HEAVEN'S GATE

US, 1980, 219 minutes (with many edited versions), Colour.
Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, Joseph Cotton.
Directed by Michael Cimino.

Heaven's Gate is an ambitious western by Oscar-winner (The Deer Hunter) Michael Cimino. It became a notorious case of big budgeting, overspending and poor management. Cimino himself was not to make a film for almost five years, The Year of the Dragon.

The film is ambitious in scope: America in the 1870s and the youthful vision after the Civil War souring to the 1890s and the range wars with the wealthy Landowners' Association combating violently the middle European settlers. The film is vast in scope and in the use of location photography and huge sets to re-create the period. It is a delight to watch. As with The Deerhunter and The Year of the Dragon, Cimino spends long periods on single sequences to create atmosphere e.g. the roller skating and dancing at Sweetwater.

Kris Kristofferson acts as usual as the Marshall of Johnston County. There is an interesting supporting cast including Isabelle Huppert as the frontier Madam. Christopher Walken as the renegade gunman. Sam Waterston snarls as the leader of the Association while John Hurt is the alcoholic Billy. There is an excellent musical score including 'The Blue Danube' for a long waltz scene at Harvard and traditional airs and new melodies arranged by David Mansfield (who wrote the music for Year of the Dragon).

The film was severely attacked when first released, was reduced by almost an hour for international screenings - but was not successful.

The synopsis in the Monthly Film Bulletin adds a sentence of plot which does not appear in the international production: "In 1903, having retreated into his wealth in Newport, Rhode Island, Averill remembers the aftermath: an ambush in which Ella and John Bridges were killed and he shot Canton." The print for world-wide screening ended with the three leaving Sweetwater - apparently for happier times.

1. The reputation of the film, its failure? Re-cut? The success of the film as film (rather than as an example of extravagant filmmaking)?

2. The scope and aim of the film: America in the 19th. century, the landowners, the migrants? Class distinctions? Politics, power, the army? Violence? Equality? The political stances of Michael Cimino?

3. The writing and the various techniques including the voice-over? The structure: the focus on Harvard 1870, the move into the 1890s? Sweetwater and the battles, the Association? Averill at the centre? His abdicating responsibility and taking it up again? The interweaving of the characters, motivations? Insight into characters, interactions, America?

4. The quality of the Panavision photography, colour, landscapes, beauty and harshness, compositions, memorable images? Harvard and the long opening sequence, gentility (and the filming done at Oxford)? The contrast with Wyoming, Sweetwater and the range? Wyoming and the Cattle Association headquarters? interiors and exteriors? Set pieces: the railway, the skating rink, the battle? The editing (especially in cutting down the original film?

5. The contribution of the score: the themes, traditional American airs, violin-playing? The use of 'The Blue Danube' for Harvard? The Harvard March? The songs?

6. The title, its being the name on the skating rink hall? The irony of Heaven and Hell? Paradise in the United States - a hell for the migrants? Wyoming as Heaven's Gate? A place to die? A place to live? The American dream?

7. The American epic and its intentions: the American traditions, the critique? The scope of the 1870s and 1890s? Harvard hopes, Wyoming and the frontier? The role of the wealthy, the Cattlemen's Association, the army - and the links with the President and Washington bureaucracy? The presentation of law and order, justice, the migrants, individuals and their stances? The melancholic atmosphere? The possibility for American integrity?

8. Harvard: the atmosphere of the university, the band playing and the marches, Jim and his hurrying to join them, the Reverend Doctor and his speech, 19th. century prose, patriotism and hopes, the crowds, youthfulness, Billy and his practical jokes, the light-hearted atmosphere, the dance, the long sequence of 'The Blue Danube' and its rhythms and movement, the fights, the young men and the tree, the women watching, the singing, music and joy? Jim and his hopes, career, the ideal girl? Harvard as a prologue to the film?

9. The contrast with the 1890s, the West, Jim's voice-over and comment, seeing him in mid-career, change, Marshall of Johnston County, relationship with Ella, the train trip, buying the carriage, his arrival in the town, the friendship with the railwayman, the crowds of migrants on the train, the busy town, the crises of the West?

