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Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, Sam Waterston, John Hurt ... see more see more... , Brad Dourif , Jeff Bridges , Joseph Cotten , Rosie Vela , Ronnie Hawkins , Geoffrey Lewis , Robin Bartlett , Jack Blessing , Jarleth Conroy , Willem Dafoe , Mady Kaplan , Caroline Kava , Allen Keller , Paul Koslo , Anna Levine , Richard Masur , Kevin McClarnon , Elizabeth McGovern , Tom Noonan , Terry O'Quinn , Gordana Rashovich , Mickey Rourke , Stefan Scherby , Jerry Sullivan , Gabriel Walsh , Nicholas Woodeson , Mary Catherine Wright , Kai Wulff , T-Bone Burnett , Waldemar Kalinowski , Judi Trott , Marat Yusim , Norton Buffalo , Stephen Bruton

A notorious artistic and financial failure, Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate was blamed for critically wounding the movie Western and definitively ushering out the 1970s Hollywood New Wave of young, bra... read more read more...sh, independent filmmakers. Taking a revisionist, post-Vietnam view of American imperialism, Cimino used the historical Johnson County War incident in Wyoming to create an impressionistic tapestry of Western conflict between poor immigrant settlers and rich cattle barons led by Canton (Sam Waterston) and his hired gun Nate Champion (Christopher Walken). Attempting to mediate is idealistic Harvard graduate and county marshal Averill (Kris Kristofferson), who is both Nate's friend and his romantic rival for the affections of Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert). However, war erupts, at great cost to all involved. Flush from his success with the Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter (1978), Cimino demanded creative control, and his insistence on shooting on location and building historically accurate sets and props multiplied the film's original budget to a then-astronomical $36 million. When United Artists premiered the original 219-minute version (sight unseen), they discovered that Cimino had produced an elliptical epic, compounding the box-office difficulties of making a Western without any major stars. Critics howled about Cimino's incomprehensible self-indulgence, and United Artists pulled the film after several days. Re-released five months later, 70 minutes shorter, Heaven's Gate bombed again, and MGM bought out the financially crippled United Artists. The ailing Western genre virtually vanished during the 1980s, Cimino's career never recovered, and Hollywood studios had had enough of bankrolling financially risky ventures by "auteur" directors. Heaven's Gate's reputation recovered somewhat after its video release, as it garnered praise from some viewers for such visually remarkable sequences as the Harvard dance and the final battle, as well as for David Mansfield's haunting score. Steven Bach's book Final Cut provides a full production history. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

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51% liked it

4,706 ratings

Critics

41% liked it

27 critics

R, 3 hr. 40 min.

Directed by: Michael Cimino

Release Date: November 19, 1980

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DVD Release Date: May 15, 2001

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Stats: 301 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (301)

  • DrBenway
    March 31, 2010
    DrBenway
    So, I'd finally decided to watch this all the way through after years of putting it off. Is it a bad film? Well...kinda. It's also a case of reputation preceeding the actual film. This isn't one of those thin, blown-out silly Kevin Costner productions. The acting wasn't bad,... read more either. Sam Waterston, Jeff Bridges, Brad Dourif and Mickey Rourke are good in small roles. It's nice to see Walken play a complex character, something sorely lacking from his career, as of late. The lush cinematography is also top notch.

    What the film does suffer from is too much ambition, poor pacing, a wandering narrative that's not necessarily difficult to follow, but is tedious. Those scenes, such as the opening graduation, not only droned on at a length unnecessary to make their points, but the director had spent millions of dollars on elements which were irrelevant. I understand a director wanting to take his time to tell a story and immerse the audience into his world, but fucking come on already. There have always been harsh criticisms towards this movie, many by those who may have never seen it. I will say that some of those harsh criticisms are valid.

