Heaven’s Gate

Description

Harvard graduate Jim Averill becomes a marshal in Wyoming and gets caught in the bloody conflict between powerful cattle barons and impoverished immigrants. He faces a former college friend who now represents the interests of the ranchers. When Averill learns of a death list that targets 125 settlers for murder, he stands up against the landowners. A brothel owner and supporter of the immigrants (Isabelle Huppert), who is interested in Averill, is also on the list… The film was initially notorious as one of the biggest flops in film history but has been increasingly recognized as a masterpiece in later years. (tb) “If Heaven’s Gate embodies the excesses of the New Hollywood generation of the 1970s, it should also represent the revolutionary spirit that underlies it – the determination to reject the myths and traditions that studio cinema stubbornly clung to. First and foremost, the film is an anti-western and also anti-western, as it deals with how the civilizing forces that tamed the land in the mid to late 19th century were, in fact, the henchmen who violently suppressed the dreams of immigrants and other unfortunate souls. Immigrants may have built America, the film suggests, but few were able to partake in that prosperity.” (Scott Tobias, The Guardian, Nov 2020) Contributors and additional information:Director: Michael Cimino Screenplay: Michael Cimino Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond Music: David Mansfield Editing: Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald B. Greenberg, Tom Rolf, William Reynolds Cast: Kris Kristofferson (Marshal James Averill), Christopher Walken (Nathan D. Champion), John Hurt (Billy Irvine), Sam Waterston (Frank Canton), Isabelle Huppert (Ella Watson), Joseph Cotten (Reverend Sutton), Jeff Bridges (John L. Bridges), Ronnie Hawkins (Major Wolcott), Richard Masur (Cully), Paul Koslo (Major Charlie Lezak), Mary Catherine Wright (Nell), Mickey Rourke (Nick Ray)