10 Accidental Masterpieces From Otherwise Bad Directors

3. The Deer Hunter €“ Michael Cimino

Before Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket there was The Deer Hunter. Many Americans were torn over the United State's role in the Vietnam War, abd Hollywood would accurately portray it's affect on those who fought in the war and those who came home after it. This was the premise of Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter. The film plays out almost like a home movie at times. Oftentimes it's not focusing so much on what the characters are saying, but allowing the viewer to eavesdrop on these relationships, friendships and personal moments, those last moments and occasions before a group of them are shipped off to go fight in the Vietnam war. It's a delicate balance between being obtrusive and being engaged with these characters. What is also so striking is the contrast of their small-town lives and the chaos and violence of the war, made all the more stark by their return to that small town. Even to the viewer, things don't look or feel the same when they return home. We can connect with how it must feel to these men who have returned to try and find their place in the world again after enduring all the horrors they had to face. Cimino's direction is both grand and intimate. He captures the small nuances of american blue-collar life as well as the gritty, claustrophobic sense of being a prisoner of war. His style brings to mind the epic scale that Francis Ford Coppola brought to the first two Godfather films. Deservedly, Cimino won an Academy Award for Best Director and The Deer Hunter won for Best Picture. After The Deer Hunter, Cimino would direct a film called Heaven's Gate. Grand by design and epic in failure, the film defined what a Hollywood flop was. Costing an estimated $44 million (in 1980), the film managed to only return $3 million domestically and nearly, single-handedly, bankrupted United Artists. Furthermore, Cimino became black-listed as a director who went exceedingly over budget €“ even on The Deer Hunter. Cimino would eventually direct again but never to the degree that he displayed in The Deer Hunter.