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Joe Vitus
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:49 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
And here it is:

Quote:
IV. Cimino and “Heaven’s Gate”

“Heaven’s Gate” is not an unqualified masterpiece, which apparently was what it needed to be upon first release to justify its great cost, and, more importantly, the continued uneasy reliance of Hollywood on the Auteur model of film-making. Looking back, it’s conceivable Cimino was given just enough rope to hang himself. Even without conspiracy theories, it is plain the film’s failure was eagerly greeted by Hollywood as a final excuse to abandon the ‘70s film model and proceed voraciously into a brave new world of blockbuster mass-production. It is also worthy to note another big budget, financially unsuccessful Western from the same time, Lew Grade’s “Legend Of The Lone Ranger”, is now completely and apparently deservedly forgotten, but then that wasn’t anything to upset the applecart, it was just bad.

Yet “Heaven’s Gate”, seen today at last on DVD in a cut of 229 minutes, is a superb film. It is a touch lethargic in pace. But at least it is paced. Quite apart from the incompetence of construction that marks many movies today, there have been many films which, deliberate in form, have been severely damaged by being hacked down with no care for rhythm so the films become shapeless and confusing; “Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid” for example. Beyond this, the criticisms levelled at the film have become in retrospect quite lame. If the good guys and bad guys are too obviously pronounced for a serious film (and yes Sam Waterston’s moustachioed, fur-clad villain is comic-opera, and not in the multi-levelled style of "Gangs of New York"'s Bill the Butcher), and the townsfolk do seem a touch “Fiddler On The Roof” on occasions, then any number of films can be castigated for the same reasons.

Also despite accusations, the film has a plot, quite a well-essayed plot at that. It simply does not bow to standard-form “epic” quality, by providing Titan heroes, rafts of sub-plots and confusion. It experiments with telling in a manner more like much smaller, modest films, by carefully-caught moments of character interaction, and well-textured pageant-like explosions of communal action, as with the opening at Harvard and, most specially, the wonderful scene where the Johnson County folk, following the lead of a brilliantly physical fiddler, make celebration on roller-skates.

Where “The Deer Hunter” was a critical and commercial success, it abandoned the first half’s inspired, mosaic-like accumulation of detail, and passed up the chance to create a rare work of art based in honest visualisation of people within their milieu, and (in a manner similar to criticism of Robert Penn Warren’s novel “All The King’s Men” and its dictionary of Jacobean stunts) if Cimino had not had such a strong grasp of the conventions of Hollywood epics, he might have made something very special. In contrast, “Heaven’s Gate” succeeds in screwing its narrative momentum and tension upwards in a slowly expanding arc, until the finale explodes, whilst not abandoning the mosaic approach.

The central romantic triangle, for instance, resists standard inflections; a decent, intelligent, but psychically defeated man, James Averill (Kris Kristofferson) competes with a hot-shot, identity-challenged young gunman, Nate Champion (Christopher Walken), for the hand of a young Madame, Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert); there is no self-conscious bed-hopping, no slaps in the face, recriminations, or typical sad-sack moments follow, but more a sad and distanced decision by Ella to choose the younger man whom she loves less because he is ready to make the commitment. Nor does the story play out in typical style: where one might expect eventual joining of forces, Ella emerges as the film’s true hero (Huppert’s performance, though initially awkward, is really quite excellent, balancing a dewy emotionalism with a hard-hammered spirit), attempting first to rescue Nate, and then mustering a resistance army of immigrants into an enterprising defence. Subsequently, Averill is stung into action as his friends die. In the process of overcoming so many traps of cliché and style, “Heaven’s Gate” successfully and wilfully throws off the defeated outsider-heroes grace note of so many of the Westerns I have described, and portrays an eventual, vigorous, cheer-the-heroes rallying to a compromised but still relished victory.

The social conflict of so many ‘70s Westerns at last hardens into a fully-fledged war; where capital attempts a crushing final victory over the miscreants who stand in their way, suddenly they find a massed and more-powerful people’s army, led by the man who played the thoroughly-destroyed Billy the Kid a decade before. This is what led the film to be described as the first Marxist Western, but really it simply deflowers a theme of the genre extant well before the ‘60s. Such various and classic old-school works as William Wyler’s “The Westerner”, and even “Shane”, tell awfully similar stories. It is simply here that the romantic myth of the gunslinger has been replaced by the romantic myth of the people’s revolt. In a spectacular, exiting, but realistic and thus chaotic finale, the marauding Cattlemen’s encampment is attacked, ringed by dust clouds punctuated by fallen horses, writhing bodies, and gunfire. Averill puts his classical education to work finally by stealing a Roman trick and bringing the Cattlemen to the brink of annihilation before they are rescued by the Cavalry (another distinctly seditious touch, but surely not so offensive after “Little Big Man”’s unrelenting depiction of Native American massacres). Really, it’s hard to think of a more heroically American vision of grassroots resistance. The film’s only real dead spot stands as an unnecessary coda indicating Averill’s eventual relapse to death-in-life when, returned to the East having been cheated of his love, resumes a life of worthless debauchery, a rather potted and ineffectual attempt at tragedy.

