History Film / HeavensGate

''Heaven's Gate'', starring Kris Kristofferson, ChristopherWalken and JeffBridges, is best known as the film that destroyed the career of its director and writer Michael Cimino. Cimino went ''way'' over budget on the movie, and the movie itself did so poorly at the box office that the combined effect of the high budget and low income sent the studio (Creator/UnitedArtists) into deep financial trouble. It saw a ''very'' limited release in 1980 before going wider in 1981.

The film itself has had better reception over the years. Some critics have considered it an underrated gem, and it was notable enough for TheCriterionCollection to give ''Heaven's Gate'' a Blu-Ray release. Other critics have suggested that the film's real problem was its "naturalistic" sound mixing, which caused a lot of important dialogue to be swamped by background noise.

--->'''RogerEbert:''' ''The most scandalous cinematic waste I have ever seen, and remember, I've seen ''PaintYourWagon''!''

--->'''RogerEbert:''' ''The most scandalous cinematic waste I have ever seen, and remember, I've seen ''PaintYourWagon''!

''Heaven's Gate'', starring Kris Kristofferson, ChristopherWalken and JeffBridges, is best known as the film that destroyed the career of its director and writer Michael Cimino. Cimino went ''way'' over budget on the movie, and the movie itself did so poorly at the box office that the combined effect of the high budget and low income sent the studio (Creator/UnitedArtists) into deep financial trouble. It saw a ''very'' limited release in 1980 before going wider in 1981. Some critics have suggested that the film's real problem was its "naturalistic" sound mixing, which caused a lot of important dialogue to be swamped by background noise.

* TroubledProduction: Originally budgeted at $11 million or so, events occurred that shot its budget up to around $35 million (although some claim it could be as high as ''$44 million!'') Adjusting for inflation, that's over $100 million. For example, after an entire set of a town's main street was built ''to his exact specifications'', Cimino decided that the street looked too narrow. He ordered the buildings on each side torn down and rebuilt three feet back from where they were, even after one crew member pointed out that it would be easier and cheaper to ''just tear one side down and rebuild it six feet back''. The cost of this decision alone? $550,000. You know that something's wrong when, after six days of filming, the project's ''five'' days behind schedule.

** DisasterDominoes: Not only did it kill Michael Cimino's reputation, collapse United Artists, and essentially put an end to the ''Auteur'' era of NewHollywood, but the loss of money also made it impossible for UA to run an Oscar campaign for MartinScorsese's ''RagingBull'', possibly leading to one of the most notorious [[AwardSnub Best Picture snubs]] of the modern film era.

''Heaven's Gate'', starring Kris Kristofferson, ChristopherWalken and JeffBridges, is best known as the film that destroyed the career of its director and writer Michael Cimino. Cimino went ''way'' over budget on the movie, and the movie itself did so poorly at the box office that the combined effect of the high budget and low income sent the studio (UnitedArtists) into deep financial trouble. It saw a ''very'' limited release in 1980 before going wider in 1981. Some critics have suggested that the film's real problem was its "naturalistic" sound mixing, which caused a lot of important dialogue to be swamped by background noise.

** DisasterDominoes: Not only did it kill Michael Ciminos's reputation, collapse United Artists, and essentially put an end to the ''Auteur'' era of NewHollywood, but the loss of money also made it impossible for UA to run an Oscar campaign for MartinScorsese's ''RagingBull'', possibly leading to one of the most notorious [[AwardSnub Best Picture snubs]] of the modern film era.

* FollowUpFailure: Keep in mind that Cimino had just won ''two'' Oscars out of the ''five'' for ''TheDeerHunter''.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: Perhaps the definitive example; it's not only one of the biggest box office flops of all time, but widely considered one of the worst films of all time.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The only successful instance was the studio brass forcing Cimino to trim the film from its initial runtime of just over '''five hours''' to around three hours, forty-five minutes for its one-week run in New York. The theatrical cut ran about '''two-and-a-half-hours''', and somehow managed to be [[UpToEleven far worse]]. (Today, the most frequently screened version is the three hour-plus cut.) All other attempts to enforce this trope were either considered, but later dropped or rebuffed by Michael Cimino.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The only major instance was the studio brass forcing Cimino to trim the film from its initial runtime of just over '''five hours''' to around three hours, forty-five minutes for its one-week run in New York. The theatrical cut ran about '''two-and-a-half-hours''', and somehow managed to be [[UpToEleven far worse]]. (Today, the most frequently screened version is the three hour-plus cut.)

