Synopsis
Harvard graduate James Averill is the sheriff of prosperous Jackson County, Wyo., when a battle erupts between the area's poverty-stricken immigrants and its wealthy cattle farmers. The politically connected ranch owners fight the immigrants with the help of Nathan Champion, a mercenary competing with Averill for the love of local madam Ella Watson. As the struggle escalates, Averill and Champion begin to question their decisions.
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Cast
- Kris KristoffersonJames Averill
- Christopher WalkenNathan D. Champion
- John HurtBilly Irvine
- Sam WaterstonFrank Canton
- Brad DourifMr. Eggleston
- Isabelle HuppertElla Watson
- Joseph CottenThe Reverend Doctor
- Jeff BridgesJohn L. Bridges
- Ronnie HawkinsMajor Wolcott
- Paul KosloMayor Charlie Lezak
Recommendations
- 100
Empire
In depicting the Johnson County War of 1892 (immigrants versus cattle barons), Michael Cimino delivers soaring ambition and scale, but always syringed with a deep sense of regret. - 100
Time Out
A grippingly violent parable, a touching, tragic romance and – thanks to legendary cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and an unprecedented attention to historical detail – quite simply one of the most beautiful, immersive films ever made. - 100
The A.V. Club
It's a film of rare beauty and scope, a feast for the eyes and a harrowing, unflinching meditation on the cruelty of capitalism. It rivals William Friedkin's Sorceror in its bone-deep cynicism and eviscerating take on the free market's coal-black heart of darkness. - 100
Film Threat
Cimino fashioned a deep, multi-textured screenplay rich with fully dimensional characters. His ensemble cast brought the story to vivid life. Kristofferson gave a career peak performance here as a man who seems perpetually out of his element. - 75
Slant Magazine
To his credit, Cimino renders us helpless not before carnage or greed, but before his epic’s breadth of motivation and circumstance. It’s not the past’s ugliness that terrifies us in Heaven’s Gate, but its far more intimidating immensity. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
This beautiful but notoriously disappointing film is one of the most overblown epic Westerns of any decade. - 40
Variety
The first scenes of Heaven’s Gate are so energetic and beautiful that anyone who knows the saga of the $35 million epic might begin to think it was going to be worth every penny. Unfortunately the balance of director Michael Cimino’s film is so confusing, so overlong at three-and-a-half hours and so ponderous that it fails to work at almost every level. - 38
Chicago Sun-Times
This movie is a study in wretched excess. It is so smoky, so dusty, so foggy, so unfocused and so brownish yellow that you want to try Windex on the screen. A director is in deep trouble when we do not even enjoy the primary act of looking at his picture.
