MovieChat Forums > Heaven's Gate (1981) Discussion > Why does John Hurt stay with The Associa...

Why does John Hurt stay with The Association?


I love the movie, but couldn't understand why Billy stayed with the association, and even helped in the massacre of Nate Champion and the others.

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Because he's a coward. He feels that what the Association is doing is wrong, but he dares not actively oppose them because he doesn't want to jeopardize his wealth and social status. When James asks him what will he do, Billy responds "I'm a victim of our class, James."

Billy becomes an ineffective, self-loathing drunk, a man of words and not of deeds. He goes along with the Association but is reluctant to get his hands bloodied in the fighting. He tries to remain a bystander, but in the end the violence affects him too.

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John Hurt’s role in this has always puzzled me, what’s the point of his character? Take him out of the film and nothing would change, he just sort of lingers around drinking in most scenes and offers a few words here and there then gets killed.

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He's probably meant to draw a contrast with Kristofferson's character, who ends up "betraying" his class by helping the impoverished immigrants wage armed struggle against the mercenaries.

I do agree though that if you took him out of the film, nothing would really change. I also don't see any logical reason (I may have missed something) why he would be accompanying the mercenaries. It makes sense for Sam Waterston's character to accompany them, but not Hurt's.

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I agree, it’s an interesting idea to have him contrast Kristofferson’s character, but it isn’t really developed, I think it would have worked well for Waterston’s character to have been an old classmate/friend of Kristofferson.

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