Tag: The Man Who Came to Play

Hollywood Icarus

I finally found something that sheds some light on the screenplay The Man Who Came to Play, which was later repurposed into The Deer Hunter. Apparently it was a light-hearted buddy comedy, according to Charles Elton, author of Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate, and the Price of a Vision. Can you imagine if THAT movie got made? I’ve always thought that Russian Roulette was a barrel full of laughs. Fortunately the only thing from that script that made into The Deer Hunter was the element of Russian Roulette. The entire thing was re-written by Cimino and Deric Washburn because Cimino never saw a screenplay that he didn’t want to completely rewrite. This was partially the reason why he was later fired from Footloose.

I respect the hell out of Cimino. He was certifiably insane and one of the greatest bullshit artists to have ever lived. After watching him address the crowd at Locarno Film Festival, I suddenly had the courage to go with my instincts and never apologize. It was the most insane appearance I have ever seen. Charles Elton obviously felt the same way. In his biography of Cimino, Elton was a frequent apologist for the director’s genius and often blamed studio producers for his failures, including Steven Bach, one of the many studio executives for Heaven’s Gate who later wrote The Final Cut which has, more or less, become the official history for the making of that movie.

In defense of Elton, he is partially correct. Heaven’s Gate wasn’t the only big budget auteur-driven film to have bombed around that time. William Friedkin’s Sorcerer and Francis Ford Coppola’s One From the Heart are two notable examples. The film industry was changing towards the direction of crowd-friendly features, probably thanks to the success of Star Wars and Jaws, and Cimino was the scapegoat for why creative control was wrestled away from directors.

But Cimino didn’t help himself. At no point while reading Elton’s book did I feel sorry for the auteur. My admiration for Cimino never diminished, but…at least according to Elton’s telling…he was so shut off from reality that he was only able to come to his senses after it was too late. Cimino even admitted that he simply couldn’t get along with middle management, which is a sentiment that I can relate to, but in the case of Heaven’s Gate, perhaps he needed to dial it back a bit. The picture simply isn’t good, regardless of what contemporary European critics might argue. It is bloated and self-indulgent and probably could have benefited from studio interference…during production, at least…to tighten it up. But as it stands today, Heaven’s Gate stands as the most notorious reminder of unbridled artistic genius run amok, even though Cimino wasn’t the first (or last) to be guilty of this crime.

The man who came to play

I’ve always said that the greatest movie ever made is The Deer Hunter. And it’s no secret that I experience the most insane dreams possible.

So last night, I dreamt that The Deer Hunter was never produced at all and instead, in its place, the original script titled The Man Who Came to Play was made. I know nothing of this apparently “spec” script, other than it involves friends going to Las Vegas to play Russian Roulette. Michael Cimino and Deric Washburn later repurposed this screenplay into The Deer Hunter, switching out Vegas for Vietnam.

In fact, as far as I know, only the Russian Roulette scenes survived in the final draft from the original treatment. There’s no telling what The Man Who Came To Play would have looked like, but if my dream is any indication, it would have fit in well with the dark 70s canon.

This script, written by Louis A Garfinkle and soap opera actor Quinn Redeker, is apparently for sale online. There’s no telling how much it costs and I couldn’t find any of its story details, but my main question is why did this friend or friends go to Vegas to play Russian Roulette?

Did they do it willfully?

Were they coerced?!

I understand why Cimino and Washburn repurposed it. It made sense for the time and it absolutely worked. But I like to play this game of “what if”. Nowadays, I find the original concept to be far more darker and nihilistic, especially if the friends were written to be Vietnam vets.

I can’t help but think that The Man Who Came To Play would have made a terrific spiritual sequel to Taxi Driver. Think about it: Bobby DeNiro as Travis Bickle. We’ll pretend that the ending to Taxi Driver wasn’t the dying dream of a mass shooter. Instead, Bickle survives and goes to Vegas where’s he’s once again disgusted with the crime and decadence of Sin City. One way or another, he finds himself reliving the nightmares of Vietnam; he begins entertaining depraved businessmen by hitting the underground Russian Roulette circuit.

I see a lot of Paul Schrader’s “God’s lonely man” in Garfinkle and Redeker’s concept. But oh well. We got The Deer Hunter instead and we should all be thankful for that.

But if anyone knows anything about this script, please reach out to me.