Can a single film ruin the career of a director at the peak of his career, nearly bankrupt a multimillion-dollar studio with a long history, and also mark the end of a golden era for the industry? The answer is yes.

Heaven's Gate was probably the biggest economic disaster in Hollywood history, without a doubt the film that had the worst consequences. A curious sum of factors that resulted in the total catastrophe.

Cimino had the same obsession that other industry greats such as Kubrick or Francis Ford Coppola have had. But, unlike these monsters, the move didn't turn out so well for him.

We can say that with Heaven's Gate they spared no expense: they built a city of the style they needed, completely real. The train seen in the film had to be transported from a museum in Colorado to Montana, where the film was filmed, for the simple reason that the director did not like the train that the production company had gotten him.

2,500 extras were hired, and hundreds of actors and actresses entered what they called 'Camp Cimino'... which we can say was a several-week long training where they were taught skills that were supposedly important for filming, such as horse riding, carriage driving, shooting, roller skating, etc.

The film is set in the 19th century and is based on the confrontation between the locals against the European immigrants who are coming to live on their lands. We see everything from the point of view of a sheriff with power and education, who stands against his colleagues and in favor of the marginalized. The film shows a complicated stage of the country in a quite precise and particular way, a stage that many of us did not know.

And although it may seem crazy because of what happened, Heaven's Gate is a very good movie.

So... Why was it the biggest flop in Hollywood history? In the video we tell you.

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