Summary
- Michael Cimino’s ambitious Western epic
Heaven’s Gate
was initially a box office bomb and ripped apart by critics. - Behind the scenes, Cimino’s extravagant vision caused chaos, with reshoots, a gigantic tree cut into thousands of pieces, and excessive filming.
- Various edited versions of
Heaven’s Gate
have transformed the film from a flop into a beloved masterpiece over time.
Rising to a level of instant fame with his work on 1978’s The Deer Hunter (which won five Academy Awards), director Michael Cimino attempted to steamroll his success from that film with an ambitious Western (and admittedly, very expensive) epic called Heaven’s Gate. Released on April 24, 1981, you would think that this Western war of a film would soar to previously unseen heights with the help of a cast that included names like Christopher Walken, Kris Kristofferson, John Hurt, and Isabelle Huppert. You would also safely assume that a $44 million budget would help the director correctly manifest his vision onto the screen. Quite the contrary, however — Heaven’s Gate was not only a box office bomb but was also ripped apart by critics. But how did such a cinematic failure somehow become recognized as one of the greatest films of all time?
In Heaven’s Gate, Kris Kristofferson’s Averill goes from celebrating his graduation at Harvard to becoming a Marshall in the small town of Casper, Wyoming. Then, he defends his town of poor European immigrants from a rebellious group of powerful cattle owners who plan to kill 125 of these people — all in the name of hate. Amidst all that, he’s in a love triangle with Isabelle Huppert’s Ella, who finds herself also attracted to Christopher Walken’s Champion (an enforcer for the cattle owners who has a spectacular redeeming arc). While all those aspects packed into one movie could be one whirlwind of a story, the craziest “alleged” ordeals come from behind the scenes.
The Heaven’s Gate Director Had a Certain Vision
Not only did Cimino have an entire set taken down and rebuilt because it didn’t look right, but he also ordered a gigantic tree to be cut into thousands of pieces and moved for a scene. In addition, he had a habit of filming scenes up to 50 times and filming over 1,000,000 feet of footage. All this hullabaloo during production — and then the first version was released into theaters on April 21, 1981. “[T]he most scandalous cinematic waste I have ever seen…” and “….an unqualified disaster” were just some of the reviews that came barging in. Time magazine even placed the movie on a list of the 100 worst ideas of the 20th century.
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While Cimino himself said that the film failed because United Artists’ (the distributor) was rushing him to finalize it by the 1980 Academy Awards deadline, several different versions of Heaven’s Gate now exist that have started to put the film in an entirely different light. After the initial release, there were four: a director’s second edit, a “radical” cut, a digitally restored director’s cut, and an unofficial version put together by editor Steven Soderbergh. The second edit just removed many supplementary scenes, such as Averill reading the names on the death list to the terrified villagers and fighting off an enforcer who tried beating an innocent immigrant.
The edition dubbed the “radical” cut was helmed by then MGM executives John Kirk and Bingham Ray, who used any alternative scenes they could find to bring a new audience to the movie. As you might have guessed from the title, the digitally restored Heaven’s Gate was made popular by The Criterion Collection. Cimino himself stamps this version as his original vision. Soderbergh’s 108-minute take, which was once available on his website, was dubbed “The Butcher’s Cut” due to its surprisingly short runtime.
32 Years Later, Heaven’s Gate Is Restored
Out of all of those different editions, the digitally restored take, which premiered at the 1981 Venice Film Festival, transformed Heaven’s Gate from a flop into a forever-treasured movie. Maybe Cimino was right, and studio execs just couldn’t see past profit margins and the troubles of movie theater marketing. People like Alberto Barbera (the festival director) said things like, “This is an absolute masterpiece . . . one of the greatest injustices of cinematic history,” according to the New York Daily News. It was also hailed by the Cannes Film Festival art director as possibly being “the last film of the glorious decade of the Seventies.” Three years later, BBC Online took the initiative and put Heaven’s Gate on the latter part of its 100 greatest American films of all time. In addition, The Times labeled the film a “Modern masterpiece.” How’s that for a comeback?
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While some scrutinize the movie for bringing an end to United Artists and influencing studios to give much less control to directors, there is a tale that needs to be told with Heaven’s Gate. This loose but epic adaptation of an unspoken period in America’s history is needed now more than ever. Wyoming was an unfortunate battleground for poor European immigrants in the 19th century, and such a theme can easily be interpreted as a cause of some of the problems that plague modern society. Whether it’s the theatrical version or the director’s original version that came to be in 2012, this is truly a historical drama that should not be missed. Heaven’s Gate is available to stream on Tubi, Pluto TV, and MGM+.
