Film Review: Heaven's Gate (1980)

(source: tmdb.org)

Are you sick and tired of Hollywood churning out endless stream of sequels, prequels, remakes and reboots without a shred of originality and artistic value? Are you yearning for the good old days when Hollywood allowed film makers to be bold, try new things and pursue their artistic vision? If the answer to both questions is “yes”, than it is unlikely that you be very fond of Michael Cimino, whose infamous 1980 epic western Heaven’s Gate is often credited for creating today’s sad state of affairs.

The plot of the film is very loosely based on the series of real life events in 1890s Wyoming known as Johnson County War. The film begins with the prologue set in 1870 Harvard, when we are introduced to the protagonist, James Averill (played by Kris Kristofferson). Despite being born in the world of fortune, respect and privilege, he seeks adventure and new challenges in the West and twenty years later works as marshal in Johnson County, Wyoming. His job of keeping the peace becomes increasingly difficult due to escalating conflict between two factions. On one side is group of rich and powerful cattle barons organised into the Association led by Frank Canton (played by Sam Waterston); the other side is made of settlers, mostly masses of impoverished Eastern European immigrants. Settlers are so poor that many of them steal Association’s cattle in order to feed themselves and their families; being outnumbered by settlers in local politics and unable to prevent rampant theft through local courts, Association turned to mercenaries like Nate Champion (played by Christopher Walken) who intimidate and sometimes even murder suspected cattle thieves. Association decides to escalate this policy even further by making a list of 125 inhabitants of Johnson County who are to be killed and hires the small army to professional killers to invade the area. For Averill this problem becomes personal when he finds out that one of the names on the list belongs to Ella Watson (played by Isabelle Huppert), prostitute and madam of local brothel who took stolen cattle as payment for services. She is also Averill’s girlfriend, so he desperately try to talk her into leaving the area before the arrival of invaders and bloodbath which is to begin.

Heaven’s Gate is known as the worst flop in Hollywood’s history. With 44 million US$ of budget and only 3.5 million US$ earned during its theatrical run, it represented huge financial disasters. Although such disasters happened before and afterwards, few had such massive and long-lasting consequences. First of all, this fiasco led to the collapse and disappearance of United Artists, the most respected of all major studios in 20th Century Hollywood. Then, on the broader scale, it marked the end of New Hollywood era, with major studios now unwilling to allow creative freedom that many young and talented film makers have been enjoying throughout 1970s. Michael Cimino was one of such film makers and his previous film, Vietnam War epic The Deer Hunter, was hailed as masterpiece and is still considered one of the best films of its time. All that made the ultimate failure of Heaven’s Gate even more shocking.

Cimino’s film was after the premiere mercilessly savaged by critics, many of whom had been hailing him as undisputed master of cinema after The Deer Hunter. Perhaps the most influential was Vincent Canby, New York Times critic with his speculation that “Cimino sold his soul to the Devil to obtain the success of The Deer Hunter, and the Devil has just come around to collect”. There were, and still there are, attempts to rehabilitate Cimino and his film, with some new critics even claiming that Heaven’s Gate is “misunderstood masterpiece”. While passage of time might prove to be beneficial for some originally panned films, with Heaven’s Gate it’s not the case. This film is now as bad as it was forty years ago or, at least, not improved enough to change the verdict of critics like Canby.

There are, of course, good things in this film, and the most noticeable is the excellent cinematography by Viloms Zsigmond, especially in the scenes that feature magnificent Wyoming landscapes and that just like the scenes you might expect in a successful “larger than life” epic. The cast is also good. Kris Kristofferson, for whom this was the last starring role, is solid as the troubled protagonist. French star Isabelle Huppert, despite being cast mostly due to being Cimino’s girlfriend at the time, does her thankless role well, looking natural even in potentially exploitative scenes during which her character appears nude. Veteran Christopher Walken is also good as mercenary who discovers that has heart, but the most impressive acting is displayed by Sam Waterston, aristocratic actor specialised for the role of enlightened idealists, here chewing the scenery as arrogant and cruel villain.

Unfortunately, in order to enjoy good aspects of this film, you must also endure a lot of bad. First thing to be noticed is Cimino’s serious problem with pacing. Starting with spectacular scene of Harvard festivities, it becomes obvious that Cimino, so enamoured with each and every shot he made, doesn’t know or doesn’t care that most of his scenes are overlong and that the plot will unfold at glacial pace. This approach, which would result in current version of film being three and half hours in length, requires too much patience from viewers. And to make things even worse, much of the content in those three and half hours are scenes that serve no dramatic purpose apart from allowing Cimino to show off. One such example is scene when the settlers, gathered in huge hall, indulge in dancing with roller skates; scene that goes on and on appears to be half-hearted attempt to exploit popularity of roller disco.

Ultimate cause of this film’s failure is the script, which is filled with confusing situations and underwritten characters. Cimino wrote this film partially in order to dispute claims of the few dissenting critics of The Deer Hunter, who had interpreted his portrayal of Vietnam War as in line with official US government propaganda and, as such, right-wing and reactionary. With Heaven’s Gate Cimino tried to go in different direction and, just like Italian leftists directing so-called “Zapata westerns”, interpreted events of the Old West in Marxist way, through the prism of class conflict. In doing so, Cimino showed little subtlety. Apart from the protagonist, whose siding with the settlers is never properly explained, members of American bourgeoisie elite are portrayed either as bloodthirsty arrogant sadists or as pathetic degenerates, like the utterly unnecessary character of Averill’s alcoholic friend Bill Irvine, played by always dependable John Hurt. Members of the underclass are portrayed as dirty, hungry, abused and oppressed, and for many of them are things made even worse by language barriers; the film features a lot of dialogue in German, Russian, Polish, Serbian and Bulgarian without subtitles which makes this film even more confusing. Same goes for the battle scene at the end, which is not only very long and confusing, but also unpleasant to watch, because it features large number of women and children being killed in very graphic and disturbing ways. And, just when the settlers are about to have all those sacrifices validated by overrunning the invaders, Cimino adds ironic twist by literally bringing US Cavalry to end the conflict, but this time US Cavalry protects the villains. Afterwards comes bleak ending so typical for New Hollywood, but here made look irrational and arbitrary. The epilogue, set 13 years later, is as overlong and confusing as prologue. Heaven’s Gate is a film that could be recommended only to viewers with lot of patience and curiosity about bad films. New Hollywood definitely deserved much better swan song.

RATING: 3/10 (+)