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  • binky013
    December 31, 2008
    binky013
    Aside from some questionable looking treatment of animals and a sad lead actress choice, I can't quite understand why this film did not do better. It's gangbusters! I've seen way shorter films that seemed a hell of a lot longer, I kid you not.
  • pier007
    December 31, 2008
    pier007
    There's one thing I can't forgive to Michael Cimino, it's his uncontrollable persistence of stretching things with no reason, in the end that was what condemned him to ostracism. This film was cursed as the one who took legendary studio united artists to bankruptcy and was also ... read moremutilated on the editing room. despite all, the film has epic scope, breathtaking visuals, good performances and beautiful emotional moments.
  • tsigur
    December 6, 2008
    tsigur
    There's goes my Saturday. Wow! This guy had three editors and it was still this long? I really loved parts of it. I think that Kristoferson, Bridges, Huppert, and Walken do a great job, but, fuck this guy loves shooting parties. The thing is that if you cut out a lot of this, you... read more have a really good film and that's not as frustrating as the fucking ending which if anybody can explain to me I would love to hear it. Vilmos should get a lifetime acheivement award for this film alone. At the same time, I kinda respected the way you were totally emmersed in that world and I really loved the battle scene.
  • adammahler1
    August 13, 2008
    adammahler1
    excessive dust and ruddy colors, as a dir. gets bored and goes for "ugly-beautiful," like Scorsese in NYNY; a few scenes are actually laughable, but the rest shows serious potential
  • harrycaul
    December 8, 2007
    harrycaul
    This will always be remembered for the money it cost and the money it lost, killing United Artists in the process, but it's a beautiful, wonderful, epic movie; a fitting end to the last great decade of Hollywood film-making, the Seventies. I would rather wallow in this than sit t... read morehrough "The Deer Hunter" any day of the week. Whatever its faults, it's full of memorable moments, for example Christopher Walken's marvellously cinematic first appearance, which is worthy of Sergio Leone. As an intimate love triangle set against an epic background of immigration and unrest, it's a hell of a lot more successful than Scorsese's awful "Gangs of New York".
  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    September 24, 2007
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    Very flawed, but nowhere near as horrible as you may have heard.
  • jonnycrumley
    April 13, 2010
    jonnycrumley
    Good movie. On it's release it was given very harsh treatment by the critics, mostly due to being over-budget and too long. Heaven's Gate is a solid western, with great performances, a beautiful musical score, and some stunning cinematography. Director Michael Cimino may have had... read more his haters in Hollywood during that time, which may have been out of jealousy due to his earlier triumphs for The Deer Hunter. Heaven's Gate is as good as any epic of that era, and much better than Out of Africa and Once Upon a Time in America. Overall, well worth a look.
  • anthonyzigos
    December 29, 2010
    anthonyzigos
    Best Western ever. A definite six. Realism and the Old West.Unscrupulous cattlemen battle an army of peasant villager immigrants.Money and cattle rules in a war over land and rustling. Cheer for the peasant settlers in this class struggle set during the expansion of the fronti... read moreer West.
  • stev18mayo
    June 7, 2009
    stev18mayo
    There is an ever growing opinion nowadays, that this legendary self-indulgent flop is some sort of misunderstood or flawed masterpiece... I don't see it, I think this a terrible, terrible, terrible film, though it's worth a look in small doses for it's glaring train wreck-like fl... read moreaws.

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Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum
March 2, 2012
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

The longer version is impressive as long as the characters and settings remain in long shot; only when the camera gets closer do the problems start. Full Review

Dave Kehr
March 2, 2012
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

It really is a stinker. Full Review

Variety Staff
July 22, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

The balance of director Michael Cimino's film is so confusing, so overlong at three-and-a-half hours and so ponderous that it fails to work at almost every level. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

This movie is $36 million thrown to the winds. It is the most scandalous cinematic waste I have ever seen, and remember, I've seen Paint Your Wagon. Full Review

Michael Atkinson
October 6, 2004
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

The lie of frontier idealism is debunked, and Vilmos Zsigmond's mistily gorgeous cinematography is virtually an act of mourning in and of itself. Full Review

Vincent Canby
August 30, 2004
Vincent Canby, New York Times

Heaven's Gate' is something quite rare in movies these days -- an unqualified disaster. Full Review

Ian Nathan
March 2, 2012
Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine

Flawed but interesting piece of art in the form of an anti-Western. Full Review

March 2, 2012
Film4

Beneath the hype and the excess is a beautiful, moving, at times surprisingly subtle film that hovers precariously somewhere between greatness and folly. Full Review

March 2, 2012
TV Guide's Movie Guide

This beautiful but notoriously disappointing film is one of the most overblown epic Westerns of any decade. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
July 10, 2009
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

A second look at Cimino's 1981 epic Western suggests that it has major problems but is not a total catastrophe. Full Review

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Heaven's Gate Trivia

  • ***This Movie is About Cattlemen And European Immigrants In 1890s Wyoming***  Answer »
  • This film, whose director had previously won an Oscar for The Deer Hunter, was considered the biggest flop in movie history on the grounds that it sunk an entire studio (United Artists) into bankruptcy  Answer »
  • Kris Kristofferson Christopher Walken John Hurt Sam Waterston Jeff Bridges All were in this Big Budget movie?  Answer »
  • What Michael Cimino box office bomb did one critic describe as "Gone With the Wind -- without the wind"?  Answer »
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