Heaven's GateMan's inhumanity to man--maybe this would be the most succinct way to describe the preeminent conflict of Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate. Loosely based on the "Johnson County War", which was an armed conflict between the smaller settling, immigrant ranchers and the larger cattle barons of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Heaven's Gate draws from this complex and class-oriented struggle between the haves and have-nots in the frontier of the Wild West just shy of the turn of the century. Heaven's Gate is as vast and expansive as the landscapes it depicts with breathtaking majesty...and, on occasion, abject terror.
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Beginning in the graduation yards of Harvard just five short years after the conclusion of the Civil War--another conflict of open warfare on American soil waged by Americans on Americans--the story begins with the graduation of the class of 1870, including protagonist James Averill (Kris Kristofferson) and his schoolmate and class orator, William C. "Billy" Irvine (John Hurt). Our tantalizing taste of that luxurious and, frankly, rich lifestyle is swept away, when twenty years later, we find ourselves in a train car with the visibly older "Jim" emerging from a train into Casper, Wyoming. Even now, Jim senses something is afoot as he visits his Billy, and discovers that the WSGA has been baited into crafting a "deathlist", targeting 125 immigrant, encroaching ranchers and undesirables by the venomous Frank Canton (Sam Waterston). And while William opposes the horrifying proposal, he is shouted down by the special interests surrounding him. Fortunately, he makes this knowledge formally known to James...and James is burdened with the responsibility to defend Johnson County and its people, via his job as marshal, even when the national guard at the behest of the governor refuses to support him. James' battle to defend the people is one that he seems obligated to perform out of contrition. That is not to say that James in not a good man, but it becomes apparent that his love in Johnson County is focused primarily on a local madam, Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert), whom he passionately bestows expensive gifts on and begs for her to leave before the army of killers storm into town. But while Ella loves James, she also loves another, one whom shares a rivalry with James: Nate Champion (Christopher Walken), an enforcer for the Association, who seems to believe that they are actually bringing law to the West--making him both unpopular and feared among those who do not know him well; Jim, who knows him too well, scorns him for supporting the Association and spending time with Ella both. Although these people existed in real life, their dramatic incarnations are far removed from their real life counterparts, existing as a composite of Wild West mythos, playing out in a grand dramatization of this shocking episode in American history.
Heaven's Gate is a monumental film, huge, and it is nearly impossible to imagine its inception today. A laborious undertaking which history sometimes remembers as being the spectacularly expensive flop which bankrupted United Artists--this, too, carries a bit of myth, much like the "history" depicted in the film. Certainly, it was an implausibly expensive film for its day at a budget of $44 million, and grossing only $3.5 million did drive United Artist's parent company out of the film business. And, reviews for Heaven's Gate coasted along the wave of vitriol and vehement criticism during its premiere--even Roger Ebert didn't like it--with the rare champions for the film being so infrequent, that you could have counted them on one hand it seemed. In many ways, as it is with many films, time has been more forgiving and even broadly opined critiques have even been recanted. In all fairness, approaching Heaven's Gate is somewhat like approaching James Joyce's Ulysses; one has to brace oneself before plunging into the all-consuming depths of its awesome expanse. After watching the film, I was struck by the sense that it seemed to me to be the Western equivalent of 2001: A Space Odyssey--certainly, the ubiquitousness of Strauss' "The Blue Danube" certainly helps. Michael Cimino's chronicle of James Averill stretches in total over twenty-three years, and threatens to feel almost as long at four full hours. But this film is not concerned with the strength of your bladder or impatience--there is a deeper story to tell, and a world to unfold, one whose animosity toward immigrants and the condition of the rich being endowed with more rights than the poor still resonates today. Jim and Nate represent two specific kind of "heroes"; while Nate is overwhelmed by a desire for justice and law, he is poor, an immigrant himself, and uneducated, so that he has fallen sway to the whims of the Association, under the presumption that he is making the frontier a safer place. Jim, on the other hand, does good, knows what is right and wrong, but when his best efforts are thrown back in his face, his pride gets the better of him, and he pouts a bit like a spoiled child. And Jim is a bit spoiled, goofing off and ogling girls during the graduation speech by The Reverend Doctor (Joseph Cotton), who is offering up (albeit verbose) advise about the "cultivated mind" educating the uncultivated. While the speech bears some similarities to Kipling's "The White Man's Burden", there is a message that Jim almost takes to heart--defend those who cannot defend themselves, which he does...until his only true reason for doing so no longer matters. It is said that history is written by the victors, so what we know of the Johnson County war may be colored by second-hand accounts and muddied by time and the perceptions of popular opinion. It is enough to make one wonder how a century from now, how will people look back at the crises of our time, how we treated one another...or will they only remember what we choose to leave them?
Recommended for: Fans of lush and vast Western expanses, an epic tale of conflict and tyranny in the wilderness of Wyoming, and a very loose history lesson from 1890-ish. Plus, playing the fiddle on rollerskates is something you should see.
Heaven's Gate is a monumental film, huge, and it is nearly impossible to imagine its inception today. A laborious undertaking which history sometimes remembers as being the spectacularly expensive flop which bankrupted United Artists--this, too, carries a bit of myth, much like the "history" depicted in the film. Certainly, it was an implausibly expensive film for its day at a budget of $44 million, and grossing only $3.5 million did drive United Artist's parent company out of the film business. And, reviews for Heaven's Gate coasted along the wave of vitriol and vehement criticism during its premiere--even Roger Ebert didn't like it--with the rare champions for the film being so infrequent, that you could have counted them on one hand it seemed. In many ways, as it is with many films, time has been more forgiving and even broadly opined critiques have even been recanted. In all fairness, approaching Heaven's Gate is somewhat like approaching James Joyce's Ulysses; one has to brace oneself before plunging into the all-consuming depths of its awesome expanse. After watching the film, I was struck by the sense that it seemed to me to be the Western equivalent of 2001: A Space Odyssey--certainly, the ubiquitousness of Strauss' "The Blue Danube" certainly helps. Michael Cimino's chronicle of James Averill stretches in total over twenty-three years, and threatens to feel almost as long at four full hours. But this film is not concerned with the strength of your bladder or impatience--there is a deeper story to tell, and a world to unfold, one whose animosity toward immigrants and the condition of the rich being endowed with more rights than the poor still resonates today. Jim and Nate represent two specific kind of "heroes"; while Nate is overwhelmed by a desire for justice and law, he is poor, an immigrant himself, and uneducated, so that he has fallen sway to the whims of the Association, under the presumption that he is making the frontier a safer place. Jim, on the other hand, does good, knows what is right and wrong, but when his best efforts are thrown back in his face, his pride gets the better of him, and he pouts a bit like a spoiled child. And Jim is a bit spoiled, goofing off and ogling girls during the graduation speech by The Reverend Doctor (Joseph Cotton), who is offering up (albeit verbose) advise about the "cultivated mind" educating the uncultivated. While the speech bears some similarities to Kipling's "The White Man's Burden", there is a message that Jim almost takes to heart--defend those who cannot defend themselves, which he does...until his only true reason for doing so no longer matters. It is said that history is written by the victors, so what we know of the Johnson County war may be colored by second-hand accounts and muddied by time and the perceptions of popular opinion. It is enough to make one wonder how a century from now, how will people look back at the crises of our time, how we treated one another...or will they only remember what we choose to leave them?
Recommended for: Fans of lush and vast Western expanses, an epic tale of conflict and tyranny in the wilderness of Wyoming, and a very loose history lesson from 1890-ish. Plus, playing the fiddle on rollerskates is something you should see.