Rating: 
Summary: read this review, ignore the others
Review: first things first. How do you rate the movies you love ? Do you employ standard templates ? Assuming you don't -and please note I used the word love, not admire -then you'll understand if I suggest you look beneath the mountains of negative hyperbole heaped upon this picture. After all, do you love your girlfriend because she has a straight nose and geometric hair ? The things we love speak to us on levels it is hard to define, let alone rationalise. Nevertheless, this is a review, so I'm going to try to explain how it is possible to be utterly beguiled by a movie that is "overlong", "overblown", "overwrought" etc etc etc. Buy this film. Sit down. Absorb. You will seldom, if ever, have seen something that so thoroughly conveys a sense of time and place. The experience is alienating. It is supposed to be. You do not live in a frontier town in the nineteenth century. Let yourself go. Drink it in. Gradually ( remember when films were allowed to work themselves upon the audience gradually ? ) the traditional elements of character, theme, plot and trajectory unfurl. Because of this almost organic imprinting of the tale upon your subconscious you may come away feeling you've dreamt the whole thing. Certainly, no character pushes his way through the swing doors of the saloon to give a trite exposition of the plot at any point. You're grown-ups. You can work it out. If you can't, then you can marvel at the way Michael Cimino somehow managed to survive the desperate attentions of the accountants at the studio to deliver a work which does not, in any tiny detail, compromise on production values. He built a train station for Christ's sake. Aah, but now I'm beginning to do precisely what you, in the year 2001, have no need to do -judge this film on the history of it's creation. Don't. Just watch the thing. Personally, I'd pay the price of admission to see the rollerskating violinist alone. Never thought you'd see one of those in a western ? Please, don't think too hard about what you're expecting of this movie. It delivers entirely on it's own terms. I love it.
Rating: 
Summary: Brave. Brave. Brave. Unwatchable.
Review: If you want to know what's wrong with 'Heaven's Gate', Michael Cimino's notoriously over-ambitious flop Western, look at the opening sequence. The emphasis is on noise and spectacle, but unlike 'the Deer Hunter', it is not rooted in character. It is poorly filmed, the camera not staying still long enough to allow us to take it in; the clumsy editing and the refusal of successive camera angles to match breaks up any continuity. The waltz scene should be magical, but is shot as if by a documentary team recording the making of the film. John Hurt's smart-alecky, incomprehensible speech is profoundly alienating. If, after ten minutes in a four-hour film you are lost, than the omens are bad. Even in its 'full' four hour version, 'Heaven's Gate' seems like it's been badly butchered - the editing is abrupt, the sound is botched. Whole scenes seem to have been removed, all sense of momentum is repeatedly broken down. The plot is difficult to follow because the characters keep mumbling, and because the film-making was rarely clear. Characters are abruptly introduced and abandoned throughout. There is no attempt to clarify the relationships between characters, place and event. The action sequences verge on the abstract, dissolving into a senseless fog. The imagery is similarly fuzzy, and there are too many pointlessly gratuitous camera movements. If 'Heaven's Gate' was supposed to be an epic piece of American storytelling, than it was clearly a failure. But all the negative things I mentioned above, all no-nos in Hollywood, are virtues in European cinema. The sense of narrative and generic fracture is pure Godard; the alienation of the individual from narrative, history, society and his environment is very Antonioni. The attempt to make History and the People the heroes (all those idealising shots of characters against the sky) is familiar from Soviet cinema. The fact that 'Heaven's Gate' is almost a left-wing picture is another probable reason for its failure. 'The Deer Hunter' took a national trauma (Vietnam) and tried to heal it: hence its success. 'Gate' takes something Americans are proud of - the American way; capitalism - and showed it to be fascist. this is true, but not what an America who had just voted Reagan wanted to hear. For all its good intentions, there was only one scene I liked, where Christopher Walken hits a bearded colleague: the lightening, dance-like movement was the one moment this lumbering dinosaur threatened to perk up.
Rating: 
Summary: Hell's Service Entrance
Review: Based on his making of this disaster (the Amazon review program insists that I cannot give it a blank rating; I assure you, I would not confer a single star upon this monstrosity), I have always believed Michael Cimino would have made a perfect government official: overspending, misspending, malspending other people's money on behalf of things not even close to what they were purported to be, the difference being that the Constitution does not enjoin, for better or worse, against artistic incompetence. (Yet.) Should be subtitled, "How To Destroy The Studio Founded By Chaplin, Fairbanks, and Pickford In 40 Million Easy Lessons."