10. The picture of the Cattlemen's Association: the meeting rooms in the club, exclusive, wealth, the specious arguments, the death list, Billy and his drinking, his inability to fit in, cynical criticisms? Canton and his control? The presence of the army and the Washington links? Jim as a rival, playing billiards, getting the list from Billy? Defying Canton and the mutual slaps? The hostility between the two groups?

11. The contrast with Nate Champion and his riding the range, the initial killing of the Polish man who had stolen the cattle? Shooting through the sheet focusing on Nate? The clash with his sidekick and his skill with a gun? The range wars, the tough attitudes towards the migrants? Ella and her running the brothel, the men going there, the girls, the payment by cattle? Nate and his love for Ella, possibilities for her? Friendship with Jim, rivalry? Jim's confrontation about the list? Ella's decision to go with Nate? His house, the newspaper wall? The old trapper and his friend coming? Defying Canton? Writing the note in the burning hut? The western shootout? The gunslinger, his European background, change of heart?

12. Kris Kristofferson's portrait of Jim Averill: the train ride, arriving in the town, the confrontation with the Association, friendship with Nate, the return to Ella, the domestic sequences: the pie, bedroom, the gift of the carriage? His warning Bridges about the danger? Leaving it be on the Sunday - the joyride in the carriage, the swim, the dancing at Heaven's Gate? Ella's decision to leave? Jim and his reading out the death list to the people, their reaction? His withdrawing and drinking? His decision to leave - shaving and watching? Ella's return and his rescuing her from the attackers? His decision to become involved again? Riding out, training the migrants to fight in Roman army style? The attack on the cattlemen? The shootout? His return to Ella, their decision to leave? A man of the West, his ideals, the realism of the situation?

13. Johnston County and Sweetwater: the old town, the lake, the mountains, the range? The migrants, on the top of the trains, the long sequence of their trekking to Wyoming? Starving on the range, the stealing of the cattle and butchering it for food? Their papers for land deals? The assemblies at Heaven's Gate? Sunday and going to church, the skating rink and the traditional dances? The death list? The clashes amongst themselves and the hurling of anger about the past? Reliance on Averill and his failing them? The decision to go to fight, everybody being involved, their making the carts a weapon, all attacking, their haphazard shooting, deaths, the carriage running over people? Their victory? The sketch of various citizens: Mr. Eggleston and his earnestness. Mayor Lezak and his family not wanting to be involved, being shot by the widow? The range of characters, their intensity in the battle?

14. John Bridges and his role in the town, leadership, Heaven's Gate, the skating, the dancing, the drink and the enjoyment, holding the assembly about the land claims, the death list? His going to fight, involvement, leaving with Ella?

15. Ella as the frontier Madam, the independent woman? French background? The brothel and its style, the girls at home there? The men visiting? Ella's eye for business, amassing the cattle? Her relationship with Nate and with Jim? The carriage, the ride through the town and defiance of the people? The ride, the swim, the dancing? The decision to go with Nate - and seeing his cabin? Return, the murder of the girls, the rape by the cattlemen? Her riding back to the battle, fighting - criticism that she was a token woman character in the film and made her mark by acting like a man? Leaving with Jim and Bridges?

16. The minor characters and their contribution: the railwayman, his observations about the migrants, going to warn Jim, his death on the mountain? The mountain man and his stories - especially about holding the bear by its tongue, confrontation by the mountain men, his death? His naive offsider Nick Ray?

17. Canton and his implacable attitudes towards the migrants, snobbery, class, wealth? Rousing up the cattlemen, their vote? The death list? The hired killers? The railway yards, the train ride? Unleashing the killers on the migrants? The battles? His surviving? The members of the Association, the army Head - and his baring his buttocks and Averill's wry comment about his being a friend of the President? The arrogance of the Association?

18. Billy as the orator at Harvard, a joker? His drinking? Drifting around the West, with the Association, but cynical towards them? His slow-clapping, opting out? Canton's anger at him? His potential, his reaction against the list, his following the Association men, his being shot in the battle?

19. The action sequences: the editing, pace, the tactics? In the landscapes of rugged beauty?

20. The success of the film as an epic? As a comment on America? As a western?