(3 February 1939 - 2 July 2016)
The American film director, writer and producer was originally a student of architecture and theatre until he had the opportunity to make documentaries and commercials. His first feature as a screenwriter was co-writing Silent Running (1972), a futuristic cross between ecology and science fiction. After working on the ‘Dirty Harry’ movie Magnum Force (1973) Clint Eastwood asked him to write and direct Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. This led eventually to Cimino directing his own story in The Deer Hunter (1978), an iconic study of the effects of the Vietnam War. Cimino contributed (uncredited) to the Bette Midler starrer The Rose and then came one of his and Hollywood’s biggest flops, Heaven’s Gate, although it has lately been re-evaluated. His career was packed with films he might have made but didn’t and some from which he was dropped. This may account for his relatively small output – he wrote just nine screenplays and directed only eight films including Year of the Dragon, The Sicilian, Desperate Hours and The Sunchaser, his last film in 1996. He finally contributed in 2007 to To Each His Own Cinema, a collection of shorts by over thirty globally famous directors. Always controversial, Cimino will be remembered for the personal quality of his films and his abiding desire not to compromise for commercialisation’s sake.
MICHAEL DARVELL
