David Denby

“Cimino obviously believes that “ordinary” people are quite extraordinary under the surface. His casting of the aristocratic-looking theater actress Meryl Streep as a sweet, not very bright small-town beauty seems perverse and risky, but Cimino needed the radiance and grace of this actress to illuminate a basically inarticulate character. And the same is true of the others….”

David Denby
New York, December 18, 1978