 This film has gone down as one of the most notorious screen  disasters in the history of the medium. After struggling with  personal films that went nowhere Michael Cimino (qv) finally got  to make _Deer Hunter, The (1978)_ (qv), a very personal project that  had brought him both critical and commercial success and earned five  Academy Awards. Afterwards, United Artists was willing to allow him  anything he wanted and was given a budget of $11.6 million to make  his next project, which was initially budget at $7.5 million  (according the Steven Bachs Final Cut book). This film was to be a  simple lower