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->''"It's getting dangerous to be poor in this country."''
-->-- '''John L. Bridges'''

''Heaven's Gate'' is a 1980 American epic [[TheWestern Western]] film written and directed by Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}}.

VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, the film takes place in 1890s UsefulNotes/{{Wyoming}} during the [[http://www.wyohistory.org/essays/johnson-county-war Johnson County War]], and tells the tale of two men, Sheriff James Averill (Creator/KrisKristofferson) and gunslinger Nathan Champion (Creator/ChristopherWalken). Averill's lawful duty is to keep the peace between poor immigrants and rich farmers, while Champion is the farmers' means of [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner lethal property protection]]. (The immigrants have been stealing cattle, but only to stave off hunger.) Both are in love with the same woman: Ella Watson (Creator/IsabelleHuppert), a madam who falls on the farmers' "hit list". As a result, they end up opposing the farmers and join the immigrants' side in the subsequent Johnson County War. Let's just say this battle is [[LeaveTheCameraRunning a long one]].

Savaged by critics on its release, the film became a BoxOfficeBomb--earning $3.4 million on a $44 million budget (losing more money than ''The Deer Hunter'' gained)--and an infamous CreatorKiller. Michael Cimino, who had been one of Hollywood's hottest young directors following his MediaNotes/AcademyAward-winning ''Film/TheDeerHunter'', never recovered. He worked sporadically after this film (even serving as the director of ''Film/{{Footloose}}'' before his constant requests to make it more extravagant--and expensive--led him to him being fired and replaced due to fear of another ''Heaven's Gate''), but never enjoyed the success he had prior to it. Kris Kristofferson, who had enjoyed a very successful career as a leading man in TheSeventies, [[StarDerailingRole never headlined a film this big again]].
The film's failure was widely viewed as a factor in Transamerica's decision to sell Creator/UnitedArtists to Creator/{{MGM}}, ending that studio's sixty-year run as a distribution company for independent producers.[[note]]Steven Bach, the UA production exec who greenlighted ''Heaven's Gate'', had his career ruined too, as he was fired after the movie bombed. He wrote a famous book about the disaster, ''Final Cut''.[[/note]] It is also regarded as a milestone signalling the end of the MediaNotes/NewHollywood era, the period in the late [[TheSixties 1960s]] and [[TheSeventies '70s]] in which auteur directors enjoyed unprecedented creative freedom and control over their work; this environment would quickly fade out over the next three years as studios reasserted control and MediaNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood rose to prominence.

However, in spite of the critical and commercial backlash, the film was saved by independent film channel Z Channel, which was run by a friend of Cimino and who convinced Cimino to restore the original version of the film with an eye towards the cable and home video market. Upon its re-release (and sparked by the notoriety of the film), the director's cut of ''Heaven's Gate'' has seen its reputation rebuilt somewhat among film critics outside of the controversy of its genesis, with its acclaim only rising further with the release of a new director's cut by Creator/TheCriterionCollection in 2012.

In addition to Kristofferson, Walken, and Huppert, the AllStarCast includes Creator/JohnHurt as Billy Irvine, Creator/SamWaterston as Frank Canton, Creator/BradDourif as Eggleston, Creator/JosephCotten (in one of his last film roles) as the Reverend Doctor, Creator/JeffBridges as John L. Bridges, Creator/TerryOQuinn as Captain Minardi, Creator/MickeyRourke as Nick Ray, and Creator/WillemDafoe (in his film debut) as Willy.

Not to be confused with the infamous UFO-based {{cult}} of the same name, or with ''Film/GatesOfHeaven''.

