Heaven's Gate

snowleopard

snowleopard

Well-known member
Earlier in the month I wrote about Wiliam Friedkin's Sorcerer, and the changes in cinema that happened during that time, as it was released the week before Star Wars. While the success of Star Wars (and failings of Sorcerer) were an impetus into a change in cinema, a death knell of such to New Hollywood, director driven films, really happened with Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate. An overlong, confusing, costly epic that flopped before it was even released, courtesy of Vincent Canby, and a major shift from autonomous director control, to much greater studio control and corporate oversight was not far away.

But is Heaven's Gate really that bad? I personally don't think so. I think it's boring and messy at times, brilliant at others. I think the opening scene is much too long, and the writing and editing is confusing and uneven. But there are aspects of the film that are quite good. The design, the score, some of the performances, and outstanding cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond, with many scenes that are masterful filmmaking at the highest level. The studio also meddled with the edit. Cimino's first version was 219 minutes long. The studio took the film out of his hands before he was done, and chopped it almost in half, turning an overlong, slow, but at least somewhat coherent film, into a total mess.

Now, for those of you who have MGMHD on cable TV, and are curious (and patient!) Cimino's 219 minute version is being shown tomorrow (Sunday the 21st). It has been shown on MGMHD before, and will likely again, but never been released on BluRay, and this looks like a very nice copy. So give it a chance if it interests you. Here's a clip that encapsulates the whole film. Beautiful, aimless, authentic, long, slow, engrossing:


 
I would highly recommend everyone read the book 'Final Cut', which is the basically the story of the making of Heavens Gate, written by one of the heads at United Artist. It is a brilliant look into how Hollywood operates and how Heavens Gate forever changed the studio system.

As for the actual movie, it's not at all terrible. Some parts of it are actually fantastic. It is however, far too long and overwrought. Everything about the film just screams of how large Cimino's ego was. And I think ultimately that's what ruined him and the film. Some critics actually thought the film was fantastic, and some in Europe went so far as to hail the film a masterpiece. Unfortunately for UA and Cimino, by the time the film was released, most of the country was already against it because of everything that happened during production/post.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top