Review of Heaven's Gate (1980) by Daniel K — 22 Jul 2013

4: Although I'd heard about this film for years of course I had never seen it until now. It marked the end of an era when big-name artistic directors were given carte blanche to do whatever they wanted to.

It all boiled down to money of course. The film cost too much and didn't make enough. As I understand it, this is the version that most closely resembles Cimino's original vision. It is certainly long, epic, and grand.

I must say it works wonderfully well and helps fill in another of those gaps in the western pantheon, but I also see why it was so controversial at the time. It seems somewhat remarkable that it plays today as if the issues have been ripped from the headlines.

It just goes to show you that not much has changed over the years, whether we reach back centuries, decades, or days. Power is power, money is money, and privilege is privilege, etc, etc. I love Huppert so having her grace the screen so often certainly didn't hurt.

The rest of the cast seems like a who's who from the 70s era, many of whom are still huge stars or eminent character actors today. One of the things that struck me most was the incredible noise and pollution depicted in this industrializing expansion west.

It is certainly not very romanticized. I can't recall seeing this take on the immigrant expansion before either. fascinating, moving, and powerful film that may have finally come into it's own and can be accepted for what it is and not dragged down by the all the baggage that surrounded its release.