Review of Heaven's Gate

Heaven's Gate is a beautiful film. Almost every frame perfectly captures the allure of the classical romantic West. Sadly, the rest of the film is essentially a disaster. If one looked up maniacal ego trip in the encyclopedia there would likely be a portrait of director Michael Cimino slapped on the page. The beauty of the film is hindered by a mess of a story, countless wasted minutes, horrible sound design and boring unrelatable characters.

It would take a while to document this film's crimes against cinema but some are so egregious they have to be mentioned. Important expository dialogue is drowned out by unrelenting "arty" background noise. Every scene seems to drag on longer than necessary and some sequences, like the near 30 minute prologue, are almost entirely unneeded. The immigrant characters you are supposed to root for are annoying and "fleshed out" via tediously long dance and cockfighting sequences. The core personal conflict of the story (the love triangle between Kris Kristofferson and Christopher Walken's characters) isn't introduced until the last third of the film and is poorly explained and unrealistic. By the end it's hard not to root for the heartless mercenaries to massacre every major character introduced in the film.

It's sad because Cimino obviously has considerable skill as an artist. He chooses amazing locations and builds wonderful sets. But the core important elements of the film are so flawed that instead of being noted for its beautiful imagery it stands as a testament to misguided self indulgence and excess.