Back La porta del cel Catalan Heaven's Gate Welsh Heaven’s Gate (Film) German La puerta del cielo Spanish Heaven's Gate (filma) Basque دروازه بهشت (فیلم) Persian Portti ikuisuuteen Finnish La Porte du paradis French A porta do ceo Galician שערי החופש HE

Heaven's Gate (film)

For other uses, see Heaven's Gate (disambiguation).

Heaven's Gate
Original theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Cimino
Written byMichael Cimino
Produced byJoann Carelli
Starring
CinematographyVilmos Zsigmond
Edited by
Music byDavid Mansfield
Production
company
Partisan Productions
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release dates
  • November 19, 1980 (1980-11-19) (New York City)
  • April 24, 1981 (1981-04-24) (United States)
Running time
219 minutes
(see Alternative versions)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$44 million[1]
Box office$3.5 million[2]

Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film written and directed by Michael Cimino, starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, and Joseph Cotten, and loosely based on the Johnson County War. It revolves around a dispute between land barons and European immigrants of modest means in Wyoming in the 1890s.

The film's production faced numerous setbacks, including cost overruns, significant retakes, bad press (including allegations of animal abuse on set), and rumors about Cimino's allegedly authoritarian directorial style. Cimino had an expensive and ambitious vision for the film, pushing it nearly four times over its planned budget.

The film premiered in November 1980 and received significant critical backlash, prompting United Artists to pull it from theaters. In April 1981, a truncated re-cut version was released, though it remained a financial failure, earning only $3.5 million against its $44 million budget and was lambasted by critics. It was subsequently condemned as one of the worst films ever made at the time.[3] According to some film historians such as Peter Biskind, the film's financial failure resulted in the demise of director-driven film production in the American film industry, steering back toward greater studio control of films.[4] The film's failure also led to Transamerica selling United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, ending their existence as an independent studio.

In the decades since the release, however, general assessment of Heaven's Gate has become more favorable.[5] The 1981 re-edit has been characterized as "one of the greatest injustices of cinematic history", while later re-edits have received critical acclaim.[6] In 2015, BBC Culture ranked Heaven's Gate 98th on its list of the 100 greatest American films of all time.[7]

  1. ^ Hughes, p.170
  2. ^ "Heaven's Gate (1980)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  3. ^ Queenan, Joe (March 20, 2008). "From hell". The Guardian.
  4. ^ Biskind, Peter (1998). Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock-'n'-Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80996-6. pp. 401–403.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Doc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Hoyle, Ben (October 1, 2012). "Heaven's Gate: Box Office Turkey That Sank a Studio Is a Modern Masterpiece". The Times. p. 4. Retrieved October 1, 2012.
  7. ^ "The 100 greatest American films". BBC Culture. July 20, 2015.
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