Heaven's Gate Movie Review

Heaven's Gate (1980)

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Written by: Michael Cimino
Directed by: Michael Cimino
Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Joseph Cotton, Jeff Bridges
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
During the Johnson County War in 1890 Wyoming, a sheriff born into wealth does his best to protect immigrant farmers from rich cattle interests.

Verdict
It's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but I'm sure at the time it was the biggest disappointment based on the pedigree of those involved. This movie is so boring, the story is muddled and unclear, and it's incredibly indulgent. We don't get into the main plot until the two hour mark. No new director would get this kind of freedom, and because of this movie no future director would get this kind of leeway. I began this movie impressed at the ambitiousness, but I became annoyed with the lack of story progress or goals. In the last third I was just hoping this would end soon. This goads you into complete apathy which later became irritation as I was mad the movie hadn't concluded. I knew I was in trouble when I realized the first twenty minutes could have been cut with no effect whatsoever on the story.
Skip it.

Review
It's been called one of the worst films ever, though that's more to do with how expensive it was versus how little money it made as well as poor reviews. The movie was plagued by bad press alluding to cost over runs, re-shoots, and Cimino's authoritative management style. Cimino had an expensive and ambitious vision for the film, going four times over the planned budget. That was in part due to his obsessiveness for details that created countless delays. This movie alone is credited with the end of director driven films, with studios taking creative control. The original release of the movie received such backlash that the studio cut it down by one hour and re-released it. Cimino's script was rejected three times before his Oscar wins for The Deer Hunter (1978) gave him enough credibility to push this forward. The original cut was over five hours long, and the studio told him no. Cimino cut it down to three hours and forty minutes before the ultimate release, edited by the studio clocked in at two hours thirty minutes. The version I watched was three hours plus.

This is long and it feels like it. I get why people were disappointed. The production is impressive at least. It creates a busy and vibrant town unlike any I've seen, but the pacing of the movie is terrible. 

The endless Harvard graduation scene that opens the movie feels like an indulgence. We get no indication why these two guys that keep getting closeups are important. There's also a girl. Does this have any relevance to the plot? Initially that seemed like a no, and ultimately it's a no as well. I don't know why the scene was included.

Kris Kristofferson plays Averill

Twenty years later, immigrants travel to a new town. Averill (Kris Kristofferson), a marshal now, stops over in Wyoming. We quickly get a sense of Averill when he steps in to stop a man from beating on someone. New, poor immigrants conflict with the settlement's wealthier ranchers that hold all the power. The ranchers, led by Canton (Sam Waterston), want to run off anyone new, and violence isn't out of the question. It's an age old tale, the rich want to get rid of the poor. Averill isn't a fan, and that was easy to guess earlier when he stopped a fight.

The production design and scale impresses. This settlement is full of people and it looks legitimate. I'm not sure I've ever seen a turn of the century town look so busy. Horses and buggy's roll through non-stop. It's almost too busy as the sound and motion overshadows conversations. Part of the excess is wanting to show what life was like in a frontier town. This does that as we see the mundane of the streets and dancing.

Averill and Nate Champion (Christopher Walken) are interested in the same woman, not that it amounts to much. Champion is a hired gun for the ranchers, enacting their brand of justice.

Christopher Walken plays Nate Champion

Everything in this movie is long and drawn out. It's a complete indulgence that it even got made, and that's only because Cimino won an Oscar. He couldn't get this made until he had more industry clout. There's a reason this was rejected, and everyone found out why.

Averill discovers the ranchers plan to murder all the immigrants. He heads to the city to inform the people. That happens at two hours into the movie, and that's the main plot. How is this scene not earlier to set the plot for the movie? What have we been doing for the last two hours? Canton and his posse upset Champion who attacks them out of revenge. Canton can't let that go.

Canton and the ranchers attack Averill and the immigrants, it's not as one sided as it could have been. The U.S. Army steps in to stop the fight, but that's more to save face for the wealthy.

This movie is painfully slow. It's indulgent and the pacing is so poor it's annoying. I reached a point where I actively hated the movie for being so long because this is intentional. Movies create a world in the service of telling a story. Cimino created a playground with the movie seemingly being an accidental result.