Michael Cimino on Capturing the Real World on Film

The Criterion Collection has released a clip from an interview with dierctor Michael Cimino which was included on the Blu-ray release of the recently restored and reconstructed Heaven's Gate (1980), starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, and Brad Dourif.

You can see our listing and review of this release here.

Director Cimino passed away earlier this month at the age of 77.

Official film synopsis: A visionary critique of American expansionism, Heaven's Gate, directed by Oscar winner Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter), is among Hollywood's most ambitious and unorthodox epics. Kris Kristofferson (Lone Star) brings his weathered sensuality to the role of a Harvard graduate who has relocated all the way to Wyoming as a federal marshal; there, he learns of a government-sanctioned plot by rich cattle barons to kill the area's European settlers for their land. The resulting skirmish is based on the real-life bloody Johnson County War of 1892. Also starring Isabelle Huppert (White Material) and Christopher Walken (King of New York), Heaven's Gate is a savage and ravishingly shot demystification of western movie lore. This is the full director's cut, letting viewers today see Cimino's potent original vision.