Die durch die Hölle gehen
Cimino's next film, "Heaven's Gate" (1980), debuted to lacerating reviews and took in only $3 million in ticket sales, effectively leaving United Artists bankrupt. The failure of "Heaven's Gate" led several critics to revise their positions on "The Deer Hunter". Canby said in his famous review of "Heaven's Gate", "[The film] fails so completely that you might suspect Mr. Cimino sold his soul to the Devil to obtain the success of "The Deer Hunter", and the Devil has just come around to collect." Andrew Sarris wrote in his review of "Heaven's Gate", "I'm a little surprised that many of the same critics who lionized Cimino for "The Deer Hunter" have now thrown him to the wolves with equal enthusiasm." Sarris added, "I was never taken in ... Hence, the stupidity and incoherence in "Heaven's Gate" came as no surprise since very much the same stupidity and incoherence had been amply evident in "The Deer Hunter"."