Synopses & Reviews
Heaven's Gate is probably the most discussed, least seen film in modern movie history. Its notoriety is so great that its title has become a generic term for disaster, for ego run rampant, for epic mismanagement, for wanton extravagance. It was also the film that brought down one of Hollywoods major studios—United Artists, the company founded in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith, and Charlie Chaplin. Steven Bach was senior vice president and head of worldwide production for United Artists at the time of the filming of Heaven's Gate, and apart from the director and producer, the only person to witness the films evolution from beginning to end. Combining wit, extraordinary anecdotes, and historical perspective, he has produced a landmark book on Hollywood and its people, and in so doing, tells a story of human absurdity that would have made Chaplin proud.
Review
"The best account of American moviemaking in the age of conglomerate control of the studios." — Pauline Kael,
The New Yorker"A landmark book on movies…must reading!" —Kirkus Reviews
"A compulsively readable account of adventures in the film trade. An intimate view of what goes on in the corridors of Hollywood power…distinguished by its awesome objectivity." —David Brown, The Zanuck Brown Co.
"Buffs will love this one…inside and fascinating looks at Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Sellers, writer William Goldman, Dino De Laurentiis, Truman Capote, Martin Scorsese, et al." —Newsday
"A riveting, witty and essentially heartbreaking chronicle of a catastrophe…" —Peter Bogdanovich, director of The Last Picture Show
"One of the few indispensable books about Hollywood." —Jack Kroll, Newsweek
Synopsis
"What altered Hollywood irrevocably was the notorious 1980 film Heaven's Gate." —Irwin Winkler, The New York Times (January 14, 1999)Heaven's Gate is probably the most discussed, least seen film in modern movie history. Its notoriety is so great that it has become a generic term for disaster, for ego run rampant, for epic mismanagement, for wanton extravagance. It was also the watershed film of the '80s—not for its cinematic qualities, but for its effect on Hollywood and the way movies were and were not made for years afterward. For Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate did not merely fail; the film did the unthinkable: it sank a studio. Less than a month after the picture's second release, United Artists—the company founded in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith, and Charlie Chaplin—for all practical purposes ceased to exist. What happened? Why? How? In answering these questions, combining wit, extraordinary anecdotes, and historical perspective, Steven Bach has produced a landmark book on Hollywood and its people, and in so doing, tells a story of human absurdity that would have made Chaplin proud.
About the Author
Steven Bach was the senior vice-president and head of worldwide production for United Artists at the time of the filming of Heaven's Gate. He has been associated with such productions as Sleuth, The Parallax View, The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three, and The French Lieutenant's Woman. Apart from the director and the producer, Bach was the only person to witness the evolution of Heaven's Gate from beginning to end. He now teaches film at Columbia University.