* ExecutiveMeddling: The only major instance was the studio brass forcing Cimino to trim the film from its initial runtime of just over '''five hours''' to around three hours, forty-five minutes. The theatrical cut ran about '''two-and-a-half-hours''', and somehow managed to be [[UpToEleven far worse]]. (Today, the most frequently screened version is the three hour-plus cut.)

* TroubledProduction: Originally budgeted at $2 million, events occurred that shot its budget up to ''$44 million!'' (Adjusting for inflation, that's over $100 million.) For example, after an entire set of a town's main street was built ''to his exact specifications'', Cimino decided that the street looked too narrow. He ordered the buildings on each side torn down and rebuilt three feet back from where they were, even after one crew member pointed out that it would be easier and cheaper to ''just tear one side down and rebuild it six feet back''. The cost of this decision alone? $550,000. You know that something's wrong when, after six days of filming, the project's ''five'' days behind schedule.

** The studio brass did consider sacking Cimino and replace him with Norman Jewison. However, Jewison wanted nothing to do with the film, so that never happened.

* LeaveTheCameraRunning

** Of course, this trope was so abundant that 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.

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* ExecutiveMeddling: The only major instance was the studio brass forcing Cimino to trim the film from its initial runtime of just over '''five hours''' to around three hours, forty-five minutes. The theatrical cut ran about '''two-and-a-half-hours''', and somehow managed to be [[BeyondTheImpossible far worse]]. (Today, the most frequently screened version is the three hour-plus cut.)

** Attacked by contemporary critics as unrealistic, ironically this is one of the few elements true to the historical events on which the film was losely based.

** DisasterDominoes: Not only did it kill Michael Ciminos's reputation, collapse United Artists, and essentially put an end to the ''Auteur'' era of NewHollywood, but the loss of money also made it impossible for UA to run an Oscar campaign for MartinScorsese's ''RagingBull'', possibly leading to one of the most notorious AwardSnubs of the modern film era.

** It's not strange that the two and a half hour cut would be the worst of them all. The story was designed to unfold over the course of five hours. You can't remove half of a film and still expect it to work. It can be assumed that the never-seen five hour version is full of excessive scenery porn and other time wasters that were cut to make the three hour version shorter but still comprehensible. The two hour version was a mess with characterization, plot, and pacing completely removed in order to achieve the shorter run time.

The film itself tells the tale of two Wyoming men, Sheriff James Averill and gunslinger Nathan Champion. Averill's lawful duty is to keep the peace between immigrants and rich farmers, while Champion is the farmers' means of [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner lethal property protection.]] Both are in love with the same woman, 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 a long one.

** YourMilageMayVary on this. If anything, it follows a similar approach as ''TheThinRedLine'' (or any movie by Terence Malick). Letting the images explain, with monologues as well dialogues only adding what can't be said with images alone, is something not everyone likes, but it in no way makes ''Heaven's Gate'' on of the worst films of all time. Both this approach as well as the GreyAndGrayMorality simply didn't fit into the time it was released.

''Heaven's Gate'', starring Kris Kristofferson, ChristopherWalken and JeffBridges, is best known as the film that destroyed the career of its director and writer Michael Cimino. Cimino went ''way'' over budget on the movie, and the movie itself did so poorly at the box office that the combined effect of the high budget and low income sent the studio (United Artists) into deep financial trouble. It saw a ''very'' limited release in 1980 before going wider in 1981. Some critics have suggested that the film's real problem was its "naturalistic" sound mixing, which caused a lot of important dialogue to be swamped by background noise.