Director Michael Cimino (1939)

To Each His Own Cinema (2007) is a French comedy-drama anthology film created for the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. It showcases 34 short films, each 3 minutes long, by 36 renowned directors from various parts of the world. The filmmakers were invited to express ‘their state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theatre’. The film’s subtitle, ‘a declaration of love to the big screen’, captures its overall theme. Many of the shorts touch on similar topics such as paying tribute to classic European art cinema, reflecting on the decline of movie-going, recollecting childhood awe, and exploring the ...

The  film The Sunchaser (1996) is a road crime drama, directed by Michael Cimino. It follows the story of Brandon ‘Blue’ Monroe, a sixteen-year-old half-Navajo gang member from East L.A., who is serving time in prison for murdering his abusive stepfather. During his annual medical visit, Blue receives devastating news from Dr. Michael Reynolds, a wealthy and materialistic oncologist with a wife and daughter. He is told that he has abdominal cancer and only has a short time left to live. Determined to find healing from a medicine man he knew in Arizona when he was eight years old, Blue takes Michael hostage ...

Directed by Michael Cimino, Desperate Hours (1990) is an American neo-noir action thriller film. This remake of the 1955 film and adaptation of the 1954 novel by Joseph Hayes was written by Hayes himself and co-written by Cimino. In Utah, defense lawyer Nancy Breyers finds herself inexplicably infatuated with her client, intelligent yet sociopathic convict Michael Bosworth. During a courtroom hearing, Nancy slips Bosworth a gun and they escape together when he savagely kills ...

The film The Sicilian (1987), directed by Michael Cimino, is a sweeping historical crime drama. Its screenplay was written by Steve Shagan and later revised by both Cimino and Gore Vidal, based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same title from 1984. The story follows Salvatore Giuliano, a notorious bandit who leads a group of rebels in an attempt to liberate Sicily from Italian control during the early 1950s and turn it into ...

Year of the Dragon (1985) is an American neo-noir crime thriller film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino. It follows the story of Stanley White, a highly decorated police captain and Vietnam War veteran who is assigned to New York City’s Chinatown. Desperate to rid the city of Chinese organized crime, White becomes fixated on taking down Joey Tai, a young man who relentlessly climbs the ranks of the Triads. As their rivalry intensifies, they unravel the fragile peace that has long existed between the Triads and the local police precinct. Meanwhile, other criminal groups such as the Italian Mob and Thai ...

Heaven’s Gate (1980), an epic Western film directed and written by Michael Cimino, follows the story of two recent Harvard graduates, Jim Averill and Billy Irvine. During their graduation ceremony, the Reverend Doctor delivers a speech on the value of education and its connection to different social classes. However, Irvine, as the class orator, has opposing and irreverent views. The festivities continue with a celebration and male students serenading the female attendees, including Averill’s girlfriend. Twenty years later, Averill is now a marshal traveling through Casper, Wyoming on his way to Johnson ...

The American epic war drama film, The Deer Hunter (1978), was co-written and directed by Michael Cimino. Set in late 1968 in a tight-knit Slavic American community in Western Pennsylvania, it follows the story of three friends: Mike Vronsky, Steven Pushkov, and Nikanor ‘Nick’ Chevotarevich. The trio works at a steel mill and often goes hunting with their co-workers – Stanley (‘Stan’), Peter ‘Axel’ Axelrod, and John Welsh. As they prepare to leave for military service in Vietnam, Steven is engaged to Angela Ludhjduravic who has been secretly impregnated by another man. Meanwhile, ...

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), an American crime comedy film written and directed by Michael Cimino, follows the story of a young man named Lightfoot who impulsively steals a car. Meanwhile, an assassin targets a preacher giving a sermon and chases him on foot. By chance, Lightfoot comes to the preacher’s rescue when he unintentionally runs down the assailant and offers him a ride. As they continue to evade danger, they bond over stealing cars and visiting prostitutes. However, Lightfoot soon discovers that his companion is actually infamous bank robber ‘Thunderbolt’, hiding under the guise of a ...