Comments on: Michael Cimino’s ‘Heaven’s Gate’ teaches us that great art ultimately triumphs, no matter the circumstances https://cinephiliabeyond.org/michael-ciminos-heavens-gate-teaches-us-great-art-ultimately-triumphs-no-matter-circumstances/ Films and Filmmaking Thu, 24 Apr 2025 18:52:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 By: C. Dougherty https://cinephiliabeyond.org/michael-ciminos-heavens-gate-teaches-us-great-art-ultimately-triumphs-no-matter-circumstances/#comment-83 Mon, 01 Jun 2015 12:48:00 +0000 http://www.cinephiliabeyond.org/?p=13710#comment-83 I agree in large part with *allthedings, with the additional opinion that there were times when the effects tracks obliterated dialogue critical to the story; the conversation between Kristofferson and the Irish station master sets up the critical conflict, but between train noise, crowd noise and a nearly impenetrable Irish accent, the thread of the story, already a challenge, is lost entirely. I also would like to underscore the most important point: that there is no clear protagonist in the story. The developed characters are all fairly ambiguous, and the settlers, as a whole, are shrill and unlikable. The pacing is indeed glacial, and the viewer’s attention wanders so it’s even harder to remember what is going on and why. All that said, Vilmos’ work is brilliant and it’s well worth watching from that perspective alone, but for me at least, it’s difficult to enjoy it as entertainment.

]]> By: allthedings https://cinephiliabeyond.org/michael-ciminos-heavens-gate-teaches-us-great-art-ultimately-triumphs-no-matter-circumstances/#comment-61 Mon, 16 Feb 2015 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.cinephiliabeyond.org/?p=13710#comment-61 Heaven’s Gate is a film of beautiful moments without a strong narrative line or center. It’s good to see this reappraisal, and the film deserves it. But let’s not go overboard. This isn’t like finding the director’s cut of The Magnificent Ambersons or Greed.

One thing I remember from the time when Heaven’s Gate was discussed on Siskel & Ebert was their noting of the final battle scene, with the wagons flying around and the subtitle popping up of a woman saying, “I’m so scared.” People laughed at things like that because they were out of place in any movie. The pacing is glacial most of the time, and it’s hard to root for any of the characters very much.

Cimino was a bad director, if a good filmmaker. The difference being, a director manages the entire set, and everything about it, including the budgets and the morale of the cast and crew. Cimino was not good at those things, but he could find a cinematographer to make his shots look beautiful.

As Sarris said at the time of its release (paraphrasing), ‘The Deer Hunter’ isn’t nearly as good as everyone thought it was, and ‘Heaven’s Gate’ isn’t as bad as everyone insists it is. That sentence is true on both ends.

Heaven’s Gate may have been treated unfairly, but the way Cimino abused every aspect of the filmmaking process should not be ignored. He makes the Coppola of ‘Apocalpyse Now!’ or the Herzog of ‘Fitzcarraldo’ seem perfectly reasonable and in total control.

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