Heaven's Gate (1980)

conformist from Ulverston [Highly rated reviewer] , 11/11/2007

this hugely underrated film is one I would dearly have liked to have seen at the cinema. The aspects which appear to have drawn most scorn eg the dancehall sequence and relentless period detail are what makes the film worth watching (ie highly unusual emphasis on collective enjoyment and care for how people actually lived). The underlying themes which deal with crucial American conflicts (eg using the poor to do the dirty work of the rich) are ones which remain just as important today.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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Richard Carter from London, UK , 12/07/2007

This film is a really really bad good movie: good because, deep in the hulk of this film there's a promising film trying to escape, bad because it is so d*mn*d L...O...N...G.

What it desperately needs is an editor, someone to cut down the ludicrous three and a half hours to something like a reasonable 90 minutes. There's a strong story in there somewhere, at least there is as far as I can tell, but it goes on and on and ON.

For example, the absolutely interminable sequence at the roller skating dance: it seemed like 3 hours alone, but was probably no more than 10-15 minutes. And did it advance the story at all? No, it added nothing that couldn't have been said in about one minute - and I fast-forwarded a lot of it because I couldn't stand any more..

It's sad, because there is some beautiful cinematography in the film, but its effect is completely lost because you just lose patience with the thing. I persevered until about two and a half hours, but in the end gave up in despair. What happened in the end? Who won? I don't know, so at least I can't spoil it for you, but what's more by the time I gave up I simply didn't care.

Such a shame as it could have been really good - all for the lack of an editor.

  0 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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