Wonderful Westerns: ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (1980)

This time around on Wonderful Western we’re going to take a look at a Western that has one of the most fascinating stories ever. Oh, I’m not talking about the actual plot of the film; I’m talking about its history as a film. The hectic and chaotic  production and post-production, the bad publicity, the recent revaluation of the film, the massive backlash at the time of its release, what it did to United Artists, and how it kind of signaled the end of the ’70s boom of director-controlled films. When I first saw this film years ago I dismissed it as “boring,” but this critique is nothing compared to what the movie got at the time.

Before we continue, I’d like to get this out of the way: no, this movie has nothing to do with the infamous religious group that committed mass suicide. Okay? Are we good? Yes? Good! On we go!

The production of the this film goes as far back as Michael Cimino’s career. Cimino originally submitted a draft of the script under its original title, The Johnson County Wars, in 1971, but it was shelved when Cimino couldn’t get any big names attached to it. So, he then went on to make two very good films that gave him a lot of clout: the Clint Eastwood-Jeff Bridges buddy crime caper Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) and the Academy Award Best Picture-winner of 1978, The Deer Hunter (1978). It was basically because of the latter that Cimino was able to get the clout and credit to do whatever he wanted. Of course, what he wanted to do next was what is now known as Heaven’s Gate (1980).

The story of Heaven’s Gate is based on the actual Johnson County War which took place between 1889 and 1893 and was a range war between the cattle ranchers and settlers in Johnson County, Wyoming. It resulted in the deaths of between 19-25 people and the end of open-range cattle ranching. And of course, it’s been a popular subject for several stories of the West — mainly used as the topic of class conflict. That’s the basis for Cimino’s film, and yes, he changed some details, but I’ll get to that later.

Okay, now onto the film itself — or the production at least. From day one, this film’s production was troubled and a lot of people seem to point the finger at Cimino’s perfectionist direction. It got to the point where cast and crew members were referring to this guy as ‘the Ayatollah.’ How much of perfectionist was he? He was so dedicated (or crazy, depending on who you’re talking to) about the project that it cause them to go over budget and behind schedule. There’s one scene in particular in the movie where some of the local townsmen of Casper, Wyoming, try to wake up the town marshall, Jim Averill (Kris Kristofferson), from a drunken sleep. Averill is startled by this, grabs his whip, and lashes out at them. This scene, which only takes up about 30 seconds of film, took a total of 51 takes. Yes, 51 takes for this brief little scene, and it took them a full day to get it.

Word of stuff like this (plus the deaths of a couple of horses on set) got a lot of people already hating this film. And of course, when it was released, it got panned across the board, and it bombed at the box office. This caused Cimino’s directing career (including the possibility of another Western about the Sioux Indians) to basically die and United Artist to essentially shut down, even though they got their money back via the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1983). At the time, it was deemed one of the worst films of all time. But is the film really that bad? Is it really  one of the worst films? Did it deserve its multiple Razzie nominations? After giving the film another watch, I can safely say that, no it doesn’t. Is it perfect? No, but given the plethora of bad films out there, this barely makes the radar.

So what are the strong parts of this film? The productions value is very good. The cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond is spectacular; you get a great size and scope of the surrounding areas and the landscape, and it’s so beautiful. I mean, these shots would make John Ford get teary-eyed. Also, one has to give credit to the costuming and set design. It’s obvious that there was a lot of time and effort put into researching the clothes, the guns, the sets are all spectacular. One set was so impressive that one of the stars, Jeff Bridges, salvaged a cabin from the film and now has it as a family getaway.

There are also some strong performances in the film from several of the cast members. John Hurt gives an enjoyable performance, especially during the final act when he’s drunk off his butt during the final gunfight recalling his time in Paris. Then there’s Christopher Walken who steals the show as a hitman who’s hired to kill several of the European settlers.

That being said, there are still some issues with the film, mainly in the script department. Cimino seems to be more concerned with style over story and with what’s on camera than what forwards the plot. For example, we see in the film a love triangle between Walken, Kristofferson, and Isabelle Huppert’s character (yes, this trope existed even in the Old West, apparently), but there’s no real chemistry between them, and they all act bored for the most part. Also, we don’t get an idea of how they met. The first scene of the film is not them meeting, but Kristofferson and Hurt graduating from Harvard before we’re whisked away to Johnson County. That’s it.

Also, its very obvious that Cimino didn’t want to do a traditional Western where the good guy rides in and rescues the girl and then rides off into the sunset, and I can respect that. The Johnson County Wars are far from being a romanticized tales of the West. But there are few moments in which Cimino falls into that category, mainly in the final gunfight when he has these Czechoslovakian immigrants build these elaborate mobile barricades and make shift bombs to use in the final gunfight. This obviously didn’t happen — as a matter of fact, there were a lot things added that didn’t need to be changed or added.

But that being said, I don’t think this is one of the worst Westerns out there. I mean, I’m featuring it in this series for crying out loud. I do think it’s worth a look and discussion, even just to serve as the basis of a debate over creative control. I’m barely scratching the surface of Heaven’s Gate, but I hope you get a chance to check out this film and its history.

John Hamilton

John Hamilton is a lover of classic cinema from Southern Ohio and has been since he was a tiny little lad growing up on the farm. He's a fan of every type of film out there, especially Westerns and movies from the '60s and '70s. John is also a blogger and freelance writer.