Watching "Heaven's Gate" here, remembering Michael Ciminio getting crucified for blowing out the budget on historical scale, but can't help admiring the film. Wonderfully lit, beautifully shot, expertly used hundreds of extras, classic story of underdog trying to prevail against all odds. Yes, probably too long, but still, like "War and Peace," I can't help but think that Cimino's film, as it ages, will become a classic. Cimino (though spending money he didn't have), showed he was a master storyteller nevetheless. Kind of like many famous painters, crucified during their lifetime, but a hundred years later, hailed as being possessed of foresight and only being guilty of being "ahead of the times."
"Heaven's Gate" redux
- Thread starter dhffhd
- Start date
Jim Brennan
VHS Member Old Skool
and the budget pales compared to what people blow these days. At 44 million it's significantly less than the average Hollywood feature
Blaine
Mr. Hollywood
This is a gorgeous movie. There are so many levels to this movie, so much to see. My biggest problem with this movie is the total disregard for story. Michael Cimino was coming off The Deer Hunter when he made this movie. The Deer Hunter was almost incomprehensible to me. The first three times I tried to watch it, I fell asleep before the wedding was over. The same thing can be said here. This is a gorgeous movie, as I said, but it is incredibly self indulgent. You could have knocked an hour off this movie and you might have begun to touch its importance. I absolutely love the look of this movie, but it is Hollywood at its most self-indulgence.
Cimino may or may not have gotten a bad rap on this but , quite honestly, this is a movie that is less than the sum of all its parts. If they had one (not a multitude) of editors that was willing to say "enough is enough" this movie might have been something special.
I really wanted to like it more than I did because of all the negative press around it. But it was just too overblown for the story it was trying to tell.
When you get into it at 1:30 and absolutely nothing important has happened, you need to ask yourself what the f*ck this movie is all about.
I wanted to love this movie, truly I did, but I just couldn't.
If, on the other hand, I was the cinematographer for this movie, I'd be creaming in my pants.
Cimino may or may not have gotten a bad rap on this but , quite honestly, this is a movie that is less than the sum of all its parts. If they had one (not a multitude) of editors that was willing to say "enough is enough" this movie might have been something special.
I really wanted to like it more than I did because of all the negative press around it. But it was just too overblown for the story it was trying to tell.
When you get into it at 1:30 and absolutely nothing important has happened, you need to ask yourself what the f*ck this movie is all about.
I wanted to love this movie, truly I did, but I just couldn't.
If, on the other hand, I was the cinematographer for this movie, I'd be creaming in my pants.
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Jim Brennan
VHS Member Old Skool
I just started "Final Cut" about the making of this. Interesting read so far.
It's an excellent book. I read it over and over.
I bought the DVD of Heaven's Gate but never could get through it. The DVD transfer was just really poor, so I couldn't tell if the cinematography was good or not. There's quite a few complex camera moves in there though, and some of the shots really were jaw dropping in term of the complexity.