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But how did they know the earth is flat? How did they break the Japanese secret code in World War II? How did they pick the Four Hundred? How did they discover the atom is mostly empty space? How did ballet dancers start dancing on their toes? How did they start the breakfast cereal industry? How did they perform the first cesarean delivery? How did the blue blazer become a classic? How did they decide which horses were Thoroughbreds? How did Houdini escape from a packing case underwater? How did they discover Neanderthal man?

The fearful Bedouins left five scrolls with the Syrian right there and then. Later they took them, along with other fragments, to the Metropolitan, who bought them for a reported £50. The Metropolitan proceeded to send a merchant and a priest out to the cave to verify the Bedouins’ story. The two men spent an uncomfortable night in the stifling August heat, found the pottery fragments and linen, but soon retreated, bringing no samples of their finds. The Bedouins, it was discovered later, had been using two of the ancient jars to carry water.

The new management at United Artists decided to take on the project, which Cimino at one point claimed could be completed for under $8 million. 6 million. That summer Michael Cimino, Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, producer Joann Carelli, and over 100 technicians and craftsmen packed up their belongings and headed for the sleepy town of Kalispell, Montana. From there the obsessive director launched his dream, with his mania for authenticity the sole beacon, the guiding force, the green light to spend—and keep on spending.