A Look Back at Heaven’s Gate
Guest blogger Bart Weiss sends this report. Bart is the Artistic Director of the Dallas Video Festival.
Last week I had a bad cold and was in bed for more time than I would like. My DVR (which is not as good at TiVo, no matter what DirecTV says) recorded one of those things you think you should see and usually never do. This film was a four-hour commitment (kind of like going to see Che when if finally gets here) and I wasn’t going anywhere, so I hit play and watched Heaven’s Gate. For those too young in 1980, Michael Cimino fresh off the big hit The Deer Hunter, the first major dramatic film dealing with Vietnam, decided to make a major film about immigrants in Johnson County, Wyoming.
The film started behind schedule — legend has it that it was behind six days by the fifth day of shooting. it was budgeted at $11.6 million and came in over $30 milion. There was also talk about major animal abuse during the shooting that could not be done today, cock fighting and worse. It was part of what lead to the Humane Society overseeing animal care in films today.
But more than anything, the film stood for excess. It was a filmmaker out of control, a studio out of control — all this I knew. The question was, was it a good film?
A few years ago we showed a program at the Video Fest about Channel Z, a notorious cable station in L.A. that ran great movies. In that film, they talked about how Heaven’s Gate got a bad rap.
So what do I think?
it is a fascinating but very flawed work (I know a cop out).
The film is slow. very slow, there are scenes that drag on and on, for no seeming reason. There is production value that is not necessary. It seems like there are 100 extras in every scene, and in the end they don’t add up to much more then if there were 15.
But the film looks amazing. If you ever watch this, watch it in hi-def or Blu ray (if it still exists next year). The cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond is clearly his best work ever. And that is saying a lot. At moments, I forgot about the story and was just watching the visuals, or maybe the story just got boring.
The other point about the film is its relevance. Whenever you look at a period film, you have to ask, “Why is someone telling a story about this now?” Whatever was going on in terms of immigration in the late 70s/early 80s, I just don’t remember, but it clearly is an issue now. The evil character gets permission from the governor and president to assassinate 125 immigrants and goes on a killing spree. This would make interesting viewing now if anybody could stay awake.
There have been many other films in history that seemed extravagant at the time. Metropolis almost broke the UFA studio in Germany, but they were better films. Yet, like a car wreck, there is something about this worth seeing. But I would not want to see it again, which for me is a major way of grading a film.
Having said all that, I have to thank Turner Classic Movies for showing it (the director’s cut). For people who love film, TCM is the best thing on TV. Uncut , and letter-boxed, the way it should be. Their selection is hit-or-miss, but there are so many good films worth seeing. It’s film school lite for free — a companion to renting all the Criterion Collection DVDs.
So there you are. Now you never have to watch Heaven’s Gate — I did it for you.
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I reviewed Heaven’s Gate when it came out (ahem, showing my age here), and I remember thinking it was a ravishing, incoherent mess.
To give some idea of the excess: The real ‘Johnson County War’ killed, like, two people. Towards the end of Heaven’s Gate, there’s a gunfight that is, essentially, a battle sequence. We’re talking hundreds of people riding around shooting everything in sight. Cimino’s always loved battle scenes, and this one looks like Custer’s Last Stand, only longer.
Early on, there’s a lovely college graduation sequence, supposedly set at Harvard, I believe (I haven’t seen the film in nearly 30 years). But it was actually filmed in Oxford, England (I attended a summer session at the specific college, so I recognized it). To make the scene authentic, they trucked in tons and tons of dirt and spread it all over the streets for blocks, so the extras could walk and dance through it.
As for the incoherence, I also remember the scene when Kris Kristofferson finally arrives Out West and we need a little exposition — to understand where we are and why Kris is here. And Cimino puts this vital bit of news into the mouth of the train conductor. Who has a thick accent (Irish, if I remember correctly). With a cigar in his mouth. And the conductor naturally attempts to mutter and shout his information while the train is still chuffing and shrieking to a halt. It’s all pretty much noise and gibberish.
The film is so lovely (the big country dance is a sepia-toned wonderland) that it actually made me angrier at it: All that care for detail, all that extravagant beauty, and no one could get a basic thing like plot or character coherence even close to right.
Read the book “Final Cut” for a movie exec’s look at this film.