Its not often that the sheer brilliance of a movie makes you
want weep with joy, please don’t let anyone tell you that Michael Cimino’s Heavens
Gate (1980) is not a masterpiece, because they would be lying!
This giant of cinematic history was much maligned on its
release. Originally it was considered to be one of the biggest box office flops
of all time, costing in the region of $44 million and allegedly earning less
than $3 million dollars in return. It brought its studio, United Artist, to
near collapse and destroyed the career of an award-winning director. United
Artist had given Cimino a free hand after the success of 1978’s The Deer Hunter but never again allowed
a director driven film production! Problems with budgetary overspends,
originally in the region of $11.4 million, time overruns, the planned release
was for December 1979 but did not open until November the following year, and
bad press added to its problems.
Written and directed by Michael Cimino its gripping
narrative is really another demonstration of man’s inhumanity to his fellow
man, a story about capitalism and greed and ethnic cleansing, showing the
America system at its worse? The Wyoming Stock Growers association lead by
Frank Canton is convinced the European immigrant settlers are looting their
herds of cattle. Gaining the approval of the state, Canton and his fellow
cattlemen draw up a death list with a 125 names of settlers from Johnston
County who are accused of being thieves and anarchists.
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| The beautiful cinematography......... |
The film boasts a well-known cast that
includes Kris Kristofferson as Jim Averill an 1870 graduate of Harvard College
who 20 years later finds himself the Marshall of Johnson County. A fair man who
has no time for the cattleman’s association preferring the company of Ella
Watson a Johnson County bordello madam who accepts cattle as payment for use of
her prostitutes. Depicted, in her American feature film debut, by French
superstar Isabelle Huppert. Watson also shares her affections with Nate
Champion a friend of Averill and an enforcer for the stockmen who is portrayed in
his normal laid back style by Christopher Walken. Also included in the cast are
Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke, a very young looking John Hurt and Sam Waterston
as the evil Frank Canton.
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| and the wonderful set pieces........... |
The 2013 Glasgow Film Festival showed the restored version
of the film, the 216-minute directors cut and not the massacred cut of 149 minutes.
Released in 2012 and first shown at the 69th Venice Film Festival
and subsequently at the New York Film Festival it now clearly demonstrates the
stunning cinematography, the wonderfully choreographed set pieces and a sound that
is incredible. The critics had finally woken up to the fact that it was “one of the few authentically innovative
Hollywood films[1]” This
“wounded monster” as David Thomson
called it has found its rightful place up there among the great films of all
time and finally been given the credit a film of this stature disserves.
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| make this one of the finest films your ever have the privilege of watching. |
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