I’ve always had a fascination for this film. I’m not quite sure whether it’s the sort of fascination you get when you stumble upon a car crash (a rubber-necking sort of fascination) or an admiration for what the film was striving for and, maybe, could have been. The facts and figures around Heaven’s Gate are astounding. Michael Cimino’s vision of the Johnson County Wars was not only the costliest film of its time but its burgeoning budget brought down a Hollywood studio – United Artists. Its takings were miniscule in America as the public stayed away in their hordes. You do actually see a lot of the money up there on the screen in the form of authentic-looking costumes and massive sets. This film effectively ended Cimino’s career as a director in Hollywood. Cimino, after his critical and financial success with The Deer Hunter, was the darling of Hollywood. He was given free rein on Heaven’s Gate, a western covering a particularly nasty episode in the development of the USA. The story had some broad similarities to The Deer Hunter – the struggle of immigrants to survive in a terrible situation, the loss of innocence and hope. However, instead of fighting the Vietnamese as in The Deer Hunter, the immigrants in Heaven’s Gate were fighting their own adopted country or the people who ran it.

Masterpiece?

• Fantastic cinematography – you get a real sense of size and proportion of the landscape which gives a real epic feel to the film. Scenes on the prairies with the big open sky are breathtaking.
• Authenticity – millions of dollars were spent trying to make the film look representative of the period. Thousands of handmade costumes and many newly built sets.
• Action – when the action does come, it is brutal, bloody and believable
• Experimentation – Cimino clearly borrows techniques and style from the European Cinema to try and give this western a different edge and feel. The use of a circling camera in action scenes is reminiscent of the work of the obscure Hungarian film director Miklos Jansco. In many ways, it is successful in conveying the clash of cultures

Mess!

• No big stars – For a big budget epic it had no bankable star. Of the main stars only Kris Kristofferson had any sort of kudos for a Western as he had taken one of the leads in Peckinpah’s iconic Pat Garret ad Billy the Kid. Isabelle Hupert, as the love interest, was virtually unknown in America although well respected in Europe.
• Film Length – The film is either too long or too short depending on who you talk to. The original cut of the film was over three and a half hours which was cut by the studio by nearly an hour after a week’s performance. This created problems for the narrative and played havoc with the cadence of the film. It became disjointed and difficult to follow. A Director’s Cut was unveiled in 2004 being nearer the original length and addresses some of the narrative problems.
• Characters – It is difficult to identify with the main characters and warm to them. The film revolves around the Kristofferson character. However, the performance isn’t large enough to fill the hole at the centre of the film.
• Problematic subject – a story about genocide planned by the establishment and a storyline with a whiff of communism about it did not endear itself to the American public at that time. The western had all but died after The Wild Bunch so its timing was poor.
• Poor sound quality – you may think I’m nit-picking here but when important developments in the story are missed because you didn’t hear what the characters were saying…
• Out of Control Director – indulgence on a grand scale proving that more can be less

I would definitely recommend you to go and see whatever version of the film you can get to see although I also recommend you take a comfy cushion to sit on. I’m sure you can get it on DVD. I think it is a magnificent, interesting, infuriating mess with the odd touch of masterpiece about it. You don’t always want to see the best films do you? There is a famous book – Final Cut – written by one of the production executives in charge of the film (haha) detailing the progress of the fated production and the downfall of the studio. An interesting read on its own.