Heaven’s Gate (1980)

Directed by: Michael Cimino | 183 minutes | adventure, drama | Actors: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Joseph Cotten, Jeff Bridges, Ronnie Hawkins, Paul Koslo, Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Masur, Rosie Vela, Mary Catherine Wright, Nicholas Woodeson, Stefan Shcherby Waldemar Kalinowski, Terry O’Quinn, Jack Conley, Margaret Benczak, Mickey Rourke

Shrilling harmonicas, deserted dusty villages and desolately rolling tumble weeds. That’s the feeling most westerns evoke right away. Michael Cimino’s ‘Heaven’s Gate’ is of a different caliber. No calibrated horses, Indians or cowboys, but a raw portrait of the American landowners and their struggle with Eastern European immigrants, assisted by the hoof clatter of the US Cavalry.

In Johnson County, Wyoming, ranch owners are fed up. Together with “The Wyoming Stock Growers Association” they go head-to-head to protect their livestock and monopoly position against the advancing Eastern Europeans. The year is 1890 and this fact underlies the Johnson County War. But sheriff James Averill (Kris Kristofferson) and his deputy Nathan Champion (Christopher Walken) doubt whether the war with the European fortune hunters is justified. Together they have a good moral compass and are very concerned about the fate of the immigrants.

Johnson County also has entertainment in the form of a brothel and roller skating rink ‘Heaven’s Gate’ run by John L. Bridges (Jeff Bridges). James and Nathan are regular visitors and the whore madam Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert) likes to see the two cheerful men dancing on their roller skates. James is interested in the voluptuous Ella, but hitman Frank Canton (Sam Waterston) also likes her.

For a scandal-infused production with such an all-star cast, “Heaven’s Gate”‘s $3.5 million box-office receipts were a pittance, compared to its initial $10 million budget, which ended up costing five times as much. A salient detail: six days after filming, Michael Cimino was almost a week behind schedule and had spent $900,000 on a minute and a half of usable footage.

‘Heaven’s Gate’ is not overflowing with liveliness. We deliberately worked with soft focus and less saturation on the film roll, resulting in a faint blurry tone. This, in relation to the long running time, does not make the film easy and relaxing to watch. You have to squeeze your eyes together for three hours to realize a sharp image. On the other hand, the locations, panoramic views and the light with which the film was shot are breathtaking. But wait…this story gets another tail:

In the years that followed (1981, 2005 and 2012), ‘Heaven’s Gate’ has been cut several times on the editing table and cut drastically, but none of these re-edits have been received with open arms. Until 2012. At the Venetian Film Festival, Cimino showed his “Directors Cut” which was an hour longer from the previous 144-minute shortened version. A minute-long standing ovation was his share; there was the recognition he had been waiting for decades.

It remains special; a film that initially mercilessly flopped, eventually had to ripen for a while to achieve the status of one of the best American films 32 years later and not be inferior to ‘Dr. Zhivago’, ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Casablanca’.