The Joy of Positivity: Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Michael Cimino's directorial debut is a work of precocious genius.

I recently watched the documentary about the making and unmaking of Heaven’s Gate for The Fractured Mirror and was disappointed to learn that it’s a television movie so it does not fit the criteria for the book. It’s a fascinating and surprisingly empathetic look at a famous disaster I have a lot of affection for and consider a great, greatly flawed motion picture featuring insights from the high-powered likes of Jeff Bridges, Brad Dourif and Kris Kristofferson but no input from Heaven’s Gate’s famously reclusive and eccentric writer-director Michael Cimino.