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| I'm Walken. Yes, indeed. |
Director: Michael Cimino
Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Walken, Sam Waterston
With a plot loosely based on the Johnson County War of 1892, we follow the trials and tribulations of Sheriff Jim Averill (Kristofferson); Nate Champion (Walken), the deadly enforcer for the Cattle Barons; and Bordello Madam Ella Watson (Huppert), whom they both love. When the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, led by Frank Canton (Waterston), decide to effectively eliminate the poor, foreign farmers encroaching on their territory, they come up with a list of so called "thieves and anarchists" to be put to death; and the three lovers need to decide which side they want to stand with.
I don't often go into the production of a film while reviewing it, but in this case, I feel as if the "legend" of Heaven's Gate needs addressing. Hot off the success of Michael Cimino's sophomore directorial effort, The Deer Hunter (1978), which won several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director; and while still entrenched in the golden age of the New Hollywood; Cimino was essentially given carte blanche to make his "little" Johnson County War Romance film, that had been rejected several years prior. It went into production in early 1979, with a budget of around $12 million, and a projected release date for that year's holiday season. In the end, largely due to Cimino's uncompromising extravagances (such as collapsing and reconstructing a period street set in order to make it six feet wider), the budget ended up at over $40 million, an astronomical sum for that time, and didn't even finish shooting until March 1980.
Premiering late in 1980, the nearly four hour long film ended up being savaged by the critics, and was promptly pulled from theaters a week later. Six months on, the studio released a shortened two and a half hour version, but to no avail. In the end, the film grossed only $3 million at the domestic box office. United Artists, the studio formed in 1919 by D.W.Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, collapsed under it's debts, and was purchased by and folded into MGM Studios. It rang the death knell for the New Hollywood, and passed ultimate control of the films back from the artists, to the studio heads. Considered one of the biggest box office and critical bombs of all time, it effectively destroyed Cimino's career. He briefly was given a shot at directing Footloose (?!?), but after four months of outrageous budgetary demands, he was fired and replaced by Herbert Ross.
Years later, Los Angeles pay-cable station The Z Channel screened the four hour cut of Heaven's Gate, which is the version that was subsequently released on home video. It has, in the following decades, been given a grudging degree of respect, with some critics and filmmakers even hailing it as a lost masterpiece.
Ok, now that we have the "legend" out of the way, how much of it is really true? Well, most of it. The death of the New Hollywood could just as easily be attributed to the success of such films as Jaws and Star Wars, as it was to the failures of Heaven's Gate and One From The Heart, since the more money the business was making, the more suits began to take over. But was it a "lost masterpiece"? Not so much.
The movie is bad. Really bad. Cimino completely earned the public flogging that he received for making it, and it has equally earned it's place as one of cinema's worst films. Completely pretentious in the truest sense of the word, in that it's simplicity and stupidity are masked by the outrageous length of the film, including individual scenes and shots, lending it an undue sense of importance. The film is ostensibly about how bad it is that men of higher education run the world, and that people of any "class" should have the same inalienable rights. This point is undercut by the fact that the poor foreign farmers are shown to be as decisive as cattle themselves, and rely upon Harvard educated Jim Averill for their every decision. Cimino, himself a graduate of Yale, betrays his hand by showing a strong condescension to, and disdain for, the very people that he attempts to defend.
The plot is as simple as you could possibly make it. Imagine Avatar as a box office failure, instead of a blockbuster. You have Waterston as the standard mustache-twirling villain, Kristofferson as the stalwart hero, and Huppert as the hooker with the heart of gold. Why, then, the unnecessary sense of importance for what could just as well have been popular entertainment? Certain lines and points are repeated over and over again, to make sure that everything really hits home. Yep, I get it dude. No, really.
Are there any redeeming values? Yes; and that's what makes it all the more painful. It has a wealth of "spot the actor" moments, and some good performances, but they're all completely wasted. You've got Jeff Bridges as. . . well, I'm not really sure what his character is. He stands around in a black hat looking confused a lot. Shakespearian actor John Hurt plays a sort of Jar Jar Binks-like character, stumbling drunkenly around the battlefield providing "comic relief". Mickey Rourke appears, in his first screen role, as "Huh?", joined by veteran actor Geoffrey Lewis as "Wha?".
The photography, by master cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, is gorgeous to look at, and the movie's main virtue. But it's rarely composed well, with the shots often seeming randomly placed. Yeah, that vista looks great; what's the point of this shot again? The music is boring and misplaced, often using variations on The Blue Danube (apparently, no one informed Cimino that Stanley "Fucking" Kubrick had already placed his stamp on that particular piece). The pacing and editing are ziadifposennnnnn. . . Sorry. Fell asleep at the keyboard there for a moment.
It's a must-see for film fans only. Not because of any degree of quality that it contains, but simply so that you can say you've seen one of the biggest cinematic train wrecks of all time.
FREDERICK OPINES: ABOMINATION
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