Interview (Written): Michael Cimino
Yesterday we learned that writer-director Michael Cimino had died at the age of 77. From Variety:
Cimino directed eight films in his career. His first was 1974’s “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”; his second was the 1978 Vietnam War masterpiece “The Deer Hunter,” which won five Academy Awards, including best picture and director; his third was 1980’s “Heaven’s Gate,” the film that became synonymous with showbiz disaster; and the rest were mostly footnotes, though some (like “Year of the Dragon”) have passionate fans.
The rise and fall of Cimino is so extreme that it would undoubtedly make for a great book, miniseries or opera. But it may not make a good film: It would require too big a budget, and the plot would be too complex. His career is a cautionary tale for Hollywood, about the eternal conflict between artistry and finance, with side battles between creative people and the media.
Here is an excerpt from the last known interview with Cimino conducted by the Hollywood Reporter’s Seth Abramovitch:
What about critics? Do their opinions matter?
I’m not in the habit of reading reviews or opinions, I’ve still got unopened stacks of all the stuff that was written about Deer Hunter, about Heaven’s Gate, about Year of the Dragon because in each one I was categorized, you know — first film, I was homophobic, second film, I was a right-wing fascist, third film, I was a left-wing racist, this and that, left-wing Marxist, and fourth film, I was a racist. So they couldn’t make up their mind what I was.
But there is no doubt who Clint is. There never was, in my opinion. And I just wish that night that I was fortunate enough to be on that stage. [It] was John Wayne’s last public appearance. I was so overcome. And I just wish I’d had the presence of mind to acknowledge the debt I owed Clint and feel I still owe him.
So I’m sure there are areas in the U. S., I mean, I don’t know, you probably know better than I. But the film is doing so well that I’m sure in certain parts of the country, in certain kinds of population mixes, there are similar emotional reactions. There’s got to be some kind of extreme emotional reaction for the movie to be doing that well. You know what? It hasn’t happened since The Deer Hunter. I mean, all the movies that have been made about war were, from Platoon to the thing the girl made about the box…
You mean Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker?
The Hurt Locker, right. “The box.” (Laughs.) The Hurt Locker. There’s been none of that. But here there’s an emotional charge.
Well, help me understand that.
’Cause it’s about people. It’s about people. Movies are about people, there’re not about ideas. It’s like great novels. Great novels are not about ideas. There’s never been a great novel about ideas. You think about the great novels in history. Think of [Gustave] Flaubert, [Madame] Bovary, it’s about Emma, it’s not about an idea. You think about Anna Karenina, it’s not about an idea, it’s about Anna.
Every great movie is about the people, even if it’s a great popular success like Gone With the Wind. It’s really not about the Civil War. It’s about Scarlett and Rhett. That’s who you go to see. You’re not going to root for the North or pull for the South, or, you know, it’s the people you remember. And the great strength of movies is when it creates great characters. The greatest movie — what movie do you love above all movies?
Oh man …
Give me one or two.
The Godfather films, Psycho.
OK, and who do you remember?
You remember Michael Corleone, you remember Norman Bates.
OK, you don’t remember an idea. You remember a character. You remember the people.
But you feel that Platoon, The Hurt Locker somehow fall short of that? How are those different?
No, I don’t think they fall short at all. It’s just that they’re made with a different sensibility. I mean, I love Oliver [Stone], I worked with Oliver, we co-wrote Year of the Dragon together, and I think Oliver’s one of the most talented screenwriters in America, he and Jimmy Toback. And they direct, they’ve both directed movies — Oliver’s won a couple of gold statues. But they are really great writers.
It’s just that Clint has brought a special feeling to this. This is something that has come from within inside of him and the story of this man resonated inside of his body and his soul and his mind and his heart. And those other films don’t do that because they are about the war. Do you see what I mean? They’re about Vietnam or they’re about Iraq. This could have been a movie about any war in any country. And I believe that’s true of Deer Hunter. It’s just about war, period.
Here is the final scene from The Deer Hunter:
The scene speaks to the visual nature of movies. Apart from the singing, there are only two lines of dialogue in this critical moment. Everything else is told through close-ups of faces, forcing us to feel the myriad layers of emotions going on with every single character there. As Cimino remarks in the interview about why movies work, “…you don’t remember an idea. You remember a character. You remember the people.”
For the rest of the interview, go here.