Waste of time
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looking4ahandout — 15 years ago(June 21, 2010 07:07 AM)
I watched Heaven's Gate because of the infamous reputation. Obviously I am in the minority but I didn't think it was that bad. Not great but not deserving of the reputation it has. If it didn't lose so much money it would be viewed differently. I've seen far worse films that don't get treated like Heaven's Gate because they made money or cost little to make.
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bstephens21 — 15 years ago(December 23, 2010 12:15 AM)
If you want to cling to that opinion, its your right. I have no intention of fighting the windmills. I just want to open up the dialogue on the film to allow it the conversation it deserves.
And ultimately, I am confident that critical opinion
will
swing closer to my direction in the coming years. I'm already seeing the small rumblings of a full-scale reconsideration of the film, and considering some of the "plans" for the film in the future, I see no reason for it to lose momentum.
We can only wait and see. -
okami36 — 14 years ago(August 16, 2011 02:44 AM)
I thought this movie was a lot like Caligula in many ways.
Both had an interesting person/event at the heart of the story.
Both had a ton of great actors/actresses.
Both are way too long.
Both are boring.
This could've been called "Dramatic Pause: The Movie" or "Lots of Footage of People Walking and/or Doing Very Little".
Had the pacing been tighter, this could've been a great film. -
ABetterDay — 13 years ago(March 02, 2013 04:46 PM)
Heaven's Gate is a terrible film. Actually.it's not so much a film as it is a political statement. It should not have been made. Liberalism run amok.
Remember When Movies Didn't Have To Be Politically Correct? -
mordloldad — 13 years ago(March 03, 2013 01:14 PM)
I would say it's a failed political statement. Cimino wanted to turn the Western genre upside down and show the "real" west. Instead he created a black-and-white tale that dealt in absolutes just about as much as any Western that came before it. Sam Waterson's character is the Darth Vader of the western. He is literally a mustache twirling villain (although, his mustache is one of the most impressive things about this movie) and he looks like a Stalinist general in the Red Army. The mercenaries involved with the actual Johnson County War weren't out to massacre poor immigrants (in actuality there weren't many impoverished European immigrants in Wyoming), they actually set their sights on some affluent targets. I don't mind that Cimino took liberties with history necessarily as plenty of great films have done so (Amadeus immediately comes to mind) but if you're claiming to "demystify" the west, creating your own mythological west isn't the best way to go about it. In the end Cimino did turn the Western genre upside down, with Heaven's Gate's failure big studios were afraid to touch many Western projects.
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Leilanit96701 — 13 years ago(March 03, 2013 09:47 PM)
I have never managed to get through more than 45 minutes of this disaster. I've tried coming in on the middle and watching from the beginning but it doesn't seem to matter. There is no character development and the storyline is simply boring. The dialogue is hard to understand and I feel like I'm watching the film through a dust cloud. Waste of money and a waste of talent.
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matushka1731 — 13 years ago(March 04, 2013 05:38 AM)
It's great that a few people such as M. Stephens thought that this was a gem of a film; however, I was determined to give it a shot and deliberately stayed up until 4AM to watch it in all its TCM glory. I must agree with M. Solo that it was a total waste, except for admiring the cinematography and art direction which were impressive. Cimino apparently decided that the way to follow up his great DEER HUNTER, was to make one overblown, extended, excessive scene after another (a la DH's wedding sequence)and then fill it with babbling dialogue that no one could possibly understand (plus all the soundtrack racket). TCM's Mankiewicz advised that we were about to see the Director's cut, so I'm not sure which version I actually wound up watching! But, I do know that I have no desire to see another version. A waste of some poor animals, an interesting cast, a possibly interesting historical eventand by 4AM, a really meaningless waste of time.
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frmrfran — 10 years ago(January 28, 2016 04:32 PM)
Cimino wanted recognition and the permission to make more drivel. After 90 minures I can't take anymore. I read a review about how this movie was so rivoting and honest and needed four hours in the telling. Well, at 90 minutes when I saw the fiddler doing his 1980's Xanadu skating in his 1970's boot-skates I said enough is enough. Realism? Yes, the cinematogrphy is lovely and the scenes muddy and cold and it puts you in the scene with them, but my appreciation ends there. Well, let me skate on out of hereI have given this movie all my time I am willing to waste. Oh, his Russian hooker gf was very cute, though Kris (in stoic character) couldnt tell her so.
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col_rutherford — 10 years ago(January 31, 2016 03:02 PM)
Well, at 90 minutes when I saw the fiddler doing his 1980's Xanadu skating in his 1970's boot-skates I said enough is enough. Realism?
It's ironic you complain about the roller skating scene, because while
Heaven's Gate
takes many liberties with history, the roller skates are historically accurate. Roller skating was hugely popular in America in the 1880s and 90s. Wyoming's first roller skating rink was established in Johnson County in 1885. What is anachronistic about the scene is that the tune the band is playing, "The Mamou Two Step", debuted in 1951.