Heaven's Gate

When Michael Cimino's $40 million Western epic premiered in New York in 1980, the savage response from critics created a chain reaction that killed United Artists and wrecked the Oscar-winning director's career. Harvard-educated federal marshal James Averill (Kris Kristofferson) is at the center of an 1890 imbalance between a massive wave of Eastern European immigrants and old-money cattle barons who consider them to be a threat to their power—and who view Averill as a class traitor. The result is a sprawling and provocative cinematic tapestry of 19th-century socioeconomics played out against Wyoming's majestic plains. Writer-director Cimino fashioned a deep, multi-textured screenplay populated with fully dimensional characters, and the solid ensemble cast—including Isabelle Huppert (in a rare Hollywood appearance), Christopher Walken, Sam Waterston, John Hurt, Jeff Bridges, Brad Dourif, and then-unknowns Mickey Rourke and Willem Dafoe—offer strong performances. Vilmos Zsigmond's luscious cinematography and David Mansfield's subtle score are beautiful enhancements. While some aspects of the critical carping are justified—the film is much too long, and the rambling 25-minute opening sequence at Averill's 1870 university graduation should have either been severely cut or jettisoned—Heaven's Gate is still a highly impressive and deeply original work that does not deserve its negative reputation. Presented in a beautifully restored edition on DVD and Blu-ray, extras include interviews (with Cimino, Kristofferson, producer Joann Carelli, and others), a featurette on the restoration, and a booklet. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)