This was showing at a local cinema The Chauvel, and even though I own it on DVD I couldn't miss the chance to view it on the big screen. At its full-length of 225 minutes, at least I wouldn't be able to get up for multiple toilet/food breaks like I would at home.
Kris Kristopherson plays the hero, a rich man finding himself morally appalled when his rich comrades start arranging the murders of poor immigrants who have been forced to steal cattle to survive. Christopher Walken plays an assassin who happens to be in love with the same prostitute as Kris.
Gee, what a perplexing film. Beautifully if entirely foggily filmed by the master Vilmos Zsigmond (McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, countless Brian De Palma films...), scenes drift in and out with little to no purpose. There is dancing scene which must go for 15 minutes. Seriously, that's all that happens. People are dancing.
I must admit though, that despite the fact that the plot is so thread-bare, Cimino had me intrigued through a large portion of the film, as he was able to effectively evoke the time period and mood of this forgotten countryside.
My largest complaint: Jeff Bridges (who starred in Cimino's previous Thunderbolt and Lightfoot) was utterly wasted as Kris's friend. I don't believe he had one distinctive characteristic apart from being Kris's friend. He just stood around being Jeff Bridges.
Certainly not as bad as rumours claim, Heaven's Gate is an epic journey that has next to no idea what it is truly about. Only at the end did I understand what the film was ultimately stating, but I couldn't help feeling that it could have said it in half the time. Nonetheless, it has stuck with me. Either a 4/5 or 1/5 depending on your point of view. I'll stick with 4.
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