Michael Cimino

Frequently casts Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken and Jeff Bridges
Sudden bursts of violence in seemingly tranquil or naturalistic settings (the church shootout early in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), Vietnam jungle warfare in The Deer Hunter (1978), Chinatown gangster-warfare in Year of the Dragon (1985), taking a family hostage in the suburbia of Desperate Hours (1990), astronauts joyriding moon-buggies through an orbital greenhouse in Silent Running (1972)).
Characters disillusioned with the American Dream (The Deer Hunter (1978), Heaven's Gate (1980), The Sunchaser (1996)).
Controversial subject matter (the Russian Roulette games set up by the Vietnamese in The Deer Hunter (1978), the negative stereotyping of the Chinese in Year of the Dragon (1985), the heroic portrayal of Italian criminal Salvatore Giuliano in The Sicilian (1987)).
[Poetic Realism] His films are all stylized yet realistic, they have fatalistic views of life, and the overall tone is a mix of nostalgia and bitterness. All of these traits fit within the definition of the poetic realism film movement in France of the 1930s and through the war years, which probably accounts for a lot of Cimino's popularity in France.

In December 1981 he was signed to direct the musical Footloose (1984). Producer Daniel Melnick warned him that if the film went over its budget of $7.5 million, Cimino would have to cover the expenses himself. He agreed, but the following month, just as the movie was about to begin shooting, he asked Melnick to let him rewrite the screenplay for an additional $250.000 and to delay the start date. Melnick fired him and Herbert Ross directed Footloose (1984) instead.
Had Heaven's Gate (1980) been a hit instead of a flop, he intended to follow it up with another epic that he had already scripted: "Conquering Horse." This screenplay was a generational saga, tracing the history of the Sioux Indians in America. He planned for the entire movie to be told in authentic Sioux dialogue, with English subtitles. To date, this picture has never been filmed.
After quitting directing, he found success as a novelist in France.
In 1981 he was hired by CBS to direct "Live on Tape," a film about camera crews. but after Heaven's Gate (1980) crashed and burned at the box office, CBS changed its mind; the movie remains unmade to this day.
In 1979 he was considered to direct The King of Comedy (1982), which would have re-teamed him with Robert De Niro. Because of Cimino's preoccupation with Heaven's Gate (1980), Martin Scorsese directed the film.

[11/11/96 interview in "People" magazine on how the failure of Heaven's Gate (1980) affected his life] It was really a great trauma, as everyone knows. Since then, I've been unable to make any movie that I've wanted to make. I've been making the best of what is available.
[July 2002, on The Deer Hunter (1978) post-9/11] They've been running The Deer Hunter (1978) like crazy on Bravo. And here is the whole goddamned Congress singing "God Bless America" on the steps of the US Capitol. I said, "Holy shit, this is the ending of the movie". Do you get now, 20 years later, why that was in the movie?
I don't make movies intellectually, I don't make movies to make a point, I make movies to tell stories about people.
Films are home movies of your past.
If you don't get it right, what's the point?