot Valley Distinctly Montana - 2025 2025 - Fall 1/2 Page Horizontal But there are also other problems. That opening sequence, which is breathtaking, is nearly a half hour long. Even after watching it twice, I'm not exactly sure why Cimino felt compelled to de- vote so much time to that scene. It seems to have very little re- lationship to the rest of the story other than introducing two of the main characters, Kris Kristofferson's James Averil and John Hurt's Billy Irvine. The aftermath of Heaven's Gate was tragic in so many ways. Not only did it result in the sale of United Artists to another studio, but Cimino, who was clearly a gifted director, became a pariah in Hollywood. Although he did direct four more films during his lifetime, none of them came close to the quality he had shown in The Deer Hunter or Heaven's Gate, and of course he was never given that kind of control again. Many major directors blamed Cimino, with good reason, for nev- er having the same kind of artistic freedom again themselves. Di- rectors like Coppola, Scorsese, Bogdanovich, and Robert Altman had worked hard to develop relationships with the studios that gave them way more artistic control during the seventies; studios showed more faith in the creative process. Heaven's Gate changed that, and many never forgave Cimino, who became something of a recluse in later years. There were rumors that he was going through a gender transition in his final years, and photos seem to confirm this, although Cimino himself denied it But according to those close to him, he never stopped working, producing countless screenplays and eventually turning to fiction, even winning an award in Europe for one of his novels, Big Jane. Perhaps the most telling fact about Cimino was a confession he made about a room in his house where he stored all of his proj- ects, which consisted of huge stacks of paper. Because of the earthquakes in California, these stacks had been disrupted so many times that they had turned into a mountain of paper, and Cimino confided to a friend that he was unable to even enter that room because it was too overwhelming. 3 7 3 D R E O , S T E V E N S V I L L E , M O N T A N A Elegant home on 20 Acres | Pond | Year-Round Creek $3,675,000 Kim Lendman Broker/Owner 406-531-0783

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