Heaven's Gate
United States
1980
228 Min
Color
2.35:1
English
Synopsis
Michael Cimino’s bleak anti-western based on events in 1890s Wyoming. Sheriff James Averill attempts to protect immigrant farmers from wealthy cattle interests, and also clashes with a hired gun, Nathan Champion, over the woman they both love, Ella Watson. Both men find themselves questioning their roles in the furious conflict between wealthy landowners and European immigrants attempting to build new lives on the American frontier, which culminates in a brutal pitched battle. –IMDb
Director
Michael Cimino
Michael Cimino studied architecture and dramatic arts from Yale; later he filmed advertisements and documentaries and also wrote scripts until the actor, producer and director, Clint Eastwood gave him the opportunity to direct the thriller Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974). But his biggest success was The Deer Hunter (1978) which won the Oscar for the Best Film. For another successful film he got in trouble: The Sicilian (1987) – critics accused him of portraying as a hero, with his biography, the Italian criminal Salvatore Giuliano. —IMDb
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Michael Harbour
16Jan12
Very flawed - no doubt - but there are glimpses of the very good film Michael Cimino must have seen in his imagination. There's also the opportunity to learn from many, many errors of others if you ever decide to make a big-budget western.
Hunter Duesing
12Jan12
A film that enjoys the very insensitive indulgence that the film's class-guilt ridden narrative rails against. HEAVEN'S GATE is certainly the most expensive-looking film I've ever seen, the production design is positively period-perfect. But it comes at the expense of the narrative, which is stuck with boring characters, a dull story, and a brutally-slow pace, An interesting failure, but a bad film nonetheless.
Jack Lehtonen
11Jan12
A film whose ambition is no less than carrying the weight of America's moral failures on its back. Featuring two of the most profound leaps in time in cinema, each solidifying the tragedy of lost ideals, this is The American Epic, and surely one of the greatest masterpieces in cinema. Every movement is rendered with breathtaking poetry. "It's getting dangerous to be poor in this country." "It always has been."
Ultra Kebab and 3 others like this
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Robin Wood, 1931 - 2009
By David Hudson on December 19, 2009
"Just learned, Robin Wood has died," Jaime posted at Dave Kehr's site yesterday evening. "I can't think of anything else to say, except that
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They Were Right the First Time
By Erik Gregersen on November 16, 2011
Pointlessly gigantic, but somewhat interesting, like a great edifice built out of tinfoil. Many scenes are just puffed up out of all proportion on their “significance.” A quiet dance in a empty hall… read review
How the West was Fought
By Dzimas on March 1, 2010
It has been 30 years since this movie was first released, flummoxing critics and audiences alike. There had never been a movie quite like this to come out of Hollywood, and at nearly 4 hours in length… read review
Untitled
By Karl Wiederaenders on November 7, 2009
This Film was first brought to my attention when I heard my father one night yelling at the T.V. in disgust the next day I found out that he had sat through this movie. His reaction which I could… read review
Untitled
By Teddy Cheong on April 25, 2009
Time has since pointed to Heavens Gate as the beginning of the end of the American auteur explosion of the 70s. Ive always been reluctant to see this because Im an admirer of Cimino and didnt want… read review
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HEAVEN'S GATE
36 posts by 17 people
about 1 year ago