Heaven's Gate (1980)

A dramatization of the real-life Johnson County War in 1890 Wyoming, in which a Sheriff born into wealth, attempts to protect immigrant farmers from rich cattle interests.

Director:

Michael Cimino

Writer:

Michael Cimino

Stars:

Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kris Kristofferson	...	James Averill
Christopher Walken	...	Nathan D. Champion (as Chris Walken)
John Hurt	...	William C. Irvine
Sam Waterston	...	Frank Canton
Brad Dourif	...	Mr. Eggleston
Isabelle Huppert	...	Ella Watson
Joseph Cotten	...	The Reverend Doctor
Jeff Bridges	...	John L. Bridges
Ronnie Hawkins	...	Maj. Wolcott
Paul Koslo	...	Mayor Charlie Lezak
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Trapper Fred
Richard Masur	...	Cully
Rosie Vela	...	Beautiful Girl (as Roseanne Vela)
Mary Catherine Wright	...	Nell (as Mary C. Wright)
Nicholas Woodeson	...	Small Man

Storyline

Wyoming, 1890. James Averill is the Sherriff of Johnson County, a county largely inhabited by foreign immigrants. The wealthy cattle owners view the immigrant farmers as a nuisance and hindrance to them enlarging their own land. The cattlemen's association, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, effectively declares war on the immigrant farmers, and gets the state government's blessing. They assemble an army of guns-for-hire, and, backed by US cavalry, set out to rid the state of the immigrants. James Averill's heart is with the immigrants but he is not sure they have a chance of winning the inevitable war.

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Plot Keywords:

shot to death | period piece | cattle ranch | rape | love triangle | 

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Taglines:

The only thing greater than their passion for America...was their passion for each other.

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Western

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian French Polish German

Release Date:

19 November 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate

Filming Locations:

Butte, Montana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$44,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,032, 19 November 1980, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$3,484,331, 31 December 1981

Company Credits

Production Co:

Partisan Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

149 min (1981 re-cut) 219 min (original cut) 217 min (2012 director's recut) 325 min (rough cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby (35 mm prints) 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The rollerskating violinist is David Mansfield, the Composer of the soundtrack. According to Steven Bach, in his book "Final Cut", Michael Cimino bought the rights to the music, and then sold it to the movie production for ten times what he paid to Mansfield. The tune played, by the roller skating fiddler, is well known to Cajun music fans, as the "Mamou Two-Step", composed and performed by accordionist Lawrence Walker and his Wandering Aces on Khoury 78 601 B in 1950. Side A was titled Country Waltz.

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Goofs

The pool table over which James and Nathan had their defining discussion in the landowners' club, is a Brunswick Regina model, which was produced between 1922 and 1925 - over 30 years after when the scene was set.

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Quotes

Frank Canton: Mr. Champion, my grandfather was the Secretary of War to Harrison. His brother was the governor of the state of New York. My brother-in-law is Secretary of State. And to you, I represent the full authority of the government of the United States and the President.
Nathan D. Champion: Fuck him too.
Billy Irvine: Bravo, sir!

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Alternate Versions

All UK versions are cut by 1 min 14 secs to remove all scenes of cockfighting as well as editing footage of cruel horse-falls.

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Connections

Featured in Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate (2004)

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Soundtracks

An der schönen, blauen Donau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube), Op. 314
(as "The Blue Danube Waltz")
Music by Johann Strauss
Performed by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic (as The New York Philharmonic Orchestra)
Waltz danced on the lawn and heard as a theme

User Reviews

No wonder it was a bust

I recorded the full-length "director's cut" version off of TCM the other day to see if there was validation for this being one of the biggest box-office busts in movie history. After viewing I can certainly understand why it was.

I have no problem with movies taking their time developing, so that we can get to know characters and really feel a part of what is going on in the film. But this film gave me the impression that director Michael Cimino felt moving things along at a snail's pace automatically makes those things happen. In spite of the epic length he had to work with, Cimino's character development is quite minimalistic, due to the sheer volume of dead space devoted to empty looks and a lack of dialogue or at least a lack of comprehensible dialogue, which is thanks to un-subtitled foreign languages or bad sound recording. The end result is another film in which we just don't care what happens to these characters, because we really know so little about them, nor are we given a reason to care for them, other than the fact that they exist.

The film begins with a long and tedious set-up at Harvard, leading the viewer to believe there is going to be an important significance for this later. As it turns out, there isn't. Strangely, the relationships established in these scenes end up going nowhere. By the end of the movie, several characters, especially John Hurt's and Jeff Bridges', were so pathetically wasted in their development, I wondered why they were even in the film at all.

Worst, silliest, most bizarre and utterly maddening scene: the targeted immigrants decide to fight back against the band of regulators. They end up on horseback, stupidly circling around the enemy encampment like a bunch of caricatured Indians circling the wagons in an old Western serial. The only thing missing from the scene as the immigrants get picked off like ducks in a shooting gallery are those stereotypical, hysterical Indian war whoops.

But that is just one example of people behaving extremely stupidly and unrealistically in this film.

As someone who enjoys subtlety in a film and doesn't even mind one that is slower paced, I nonetheless found myself fast-forwarding through several non-eventful minutes of this film. Thank goodness for that technology, but it made me wonder how anybody would have had patience for even a trimmed-down version of this film when it first showed in theaters.