Heaven's Gate

United States

1980

228 Min

Color

2.35:1

English

Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
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CAST Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Geoffrey Lewis, Joseph Cotten, Jeff Bridges, Ronnie Hawkins, Paul Koslo, Richard Masur, Terry O'Quinn, Jack Conley, Tom Noonan, Anna Thomson, Mickey Rourke

ED Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald B. Greenberg, William Reynolds, Tom Rolf

MUSIC David Mansfield

Cannes (In Competition), Berlinale (Forum), Berlinale (Forum), Venice (Venice Classics), New York

Synopsis

A breathtaking depiction of the promise and perils of America’s western expansion, Heaven’s Gate, directed by Michael Cimino, is among Hollywood’s most ambitious and unorthodox epics. Kris Kristofferson brings his weathered sensuality to the role of a Harvard graduate who relocates to Wyoming as a federal marshal; there, he learns of a government sanctioned plot by cattle barons to kill the area’s European settlers for their land. The resulting battle is based on the bloody real-life Johnson County War of 1892. Also starring Isabelle Huppert and Christopher Walken, Heaven’s Gate is a savage and ravishingly shot take on western movie lore. —The Criterion Collection

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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Graveyard Poet

24May13

Heaven's Gate may have been a financial disaster yet it was an astounding artistic triumph. Michael Cimino's masterpiece features Vilmos Zsigmond's astonishing cinematography of the wide open West (shot on location in the vast wilderness of Glacier National Park in Montana) and is a devastating epic which comes closer than any Western I've ever seen to capturing both the visionary promise and dark class warfare of America.

Insert cool name here

20May13

Despite a few minor issues, this is a gritty yet beautiful western epic with great performances by Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken and some other familiar faces.

Uli Cain, Cinefidel¹³

23Mar13

Okay, rewatched it and while seeing the beautiful cinematography in the finely restored Criterion edition helped, I still have huge issues with the clever-like editing. I added one star to my rating.