MovieChat Forums > Heaven's Gate (1981) Discussion > My review of this...

My review of this...

posted 7 years ago by at7000
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Saw it for the first time recently. The 217 minute (3 hour and 37 minutes) version.

I am not going to say this is an overlooked masterpiece or anything like that. However, it is definitely a solid film with excellent cinematography. The critics who slammed this film are indeed, clueless, idiots.

Normally I would be against such a long running time but it works for this particular film in some weird way. As if the director wanted to totally insert you into the time and surroundings.

My last point is this- I highly recommend reading up on the Johnson County war before seeing it. it gives no background at all on what led up to the war and events. It could have displayed in text, one of those cheesey summaries about the situation and history, but it instead took the high road and avoided that. I would say some basic knowledge of the historical events would be mandatory for one to fully enjoy this film.

Walking into it blindly one might think- WTF? Rich, Powerful, Red Neck, Cattle Barrons fighting and slaughtering Russians, Germans and Slavs, in 1890 Wyoming?

It would be like watching a WWII film without knowing who the Nazis, Axis, and Allies were. It is quite possible some of the film's criticism was due to viewers not having a clue about the true events which occurred.

[–] col_rutherford 7 years ago

It is quote possible some of the film's criticism was due to viewers not having a clue about the true events which occurred.

Roger Ebert's negative review of Heaven's Gate cited the parts where Nathan Champion wrote a farewell letter inside a burning cabin and the settlers pushed wagons covered with logs into battle as examples of scenes that were "ridiculous", but those were based on actual events.

Part of the problem was that the Johnson County War was an interesting but little known historical event and an example of the truth seeming stranger than fiction. Cimino then took liberties with the truth about the Johnson County War and combined it with another issue from the same period - opposition to the arrival of new immigrants from eastern and southern Europe - in an attempt to create a grander narrative about wealth and class in America during the Gilded Age. The result was a story that didn't conform to either the historical record or to popular myths about the American West.

[–] Outstandingness 7 years ago

How accurately it depicts the Johnson county war is irrelevant to me. Filmmakers take liberties to make their own point. My problem is the fundamental ineptitude in filmmaking and the random revisionist history surrounding this movie.