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!!''Heaven's Gate'' contains examples of:

* ActionGirl: Both Averill and Champion try to get Ella out of Johnson County, hoping to protect her. But she proves herself to be a badass, shooting her way out of a trap at Champion's house, vaulting from a broken carriage to her horse while escaping said trap, then later proving a very effective fighter on horseback during the final battle.
* TheAlcoholic: Billy Irvine, so very much.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
** The climactic battle never happened--or at least, no one was killed. In fact TheCavalry came to rescue the evil ranchers before any fighting could start.
** James ''Averell'' and Ella Watson were a married couple accused of cattle rustling. They didn't even live in Johnson County and were lynched before the "war" started (their deaths were one of the events that sparked the conflict, in fact). The pair quickly became ShroudedInMyth, and historians are still trying to pin down exactly how the whole incident unfolded.
* BasedOnATrueStory: The Johnson County War. There really were a bunch of hired killers imported into Johnson County. There really was a siege. A real person named Nate Champion really did go down shooting outside his blazing cabin. And the United States Cavalry really did come to the rescue of the ranchers. Beyond that, though, it's VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory.
* BeastlyBloodsports: German immigrants in 1890 Wyoming amuse themselves by going to cockfights.
* TheCavalry: Subverted in the Downer Ending, as the cavalry rides to the rescue--of the bad guys, just as the immigrants are on the verge of victory.
* DiabolusExMachina: Despite having lost the war, Averill, Ella, and Bridges live and are about ready to leave Wyoming a start anew together.....only for [[BigBad Canton]] and his men to suddenly pop up and kill the latter two, with Averill the sole survivor. Especially egregious since Canton had already won and got what he wanted, and he ends up shot dead by Averill as a result of this.
* DistantFinale: The last scene shows Averill on his yacht off the coast of Rhode Island 13 years later.
* DistantPrologue: Starts with a 20-minute sequence in which Averill and Irvine are graduating from Harvard in 1870, before jumping to 1890 and the main story.
* DownerEnding: The immigrants lose, and Ella, Nate, and Bridges die.
* EpicMovie: Cimino clearly wanted this to be his ''[[Film/BenHur1959 Ben-Hur]]''. The November 1980 premiere was 3 hours and 39 minutes long. After that version got a disastrous reception, a 2 hour and 29 minute version died a quick box office death in April 1981. Even that version is still an Epic Movie, however, with the all-star cast and the jaw-dropping scenery and photography and the exhaustively ornate sets.
* FanEdit: Creator/StevenSoderbergh put together [[http://extension765.com/sdr/16-heavens-gate-the-butchers-cut an "immoral and illegal" edit]] that trimmed it to under two hours. He tightens up the narrative, ditches the epilogue and puts the Harvard scenes at the end as a flashback.
* FinalSpeech: Nathan Champion writes a letter containing this to his friends in a ''burning cabin.'' No need to guess what exactly is wrong with that. It was attacked by contemporary critics as unrealistic, but ironically is one of the few elements ''true'' to the historical events on which the film was loosely based!
* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: The original poster and much of the promotional material for the film called it ''Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate''. Unfortunately for Cimino, this meant there was no possible way for him to avoid the blame after it bombed.
* InTheStyleOf: A RunningGag in Steven Bach's book ''Final Cut'' is various people commenting throughout production that "it looks like Creator/DavidLean made a {{Western}}," and that definitely sums up what Cimino was clearly going for.
* LeaveTheCameraRunning: Constantly, and to a degree never seen before or since in the history of film. In particular, the original cut of the movie includes one long continuous battle sequence that lasts ''over an hour''.
* MissKitty: Ella runs a whorehouse, as well as working herself as a prostitute.
* OrbitalShot: Used for the scene where Averill and Ella are waltzing alone in the dance hall.
* OscarBait: In spite of its lofty aspirations, it only managed a ''single'' nomination, for Art Direction.
* PietaPlagiarism: Averill cradling Ella's body at the end.
* RealIsBrown: Especially in some of the earlier scenes. Naturally this doesn't improve the quality of shots where the frame is dominated by dust and smoke. Creator/RogerEbert stated that this was one of the ugliest films he had to watch. (The film no longer looks like this, as the 2013 Criterion DirectorsCut restoration also corrected the color.)
