Review of Heaven's Gate (1980) by Martin T — 04 Jan 2010

Look at me, I'm EPIC! See the dramatic crane shots? The big-name stars? The nearly 4-hour running time? The meticulous attention to period detail? How about all these extras? Jeez, just look at all the fucking HATS! We spent a million dollars on hats alone! Set in 1890 Wyoming, when everything was sepia-toned.

I can just see Cimino pitching this movie: "gentlemen, I'd like to make a film about the color brown". Oh, I'm just having some fun at Cimino's expense. There's nothing wrong with epics or sepia tones.

But there is something overblown and self-indulgent about this movie, as if you can hear Cimino saying "look at MY VISION!" It's desperately in need of an anyone-but-the-director's cut.

You know how the wedding scene in The Deer Hunter goes on far too long? That's how just about every scene in this movie is. Some padding, the point, more padding. It's all beautifully shot (assuming, of course, you don't object to the abundance of brown) and certain scenes, especially the dances, are fine inclusions even if they don't do much to support the story.

But a lot of it is just filler. And the John Hurt and Christopher Walken are characters are supposed to be "complex" but really they're just confusing. Why do they get involved with the association (the bad guys) and why do they stick around as long as they do? We don't know.

Still, it's not an awful movie by any means, and the story itself is a reasonably compelling anti-Western, exploring ugly episodes from our nation's history. It mostly just needs a lot of careful editing.