I confessed to Mike [Cimino] a couple of days before we shot. I was like, "What am I doing here, Mike?" And Mike just looked at me, in that very directorial manor, took a long pause, and he said, "You know the game tag?" And I said, "Yeah. " And he said, "Well, you're it. " That was some of the best direction I think I've ever received.
It frequently happens that two persons, reasoning right on a mechanical subject, think alike and invent the same thing without any communication with each other.