Rating:
Summary: Heaven's Gate is pure heaven-only in the widescreen original
Review: Despite the bad reviews (many of them came before the orginal film was even released) and despite a despotic director (Michael Cimino single-handedly brought down United Artists), Heaven's Gate in the orginal 3 hour 40 minute wide screen is perhaps the best american western ever made, and ranks in the top ten of american films. Seen in its enitirety, again despite the reviews, there is a magnificent story told here: of Cattle Barrons, Immigrants, of Lawmen and Outlaws, and although the story's characters (for the most part) are heavily fictionalized, the core story is absolutely true, based on a book, banned in Wyoming for many years entited "The Banditi of the Plains". Of note is the incredible cinematography, superb acting-especially William Hurt and Christopher Walken, spectacular art direction and a set that is immense. Heaven's Gate never got the chance to be seen in theaters the way the Cimino had envisioned it, but in widescreen video it comes close. Pay particular attention to the internal rythms that Cimino and his editor have built into this film! Give it chance-it pales anything that Leone, Ford, Hawks and Hathaway have made-but it is different, more of a foreign film than american in style and structure. ENJOY!
Rating:
Summary: Too Confusing
Review: I must give 'Heaven's Gate' credit for being one of, if not the most, beautifully shot films I've ever seen. Michael Cimino is/was a very talented director, but the compliments will stop there. Its almost impossible to describe the plot because it is an absolute mess. And that's an understatement. The movie give no time for us to understand anything that is going on, and it is 3 hours and 40 minutes long!!
Apparently it is trying to tell the story of the Johnson County wars. How many people know what the heck that is? I know I don't know, and neither does the majority of the American public. I don't recall me learning it in history and the same can be said about most people. With that said, 'Heaven's Gate' should have told us something about the war before the movie began, but it doesn't.
It goes from one scene to the next without any coherancy. After watching it, I got the feeling I'd just watched a blank screen for over three hours. See it only for curiosity.
Rating:
Summary: Two stars for two stand outs: Walken and the Scenery.
Review: Good News: Don't get me wrong I thought the other actors were good but it just seems that Walken (no matter what he is doing or saying) is a natural standout. He seems to illicit an overwhelming presence in this movie. In my opinion, he should have had a bigger part. Now the scenery juxtoposed with the set design is beautiful and awe-inspiring. Still not understanding what exactly is so devastating about this movie in conjunction with giving the western a bad name (if you ask me, some of those western are worse then this one).
Now the Bad News: I gave this movie two stars because of it's implausible plot (how Kris's character got to harvard and then to the west is beyond me), sound effects (compeletely atrocious), music (trite at best), and long, drawn out scenes (including the totally editable first scene). I still want at least and hour and 30 minutes of my life back from the 3 hours and 40 minutes it stole. Michael Cimino sure did a number on my senses. If you are still curious about this movie make sure you don't drink to much water.
Rating:
Summary: Looking for a great cinematic tale of the West?
Review: . ...then buy Unforgiven. Let's just set the Heaven's Gate plot aside for a moment (all 3 hours and 40 minutes of it). Even granting this self-indulgent, obtuse epic a pardon, the DVD still deserves to be tried, convicted, and buried in the cheap seats on Boot Hill. The Heaven's Gate DVD is, without question, the WORST DVD that I have ever had the (dis)pleasure to view. Why? Well let's start with the video quality, which is horrific. No, I'm not referring to the Director's color palette. Yes, the chosen sepia tones are annoying, but I defer to the critics and assume that it was an inspired choice. No, I am referring to the film transfer....which was apparently done on someone's five year old PC using film reels stored in the back of a locked Ford Falcon sitting in the dessert for the last 20 years. The transfer is awash with reel change markers, dirt, scratches and random purple spots, which appear throughout the film. Furthermore, the quality varies SIGNIFICANTLY between reels. Okay, let's assume that you can tolerate the transfer. Can you still enjoy the film? Sure...if you can read lips. The sound is horrid. The mix is insanely poor. The center channel is low and muffled. In fact, it is so poor that we stopped the movie and played every game that we could with the surround sound system, television, and the DVD player...all to no effect. I'm not talking about trying to tweak a less than perfect 5.1 soundtrack - we were just trying to understand the actors! The sound is so muddied and overwhelmed by supporting background noise that much of the dialog is completely unintelligible. It was so bad that we even tried to turn on the subtitles. Unfortunately, my high school French is rusty and my friends' Spanish more so. Yes, that's right - no English subtitles. I am not even going to address the plot. Nope. I'm not even going to say that it was obtuse, meandering, and in need of serious editing. Whoops, I guess that I did. I mean, what the heck? Nearly four hours and no background on the motivation for the Harvard types to move West. No background on the relationship between the association and the state and federal government...or perhaps the main characters? Well, I suppose that, given time constraints, all possible interesting back stories had to be shelved...and understandably so. I mean who has time for such trivia when you need to dedicate ten minutes to a roller skating musical number...or 15 minutes to a drunken college graduation ceremony? Run from this movie. Run and hide. It may (and I emphasize MAY) be tolerable with a better transfer, but the DVD is a cruel joke. We kept waiting for Ashton Kutcher and the Punk'd crew to jump out and give us the real DVD. Michael Cimino owes me four hours of my life and four dollars for the rental. I will be contacting my attorney in the morning.