* RealityIsUnrealistic: The scene where Nate Champion writes his FinalSpeech in a ''burning cabin'', which was unsurprisingly criticized for being melodramatic and an unnecessary addition? [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_County_War#Battle_of_KC_Ranch That actually happened]]. One of the few scenes ''true'' to historical events, actually.
* ReCut: Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}}'s original cut was ''5 hours and 25 minutes long''; it's been speculated that he might've been pulling a BatmanGambit on United Artists, submitting an outrageously long cut so that his preferred three hour-plus runtime would look reasonable to the studio brass in comparison. This was edited down to 3 hours and 39 minutes for its premiere, and then down to 2 hours and 29 minutes for its wide release. In 2012, it was later restored to Cimino's original vision of 3 hours and 37 minutes (cutting out the intermission and making a few other adjustments to the premiere cut).
* RevengeBeforeReason: Canton's side more or less wins the war, albeit suffering heavy casualties. Unfortunately, this still isn't enough for him, and he ambushes Averill, Ella, and Bridges just as they are about to leave Wyoming to avenge his men (and implied to be due to Averill showing him up repeatedly throughout the film). While he manages to kill the latter two, he ends up shot dead as a result.
* SatelliteCharacter: Billy Irvine is just kind of...there, not affecting the story in any way at all other than to throw out the occasional one-liner and piss Canton off. Lampshaded toward the end of the movie, during the battle, when Canton snarls "Sometimes I don't even know why you're here." Seconds later Irvine is shown standing amongst the violent chaos, drinking from his flask and muttering "Last time this year I was in Paris. I love Paris." John Hurt actually signed onto ''Film/TheElephantMan'' simply because he was so bored waiting for something to do on this film.
* SceneryPorn: The cinematography is lavish, but spoiled by the RealIsBrown aesthetic.
* ShutUpGunshot: Bridges does this to quiet the jabbering citizens before starting the meeting at the dance hall. Later he has to do it again after the jabbering starts back up.
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: The CentralTheme of the film; Averill and Irvine start out as idealists who have their hopes slowly crushed by the brutality and corruption of the times they live in.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: It's epically long, and after all the youthful hope at the beginning and the heroic struggle in the middle, [[spoiler: the immigrants lose, most of the major guys get killed (including the BigBad, but his side has already won) and the main character is left an EmptyShell]]. No wonder that, even before it started to run wildly over-budget, the studio was worried that it was potentially a bit depressing.
* ShownTheirWork: One of the reasons the film cost so much was that Cimino was obsessed with getting all the period details right. (A promotional tie-in with [[Creator/EastmanKodak Kodak]] film quoted him as saying, "If you don't get it right, what's the point?") One legendary anecdote had Cimino deciding that the street on his main set wasn't wide enough, and then having both sides of the street torn down and moved back three feet, at great cost and time wasted. Steven Bach's book relates another story about how Cimino insisted on spending a ton of money to transport an authentic 1890s steam engine train to the set. But this trope was so abundant that [[RealityIsUnrealistic people refused to accept its little quirks as "real" at all]]. Cimino tended to abandon generic verisimilitude in favour of being "accurate", in turn ignoring a lot of things that people expect (or want) to see in a western. See FinalSpeech above for a good example, as well as the widespread criticism regarding the infamous roller skate dance scene.
* {{Skinnydipping}}: A large dose of Isabelle Huppert fanservice as Ella bathes in a stream.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Jim Averill's arc is the slow slide from one end to the other. He starts out as a Harvard-educated son of privilege who rejects a cushy life in favor of becoming a lawman and doing some good in the world. At the end, he's an EmptyShell who completely failed to protect either the immigrants or the woman he loved. "I hate getting old", indeed.
* TimeSkip: 20 years between the opening graduation ceremony at 1870 Harvard and 1890 Wyoming.
* TrivialTitle: "Heaven's Gate" is the name of the skating rink.
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