Is it really that bad?
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Prismark10 — 15 years ago(March 14, 2011 09:57 AM)
Its a very well filmed epic that took risks. Its dark with some unsympathetic characters. The film rather tanked at the box office and it does have flaws. The most serious one was a cohesive narrative. You have a hard time following the story.
Its that man again!! -
Fillmore85 — 11 years ago(September 21, 2014 02:21 AM)
Ha!
You are #2 on my list of people I've seen who are so blinded by the intellectual intentions of the film-maker that you fail to actually be emotionally affected at all.
People don't like Heaven's Gate because the characters are poorly developed, scenes go on for far too long (yes, I get the point of the dancing/rollerskating scenes. They also didn't need to be 20+ minutes), and there was no real emotional core. That you think it is better than The Deer Hunter just outs you as a pretentious academic, all too concerned with what Cimino "meant" to do with one scene or another, and not at all caring whether he succeeded.
It's fine to like a flawed movie. It's okay to have guilty pleasures. We all have different tastes. But your feeble attempts to intellectually bully those who disagree are embarrassing, and trying to mask it in academic jargon doesn't help your case at all. Grow up. -
junefirst26 — 15 years ago(April 14, 2010 04:10 PM)
I just saw this film a few days ago for the first time. The 3 hour, 39 min. version. It is a very beautiful film to watch, you almost feel as though you are back there in time. Though while beautiful to see, I just wished that I cared for the characters more. I think that if the film had more little scenes that endeared you to these people, you would have felt their pain more. Scenes like you see in Lonesome Dove, or even Mc Cabe and Mrs. Miller. Little humerous scenes that show the viewer that not all is impending doom. As for the immigrants, I almost feel nothing for them, because it seems I only see them in scenes of confrontation, anger, yelling, cock fighting. Though there are sad scenes where women are pulling a plow, and the widow pulling her cart, I must admit I don
t feel their pain like I thought I should. I think there is too much focus on the female lead, and who she is going to go with. Basicaly, there isnt much charm in this film. Though Dr. Zhivago, was kind of thin on plot, I still really cared for these people and their plight, as I do for everyone in The Deer Hunter also. I should also mention that the DVD did NOT have English subtitles, because I must admit that I must have missed about 25% of the dialog trying to understand what people are saying. I`ll have to go and check out Final Cut on youtube, if its still there. Thanks. -
smiley_b81 — 15 years ago(April 19, 2010 09:07 PM)
Recently I'd compare the critical drubbing of this movie to the one bestowed on Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones" for instance. If that movie flopped huge (and its director wasn't sweating cash out his ears), would his career have gone the way of Cinimo?
Busey+Boll=Match made in heaven -
PotassiumMan — 15 years ago(June 10, 2010 02:53 PM)
The film's length is really what kills it. Its not really the acting. The film just never ends and seems sluggish. Keep in mind that when this film was released in 1980, people had high expectations for quality filmmaking. Nowadays, a film like this would probably be much less furiously panned. It would merely be dismissed as boring. But after the wealth of great films of the 1970's, it should come as no surprise that this one seemed so dreadful.
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donofthedial — 14 years ago(October 30, 2011 05:33 PM)
I saw it when it first came out. I was not a Cimino fan, nor a Kristopherson fan. I went to see it b/c I could not believe that it was as bad as people were saying. I saw it, enjoyed it and admired it. Some of the battle scenes had me looking to see who was who. And I saw a version with an ending that was apparently little seen by most audiences. Very disturbing and the next day at work I felt the need to talk about it with people. I never saw that ending again.
It has been quite a while since I have seen any version of the film and I would like to see it again. -
jmillerdp — 10 years ago(April 09, 2015 12:54 AM)
The cinematography is awful, in my opinion. I have always admired Vilmos Zsigmond's dedication to his director's vision. But, man!, movies like Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" and Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" look really bad to me.
I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! [slurp!] I DRINK IT UP! - Daniel Plainview - There Will Be Blood