Rating: 
Summary: Not nearly so bad as you've heard
Review: This is a flawed movie, but it has redeeming qualities. Kris Kristofferson does a pretty good acting job. The woman who plays his love interest does a very good job too, plus she's got a couple nude scenes which are nice. In fact, the acting is quite good throughout. The movie is very long, and best taken in chunks. The sound is muddled. The editing is vexing. The plot is difficult to follow. The final battle scene doesn't make any sense. The ending is confusing and unsatisfying. However, the cinematography is great. There are some set-piece scenes which are pretty fun. And a few interesting surprises. Taken as a series of vingettes instead of as a whole, it's actually got some real heart.
A woulda shoulda coulda epic that didn't quite make the cut.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes you can win so much you end up losing.
Review: 'This is the movie that sank United Artists'. 'This is the movie that annihilated the Western'. 'This should serve as a warning to any director prone to self-indulgence or producer flipping carte blanche to the film-making wind'.
'Heaven's Gate' is the sorest, massivest victim of reputation in movie history. 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' has it as a reference point to unfairly breathe a sigh of relief at. It has historically been more of a victim than the victims portrayed within its vast expanse of celluloid masterpiece. Lambasted, pulled, cut, edited and commercially unrewarding, one thing it seems to have escaped is ridicule. There is a good reason for that but it will take seeing it to fully appreciate why. Cimino was on a roll. Having taxied well up the runway with his Eastwood-cast movies, he climbed to a well and truly dizzying zenith in 'The Deer Hunter'. 'Heaven's Gate' should have been a duplicate in commercial terms. It didn't happen that way. The 'why' element is flustering to mull over. Looking at the correlation between the significance of Vietnam in 1960s America and the Old West in America a century or less beforehand should have been able to keep 'Heaven's Gate' more than salient. Yet, cinema-goers were apathetic in 1980 to something that should have worked, that seriously had worked for them barely two years before. Length shouldn't have had to matter, but that, coupled with the lack of a strong central character seemed to be the blamable factors for 'Heaven's Gate' dying night after night upon theatrical release, before having to be rushed back to the studio hospital for extensive surgery. This truly is a case of 'why-o-why has this happened?!'. The positives are just staggering to behold, after all. Cinematography - perfect. Casting - perfect. Screenplay - (near) perfect. The sum of the parts makes this movie too good to be true. Yet, even in execution, there was still the 'X' factor bestowed by Cimino's careful lens. Reality bled through in every nook and cranny, walked in every foot of so many hundred extras, while comic relief (I mean what else could John Hurt have done but serve as comic relief in this?) and firefighting choreography are through the log cabin roof. The sprawling action evades the need for focus on a solitary protagonist because that's the way it should be. The Johnson County war didn't happen in Hollywood so why should its recreation have? 'Heaven's Gate' will be resurrected, though it may take time. Yet, through DVD and video value or deluxe release, late night cable release and large-scale magazine or E-zine reviewing, it shall truly make it back to where it belongs. This type of thing has happened before. It will happen again (rarely, though, given the downplay of the value of auteur cinema largely 'thanks' to this masterpiece). Herzog's 'Nosferatu' was another case of a high-energy attempt coming off looking-good and not quite making it. It's just too bad in this instance because Cimino lost a war in which he'd won every battle. Art House cinema has many Christlike properties. It's a forgiving genre, here to teach us in ways we usually wouldn't dream of looking for or looking through. While it's arguable that the Spaghetti Western was borderline Art House in a few facets, 'Heaven's Gate' stands as the only true example. The gunplay is harrowingly real, the living is heart-wrenchingly real, the dying is virtually intolerable. Maybe that was the problem. The dawn of a new decade didn't want so much social conscience being portrayed and fun-loving cinema patrons seemed to be in tune with that sentiment. Fickle things, movie-goers.
Rating:
Summary: A great film - lousy soundtrack
Review: I had to give this film 5 stars - it's a beautifully photographed movie; the acting is strong and the location breathtaking - can't wait for it to be put on at a cinema, so I can see it in its widescreen splendour. There was a big critical hoo-ha when it was released and I did not go to see at as a consequence; subsequent word of mouth recommendation, however, made me go out and buy this film. I know that there is a great script in the film - John Hurt's lines are incredibly erudite and funny, but the soundtrack makes it sound as if it were filmed on a cassette recorder. Is there any way the soundtrack can be digitally enhanced?
|
