DISCLAIMER: The version I watched was the director's cut, which runs at 3 hours and 39 minutes (luckily it does come with an intermission).
Widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made, I say the time has come to re-visit and re-evaluate Heaven's Gate. It is VERY loosely based upon The Johnson County War of 1892 (I can't speak for how accurate its portrayal of the American West is. It paints an unsympathetic, ugly, decidedly unromantic picture of the West, and it doesn't find anything nice to say about The old West and even America today, to an extent). Written and directed by Michael Cimino (and indeed, the script does shine at times), Heaven's Gate follows lawman James Averill (Kris Kristofferson), as he finds himself embroiled in a war between the small county of immigrants he oversees and the U.S. Govt., which has hired a hit squad to eradicate most of the immigrants in his county mainly due to disgusting racism and prejudice.
Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken (as Nate Champion), and Isabelle Huppert (as Ella Watson) are great in their roles. Huppert's Ella is a struggling yet strong woman who has turned to prostitution in an effort to support herself. Walken's Champion is the most interesting character in the film. Champion is an immigrant who has turned against his own kind for monetary reasons, and has become a racist himself. I won't say where Champion ends up, but he has a great arc. Kristofferson excels as a moralistic, wealthy lawman who has "betrayed his class" by choosing to protect immigrants. John Hurt also has a memorable supporting performance as William C. Irvine: a wealthy, cowardly drunkard who is barely able to hide his disgust for his peers and their murderous plans, and himself for not being strong enough to oppose them.
Heaven's Gate is incredibly long (the wide theatrical release in 1980 ran at 2 hours and 29 minutes, so still a lengthy watch no matter which version you choose to view), and it tends to be self-indulgent at the worst of times. The film is very casually paced, and some of the dialogue can be hard to make out (That's what subtitles are for, I guess). There's also a romantic triangle subplot between Champion, Averill, and Ella that isn't all that compelling or interesting yet takes up a good chunk of screen time nonetheless. The opening 20 minutes feel like they could have been cut (Only exists to set up how some of our characters know each other), and the final 10 minutes or so feel rushed and sloppy.
Surprisingly, Heaven's Gate is easily one of the most graphic, violent and disturbing films I have seen...though things don't really get nasty until the third act. The action scenes are shocking and horrific. Multiple animals were killed or injured during production, and I'd bet plenty of actors and stuntmen suffered injuries as well. If that's not your kind of thing (and really, who could blame you?), then Heaven's Gate is not the film for you.
Fortunately, the positive elements of Heaven's Gate outweigh the negatives. As stated above, the acting is great all around. The cinematography (by Vilmos Zsigmond) and visuals are consistently breath-taking (There's also some color-tinting utilized throughout). The whole film is like looking at a series of gorgeous paintings. The messages about how little things have changed since the late 1800s, the continued persecution of the lower-classes, the demonization of immigrants, the corruption of the rich and wealthy, and how lawful the law really is are still strong, pertinent, and thought-provoking today (some might say controversial, too).
Heaven's Gate's impact was historic. It's production was troubled, to put it politely. (There is even a book all about the making of Heaven's Gate called Final Cut.). It basically destroyed United Artists for a while, led to directors having less power in the industry, destroyed the reputation of its director, resulted in studios having more control over budgets, as well as tighter film productions overall. In short: Heaven's Gate more-or-less helped to change the way things worked in Hollywood (For better? For worse? Who knows?)
Despite it's legacy as a terrible film, Heaven's Gate really isn't terrible. I've seen many films that are so much worse than this (Ishtar jumps to mind). It's by no means a perfect film or a masterpiece, and it is not without its flaws, but there was a clear passion that went into making it, and the high quality of some of the technical aspects is undeniable. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Heaven's Gate, and I say it's well-past time that it gets a second look. It deserves at least that much.
4 STARS
No comments:
Post a Comment