Heaven's Gate (1980)

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Heaven's Gate (1980)

Post by Neon Maniac »

I remember when this came out and about how it was nothing but negative press reviews. I remember trying to watch it when it came on TV back then and I just couldn't. Probably a bit due to my age but I also think partially due to the boringness of the film. I think the running time of the original release was like around 3.5 hours. As I got older and more into film, people who I trusted about movies would have a lot of positive to say about this movie, so I always wanted to give it another chance.

The director, Michael Cimino, annoys me at times. He made Deer Hunter, and my biggest gripe with Deer Hunter is the wedding reception scene which seems to last for 5 days and is at least 4 hours of that 3 hour movie. He had done the same thing with Heaven's Gate. He let scenes go on for way longer than they should have in an almost masturbatory pleasure.

A few years back I saw a documentary about an early cable channel in California called Channel Z, which showed a lot of art house films, as well as Heaven's Gate. Apparently they played it in its entirety a lot back then, because that's what people were talking about the most in the doc, it seemed. My take away from it was, this is definitely a movie I want to see, and Cimino did the same thing he did with Deer Hunter, made huge long meandering meaningless scenes.

Earlier this week I saw that it was on Hulu, and the running time was around 2.5 hours. Pretty much looked like a nonsense free version. So I gave it a go. This movie's pretty damn good. It's kind of bad ass at points. And it's got an awesome cast. I would highly recommend this cut. I'm not a fan of westerns, but this may be my new favorite.
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Re: Heaven's Gate (1980)

Post by shiki-jitsu »

Neon Maniac wrote: I'm not a fan of westerns, but this may be my new favorite.
Better than Young Guns II? I think not!
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Re: Heaven's Gate (1980)

Post by Alien Redrum »

:lol:

Have you not seen Tombstone???? OMG OR LONG RIDERS????

And almost the entirety of the post, I was sure you were talking about the cult. :lol:
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Re: Heaven's Gate (1980)

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OMG I HATE YOU ALL.

Those movies you both mentioned are terrible.
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Re: Heaven's Gate (1980)

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Re: Heaven's Gate (1980)

Post by Neon Maniac »

And right there you demonstrate 100% of what was wrong with that movie. :lol:
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Re: Heaven's Gate (1980)

Post by Neon Maniac »

I do wonder what was cut from it though. Because the John Hurt character seems to be missing a big chunk from this story, as do a handful of smaller characters too.
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