← Back to Reviews
in
Heaven's Gate (1980)
Heaven's Gate (1980)
Director: Michael Cimino
Writer: Michael Cimino
Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Western
Length 219 Minutes (Director's cut)
Synopsis [spoiler free]: A personalized telling of the real-life Johnson County Wars which took place in Wyoming in 1890. The cattle wars were a bloody battle over cattle ranchers rights and the rights of settlers to fence their prairie homesteads. In the film the war is reduced to more simply terms with the hungry immigrants eating the ranchers cattle thus earning the ranchers wrath. The film focuses on a well-to-do sheriff and his attempts to protect immigrant farmers from the Cattle Association who declares a bounty and hires 50 gunmen to execute 125 immigrant settlers.
Review: Beautiful, Tedious, Amazing and Long....those are words that come to mind after watching the restored Director's Cut, which runs nearly 4 hours in length. Heaven's Gate was surrounded in controversy, running way over time and over budget. Costing 44 million to make, which is a lot for 1980. The film was a huge box office flop and earned back only 4 million dollars, nearly bankrupting United Artist studio. Critics panned it and audiences staid away and the career of the director was nearly ruined. Thanks to Criterion Collection we now have a beautiful restored Directors Cut of this epic.
Heaven's Gate is so vast in it's reach that it's hard to critique. The director Michael Cimino was a perfectionist. Sets were built only to be tore down as the buildings distances didn't suit Cimino's needs. There were delays after delays, as Cimino wanted every last detail to look authentic. Much of the shooting was done in the prime light hours just after sunrise and just before sunset, when shadows were long but soft and the color temperature was warm. With such facetiousness the film should look great right?
It looks beautiful alright. The scenes are like moving art. The care in the art direction and cinematography really paid off. Even if the story is not that riveting at times, it's breath taking to look at. These still photos don't do the film justice, but here's a few examples of the artistry of Cimino.
Sunset lighting creates rich warm colors. The camera angle is low and a wide angle lens shows the vastness of the scene. The film exposure is dark, yielding a near silhouette of horses and men.
Early morning light is softly bright and emotionally cheery, which imparts a light feeling to this ride through the country side.
Two of the most stunningly visual scenes are the prologue waltz dance at Harvard. And the violinist-roller skater in the huge Heaven's Gate building. In that scene the camera starts off with a really wide angle showing how vast and detailed the building is and how densely packed the immigrants are in it. Then a tele photo lens is used as the camera tracks the moving violinist as he skates around the floor. This scene was the highlight for me, amazing!
The characters themselves and the actors who play them are fine. They look the part and they're always in character. But this is not a character or story driven film...it's about the visual, but don't think that means there's no action...there's plenty of action. The action comes at appropriate places too and is as grandiose as the rest of the film.
I could go and on about the look of the film, but at almost 4 hours the epic story itself didn't always resonate with me like the cinematography did. The final battle while brilliantly staged, reminded me of a shoot em up, action film, but it was done in grand style.
Heaven's Gate is a triumph of the visual that worth 219 minutes of your time.
+
Writer: Michael Cimino
Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Western
Length 219 Minutes (Director's cut)
Synopsis [spoiler free]: A personalized telling of the real-life Johnson County Wars which took place in Wyoming in 1890. The cattle wars were a bloody battle over cattle ranchers rights and the rights of settlers to fence their prairie homesteads. In the film the war is reduced to more simply terms with the hungry immigrants eating the ranchers cattle thus earning the ranchers wrath. The film focuses on a well-to-do sheriff and his attempts to protect immigrant farmers from the Cattle Association who declares a bounty and hires 50 gunmen to execute 125 immigrant settlers.
Review: Beautiful, Tedious, Amazing and Long....those are words that come to mind after watching the restored Director's Cut, which runs nearly 4 hours in length. Heaven's Gate was surrounded in controversy, running way over time and over budget. Costing 44 million to make, which is a lot for 1980. The film was a huge box office flop and earned back only 4 million dollars, nearly bankrupting United Artist studio. Critics panned it and audiences staid away and the career of the director was nearly ruined. Thanks to Criterion Collection we now have a beautiful restored Directors Cut of this epic.
Heaven's Gate is so vast in it's reach that it's hard to critique. The director Michael Cimino was a perfectionist. Sets were built only to be tore down as the buildings distances didn't suit Cimino's needs. There were delays after delays, as Cimino wanted every last detail to look authentic. Much of the shooting was done in the prime light hours just after sunrise and just before sunset, when shadows were long but soft and the color temperature was warm. With such facetiousness the film should look great right?
It looks beautiful alright. The scenes are like moving art. The care in the art direction and cinematography really paid off. Even if the story is not that riveting at times, it's breath taking to look at. These still photos don't do the film justice, but here's a few examples of the artistry of Cimino.
Early morning light is softly bright and emotionally cheery, which imparts a light feeling to this ride through the country side.
Two of the most stunningly visual scenes are the prologue waltz dance at Harvard. And the violinist-roller skater in the huge Heaven's Gate building. In that scene the camera starts off with a really wide angle showing how vast and detailed the building is and how densely packed the immigrants are in it. Then a tele photo lens is used as the camera tracks the moving violinist as he skates around the floor. This scene was the highlight for me, amazing!
The characters themselves and the actors who play them are fine. They look the part and they're always in character. But this is not a character or story driven film...it's about the visual, but don't think that means there's no action...there's plenty of action. The action comes at appropriate places too and is as grandiose as the rest of the film.
I could go and on about the look of the film, but at almost 4 hours the epic story itself didn't always resonate with me like the cinematography did. The final battle while brilliantly staged, reminded me of a shoot em up, action film, but it was done in grand style.
Heaven's Gate is a triumph of the visual that worth 219 minutes of your time.
+