THIS was the film that sank Cimino ~

There is a version clocking in at 131 minutes or so that definitely shows the scope and scale of the film Cimino may have had in mind. I've read that the studio took this film and sliced it to ribbons - Cimino was furious because he wanted it to be non-linear, and the studio didn't see it that way. Sorry, I can't remember the article but if I run across it again I'll post it.

Not to say that Cimino doesn't bear the blame - he certainly does. I knew we were in deep trouble when Camilla eases herself into the bathtub - we have the harp and the tinkling piano in the background - I mean, my god, all she has to do is look at the camera and say, "Dove moisturizer. If it's good enough for a Duchess, it's good enough for you!"

Cimino developed a tendency towards extreme, feminine campiness with this film and he has yet to shed it - it was prevalent throughout his subsequent two films. What happened to the fire, muscle, and grit of his first few films?

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Not to mention that Cimano's behavior during the filming of the Sicilian was even worse then his behavior during "Heaven's Gate". He is lucky that the studio did not have him arrested over his little stunt of hiding vital footage from "The Sicilian" in hopes of forcing the studio to agree to his demands.Incredibly stupid,given he should have known he was on a short leash after Heaven's Gate.
He actually was on the comeback trail...Year of the Dragon was actually a modest sucess and turned a profit,a huge step up from the box office catastrophe that was Heaven's Gate. But Cimano manages to piss his second chance away with his outrageous behavior. And although Heaven Gate's has quite a few defenders as a movie, The Sicilian has very few.

I'll Teach You To Laugh At Something's That's Funny
Homer Simpson

I hear you. And yeah, I've always thought Stallone was great in earlier days. Remember the first 'Rocky'? That's still an absolutely remarkable performance.

Cimino's missed the boat, by now, for another film. I would someday like to read "Big Jane", if it's ever translated into English. I think that will be the closest I'll get to another of his real epics.

There are tiny flashes of what-might-have-been with The Sicilian. You really do have to put some serious blinders on, however, to ignore Lambert, Sukowa, et al. Actually, a lot of this cast isn't half-bad: Turturro seems to want to make the most of his role, and I absolutely love Joss Ackland as the Don. But they're surrounded by so much camp, and it seems that some of it is deliberate on Cimino's part. That's what pisses me off - the Cimino of The Deer Hunter would NEVER have filmed the scene where Barbara Sukowa slips into that bathtub, with the harp music in the background. We're in Joel Schumacher territory more than a few times as this "epic" unfolds.

It's really too bad. I watched this film for the first time fully aware of the arc of Cimino's filmmaking career, and willing to believe that some of the majesty of Heaven's Gate, or the exciting grit of Year of the Dragon, remained to a degree. I had even saw Desperate Hours, and that ONE SCENE (all that Red River Valley stuff) showed that Cimino could still tap into that reservoir.

Watching this film you almost want Cimino in the room with you, so you can say it right to his face how dismal a failure in tone this thing is. At least David Lean, with Ryan's Daughter, got the message and took his criticisms seriously.

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Just throwing this out there. I'm well aware of the highs and lows of Cimino's career circa HEAVEN'S GATE. However, I had not really given this film much attention until browsing through it this week.

Yet, there's one thing I noticed that might be contributing to the campy stiltedness of it. Other than obvious deficits such as Lambert's casting/performance and some ill-conceived sequences that seem out of character for Cimino's established directorial personality...

...is it possible that a great deal of the camp/cheese factor is attributed to by the bad dubbing of certain characters? That's not to suggest that there aren't several characters/performances in the film whose audible dialogue were in fact authentically recorded and on display in the film. Only, as I watched it myself (giving partial, if not entire attention), I noticed that - in the classic tradition of European films prior to the 80's and 90's - there are clearly several actors whose entire audible vocal performance are dubbed in ADR, and quite possibly by an entirely different actor.

Instead of having the feeling of just a beautifully or even overly designed film with multi-cultural cast and crew on display, it has that sense of Italian (co-)produced stilted, almost humorous dubbing that one associates with an Argento film, or Lucio Fulci, and co. And by noting this, I'm not even suggesting that the syncing of the dubbed audio and the filmed performance are necessarily incongruous, but clearly the vocal tonnage is. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that plenty of this film was dubbed in ADR.

Did anyone else notice this, or think that perhaps it played a role in the perception of the film as campy?

Hi Franz -

Yes, there are some good qualities to the film. It's weird, because I'll rail on this movie relentlessly if given half a chance, but at the same time I find it compulsively watchable. As said, I have a strange affection for the movie....but totally against my better judgment.

There are bad movies I have absolutely zero interest in, and won't even waste my time writing about what's wrong. "The Sicilian" is different, in that trying to put your finger on what's wrong is a lot of fun, even more fun than writing about films we thoroughly enjoy. Apparently a blu-ray director's cut will be coming out later this month. Given how goregously realized Heaven's Gate looks when remastered, I'll definitely check out what Cimino might have had in mind. Can't squeeze blood from a stone, but I have a feeling this will be fun.

Cimino's career I find fascinating up to this movie. Where he goes wrong here is an inconsistent tone - you're correct in that the final stretch of the movie is quite involving...but it's hard to erase the camp that permeates throughout. But it's a camp I enjoy in an almost-schadenfreude kind of way - I like to watch it, what can I say? Doesn't mean it's any good, but there's something to a film whose qualities keep me 100% engaged, flawed or not. Some of DePalma's and D.Lynch's work have the same sorts of qualities, particularly the latter's "Wild at Heart" - a film full of questionable asides and shifts in tone, but, wow, what a ride.

Cimino had one scene in "Desperate Hours" that, completely out of context, shows the man could still find that space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCqdq2ifZ0w - watching this you'd think the surrounding film had something magnificent going for it, but alas, that lone scene remains to this day Cimino's last great contribution to cinema. I can't even watch the rest of that movie, and The Sunchaser is a real howler.

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