Final Cut

By Steven Bach,

Book cover of Final Cut: Art, Money and EGO in the Making of "Heaven's Gate", the Film That Sank United Artists

Book description

Heaven's Gate is probably the most discussed, least seen film in modern movie history. Its notoriety is so great that its title has become a generic term for disaster, for ego run rampant, for epic mismanagement, for wanton extravagance. It was also the film that brought down one of Hollywood’s…


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1 author picked Final Cut as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Bach was an executive at United Artists when the struggling studio decided to bet it all—and then some—on a film called Heaven’s Gate. It ended up being one of the most infamous debacles in Hollywood history: a critical and commercial dud that took so long to make and lost so much money that it literally destroyed a studio.

How does a bomb this bad happen? Bach shows in detail how the best of intentions can lead to failure in a story that doesn’t just demonstrate what went wrong with Heaven’s Gate but how hard it is to make a good…

From Ben's list on behind the scenes in Hollywood.

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