Three Reasons: Heaven's Gate

Those are our three reasons. What are yours?

[bluesteelzephyr]

A visual feast with excellent actors in their prime, made on location by someone who wanted the story to be authentic and understood. The pace is from that time and allows for realtime contemplation and plot advancement by observation of the character's action. A gift, really. Maybe it's the natural lighting that keeps those scenes in memory.

[kuribayashi]

R.I.P. Vilmos Zsigmond. His cinematography, especially in this movie and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was masterful!

[BaronVonPenguin]

Interesting to see so many negative comments. I think this a masterpiece and Cimino’s best work. As a young European back in the day it helped me to understand how America works. The remastered version is beautiful

[kuribayashi]

God, this Movie just looks absolutely STUNNING

[milkocaceres]

Some of the scenes most beautiful ever filmed are in this movie.

[DetroitSquirreL]

1 - great cast
2 - stunning visuals
2 - a treat for the ears

[jayanxiety]

Visually, this might just be the greatest film about the Old West ever made. While some of its story and dialog tend to be all over the place, the movie IS a Masterpiece, a flawed one, but it truly transports the viewer to a different era. It deserves to be placed among the best films ever made.

[Branchman]

1. Incredible cinematography 2. Great characters 3. Spectacular action

[Glassandcandy]

Three reasons:
1. Amazing performances by a stellar cast
2. An uncompromising look on the west that rejects the American fable of cowboys and indians and replaces it with the dark reality of the deadly power struggle between poor, working immigrants and wealthy, bourgeoisie land barons.
3.Incredible visuals

[rdothl]

As european this movie contains so much of our culture and music. Its beautiful to see. One day I hope to see magnificent Montana with my own eyes.

[totogamer]

Three reasons:
1.One Man's ambition
2. Impressive attention to detail
3. It's relevance today as a story of conflicts between groups

[Stegmutt]

From the NY Times: "Vilmos Zsigmond, wrote that Mr. Cimino wanted to 're-create in the audience the experience of being in the West back in those days — when things were noisy and smoky and very, very dusty and dirty.' ... As a restoration demo on the Criterion Blu-ray demonstrates, some of the scenes that looked sepia, almost nicotine brown, have been altered so that the green grass and blue sky pop almost as brightly as they would in Technicolor."

[jarnokorhonen]

THE best western ever made! Excellent cast, great story, strong vision, fantastic visuals... whats not to love! Watching this at least once per year, always feel like a millionaire.^^

[dornravlin]

now if once upon a time in america could make a criterion collection list that would be great

[guinnesstrail]

Heaven’s Gate did not tank United Artists. The studio actually had a profitable year. It was bought in 1967 by Transamerica - an insurance/investment conglomerate - for $180 million; they sold it to Kirk Kerkorian in 1981 for $383 million. Steven Bach’s book Final Cut was essentially an insider’s take down of Cimino and UA, but later research shows that the real toll of Heaven’s Gate on UA was largely symbolic and Transamerica used the failure of Heaven’s Gate as a bit of a front to get out of the movie business, which has always been driven by its own business logic. When you combine the way Hollywood ‘writes off’ box office failures and milks product over a long period time, including the packaging of product when studios and film libraries are bought and sold (follow the trail of UA in the 80s/90s/2000s), you will find that Heaven’s Gate eventually turned a profit and lined somebody’s deep pockets.

In many ways, Heaven’s Gate signalled a major shift in Hollywood and film culture. First, it was used to end the myth of the 70s director-driven Golden Age. Second, it moved board-decision making to the front and centre of movie production, which led to the sterility of franchise driven Hollywood. Third, it accelerated Hollywood Accounting and cross collateralizing as a pathway to squeezing profit from stinkers, hiding profits from contractual obligations, turning loss to success, overvaluing assets to fuel takeovers, and wholly degrading the art of movies. Fourth, movie criticism became a pawn in the shell game of movie advertising and propaganda—ushering in the era of Shalit, Sisley & Ebert, and express movie criticism, which eventually led to Rotten Tomatoes.

As for Heaven’s Gate, it’s a damn fine film. It has a place in the Western Genre, a notch or two below the pastiche of Once Upon A Time In The West. The whole point of Cimino’s vision was spectacle disguised as social commentary on the role immigration played in the shaping of America. It’s kind of like a cowboy Godfather with whores, sheep herders, cow dung, and guns-for-hire replacing families, capos, drugs, and button-men. I would advise taking the footage, reshaping it into a twelve hour, multi part epic, and releasing it as a special edition: Heaven’s Gate - The Sodfather. Why not! It’d still be better than 90% of the sludge being fed by Hollywood to the dumbed down American consumer.

[CancunMimosa]

I have never seen this film.
I will now watch this film as soon as possible.

[Matheus]

Haven't seen this one, but now I want to. Looks like a western version of Once Upon a Time In America, which happens to be my favorite film.

[MrRobcastle]

My Three Reasons

1. Mickey Rourke grabbing a guy's tongue
2. Fiddler on Roller Skates
3. Sam Waterson hiding in the bushes, ready for an ambush

[johnnyratazana]

it's better than every other film i've seen.

[raymizumura]

Spectacular movie. Many reasons to enjoy it.