Heaven's Gate (1980)

Heaven's Gate

This 1980 movie is famous for the over budget spending by Director Michael Cimino. United Artists went under as a result. Cimino was such a perfectionist and shot so many millions of feet of film that he was unable to cut down and the first edited version was over 5 hours long. The story depicts the Johnson County War near Casper and Kaycee, Wyoming in the late 1800s. The mostly immigrant settlers were supplementing their meager rations with free ranging stolen beef and the Wyoming Stock Growers Association decided to eliminate the problem by eliminating the settlers. I saw the movie years ago and wanted to review it mainly for the scenery, which is spectacular, the music, done by a young violinist, David Mansfield and the horse and livestock scenes. I know the person who furnished the mexican steers used. They hired a whole semi-load of steers, paid daily rent for nearly 3 months and ended up with about 45 seconds of film of the cattle. Some of the horse scenes show the horses falling in a non humane method where they are tripped instead of the usual way using horses trained to fall. Also the whole cast had to learn to roller skate for one notable scene when Mansfield played the violin while skating in "Heaven's Gate" the name of the settlers Community Hall. Also one of the actors, Allen Keller, was a well known rodeo cowboy. He appears in a few scenes as a 'heavy". June 9, 2008

Heaven's Gate

Slow and plodding, but beautifully shot and well worth watching. Although I prefer more action in a western, I also realize that in reality, the "old west" consisted of a slow, plodding existence. (The so-called "REALITY" shows on TV need to take note - There is very little, if any, reality invovlved in those shows). May 21, 2008

Worst Ever

I saw this movie when it originally came out. Over the years, whenever people talk about a bad movie and, invariably, will give their opinion on the worst movie they ever saw, I always mention this one as the worst ever made. I describe it as people being shot by machine guns and then the bullet holes being shown close up. They did this multiple times and it's all I can tell you about it because the storyline was so confusing. I know it was about the cattle ranch wars but couldn't tell you much else because it made no sense. Cinematography is all well and good and it can add much to a movie but it can't make a really (really, really) bad movie good no matter how beautifully it was shot. May 2, 2008

Worst movie ever made? Read Guardian article...

A recent article in the Guardian (excellent UK newspaper) featured this film prominently when assessing criteria for "The Worst Film Of All Time".

The journalist's name is Joe Queenan. I suggest you do a web search on the article - it's absolutely hilarious.

Showgirls has some competition! April 9, 2008

Heaven's Gate Flawed, Yes, but a Visual Stunner

Heaven's Gate was an attempt to create a great movie, a great western. Unfortunately, director Michael Cimino got so bogged down with the detail and minutiae of creating a classic piece of cinema that he forgot all about character development, story structure, and pacing. There really is no plot. The movie is basically a 3-hour set up for a 30-minute battle sequence that ends badly for every character. But the movie is a visual feast.

The biggest problem, the most important problem, is that we are never made to care for these characters and that we don't know them. We are never to know why Christopher Walken's bounty hunter, Nate Champion, is conflicted with killing immigrants. Yes, we do know he loves the immigrant Ella Watson but that is simply for the sake of what passes for plot. There is a moment when Walken's character threatens to kill an immigrant kid. The kid asks why and tells Walken that he's just like one of them. This theme is not developed. We never know why Kris Kristofferson's character, Jim Averill, is already a weary, beaten down man. The immigrants, hundreds of them, are not introduced as individuals, but as a giant mob of anonymous victims of the equally anonymous rich bad landowners.

The good things: The photography. The American West has never looked this beautiful, or mythic. The panoramic views of the large cold lakes, the massive snow capped mountains, and shots of the immigrants walking across dust filled roads toward their realization of the American Dream (soon to turn American Nightmare) are very moving and touching. The attention to period detail is fantastic. The music, using the instruments and sounds of that period, adds to the great mood of epic tragedy.

Watch Heaven's Gate with an open mind and remind yourself that, sure, this is not perfect film, but at least Michael Cimino tried to make something that was cinematic and mature, a film that dealt with the American Dream and American history in such a dark, cynical way. February 21, 2008

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