Heaven's Gate

{Graph}
Buttons
image/svg+xml

Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film written and directed by Michael Cimino. Loosely based on the Johnson County War, it portrays a fictional dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s. The cast includes Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Joseph Cotten, Geoffrey Lewis, David Mansfield, Richard Masur, Terry O'Quinn, Mickey Rourke, and, in his first film role (uncredited), Willem Dafoe. There were major setbacks in the film's production due to cost and time overruns, negative press, and rumors about Cimino's allegedly overbearing directorial style. It is generally considered one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, and in some circles has been considered to be one of the worst films ever made. It opened to poor reviews and earned less than $3 million domestically (from an estimated budget of $44 million), eventually contributing to the near collapse of its st …

View more
Heaven's Gate

Magnifying glass User Average Score

Saved!
6.5 Good
Rated by 2 people
  • Michael Z Michael Z
    Michael Z wrote his opinion about Heaven's Gate
    10 years ago
    Saved!
    The making-of behind this film has been much discussed and is actually more interesting than the film itself. "Heaven's Gate" is a brand of notoriety, a textbook example of what happens when a director's ego runs riot. Michael Cimino was clearly still reeling high from the Oscar success of The Deer Hunter, so millions were spent, overspent, and overspent some more to suit the director's "vision", the end result not being the masterpiece Cimino envisioned but a wreck of a movie which one critic described as being like "a forced four-hour walking tour of one's living room". It performed disastrously at the box office and effectively ended the Hollywood Renaissance period (1969-1980) that had given us masterpieces like The Godfather. (Of course, whether the film's commercial failure really was responsible or whether Heaven's Gate is merely a convenient scapegoat is an entirely different topic for discussion...)
Edit Report Delete Restore
Deleted!

Movie Info

Released Yes

Actors

Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Sam Waterston
Sam Waterston
Isabelle Huppert
Isabelle Huppert
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
John Hurt
John Hurt
Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges

Page Info

Created 2013-09-10 06:05 pm
Page creator Michael Z
Views 417
Listed in, list of Lists as cards
Wide-tile list of VG-level Pages.
Wide-tile list of character Pages.
Simple text.