Despite then certain failings and a slow mid-section, “Heaven’s Gate” is a supreme work, an attempt to create a genuinely contemporary Western and a new kind of epic. If one has to still join the chorus that reckons Cimino was absurd in his behaviour on set and expenditure, it is regretfully. When, today, flops like “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” and “K-19 - The Widowmaker” see a hundred million dollars sink down the drain, and yet a tag of infamy still hangs on this film, one ponders what exactly its grim death signified. The attempt at original style, the tart, unsentimental, if still heroic, world-view of the film, its bawdy sexuality, the very hard-won sense of detail, the breathtaking rigour of the film-making and what is being filmed, all throw into contrast what is sorely lacking in so much contemporary Hollywood product. And, in retrospect, if the Western remains dead except for rare, silly performances such as “Silverado“ and “Tombstone”, it is not finally because the genre itself could not grow, it was simply that the audience for it could not.


http://www.thirdeyefilm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=48481#48481

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billyweeds
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:19 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
I never particularly liked The Deer Hunter. It had one great sequence--the Walken Russian roulette scene--and the beginning--at home, pre-combat--was very well observed. Otherwise I found it mundane and prosaic. Its Oscar win was undeserved, I felt. Reading between the lines of Cimino stories, it seemed obvious to me (and perhaps--just perhaps--I was wrong) that Cimino was a drug casualty. The escalating cost of Heaven's Gate seemed clearly the result of a director so high on cocaine (or something) that he couldn't judge anything clearly.

Costner (who as many know is a favorite movie star of mine) never had the talent as a director that might have justified his win over Scorsese in the Oscars. I continue to enjoy his acting enormously, but his direction has never been much good.
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Rod
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:47 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 2944 Location: Lithgow, Australia
A stiff bit of writing, looking back on it, but thanks for keeping it alive, Joe.

And Kirk Douglas stomps Michael's ass.

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whiskeypriest
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:49 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 6916 Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
billyweeds wrote:
I never particularly liked The Deer Hunter. It had one great sequence--the Walken Russian roulette scene--and the beginning--at home, pre-combat--was very well observed. Otherwise I found it mundane and prosaic. Its Oscar win was undeserved, I felt. Reading between the lines of Cimino stories, it seemed obvious to me (and perhaps--just perhaps--I was wrong) that Cimino was a drug casualty. The escalating cost of Heaven's Gate seemed clearly the result of a director so high on cocaine (or something) that he couldn't judge anything clearly.

Costner (who as many know is a favorite movie star of mine) never had the talent as a director that might have justified his win over Scorsese in the Oscars. I continue to enjoy his acting enormously, but his direction has never been much good.
Well, I'd give my dissenting opinion on The Deer Hunter but I am afraid I will be subjected to the enforced political correctness of people disagreeing with my opinion.

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marantzo
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:01 am Reply with quote
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Cimino seemed to be oblivious to the fact that sometimes less is more.

I never liked Platoon either. Another work by a self indulgent director. Self indulgence in directing isn't necessarily alway bad, but you have to be very good at what you do to pull it off.
mo_flixx
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:09 am Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
Rod wrote:
A stiff bit of writing, looking back on it, but thanks for keeping it alive, Joe.

And Kirk Douglas stomps Michael's ass.


Two of the best KIRK movies ever:

THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN

(2 of my fave movies about Hollywood)
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billyweeds
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:13 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
marantzo wrote:
Cimino seemed to be oblivious to the fact that sometimes less is more.

I never liked Platoon either. Another work by a self indulgent director. Self indulgence in directing isn't necessarily alway bad, but you have to be very good at what you do to pull it off.


Hey, Gary! Another instance where we agree! I thought Platoon was incredibly mediocre and got these sensational reviews and the Oscar too. Of Vietnam movies, the cream was Full Metal Jacket by a million miles, even though it too became dull once the basic training sequence was over.
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marantzo
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:33 am Reply with quote
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billyweeds wrote:
marantzo wrote:
Cimino seemed to be oblivious to the fact that sometimes less is more.

I never liked Platoon either. Another work by a self indulgent director. Self indulgence in directing isn't necessarily alway bad, but you have to be very good at what you do to pull it off.


Hey, Gary! Another instance where we agree! I thought Platoon was incredibly mediocre and got these sensational reviews and the Oscar too. Of Vietnam movies, the cream was Full Metal Jacket by a million miles, even though it too became dull once the basic training sequence was over.


Yeah the second half did lose it's way. It was by far the best of a pretty undistinguished group. I'm trying to think of a good Vietnam war movies and the only other one I can think of is Apacolypse now, which had it's problems, but did have some memorable scenes. The last one with Brando, not being one of them.
gromit
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:40 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai
Can anyone recommend any later Gregory Peck films (besides The Omen and Boys From Brazil)?
A couple of war films (MacArthur and The Sea Wolves), a cold war flick (The Chairman) and Arabesque have turned up. I'd like to see more of his later period, but trying to avoid outright clunkers.


Last edited by gromit on Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:52 am; edited 1 time in total

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Marc
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:46 am Reply with quote
Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 8424
Quote:
Can anyone recommend any later Gregory Peck films ?


TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. PORK CHOP HILL.
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whiskeypriest
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:59 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 6916 Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
gromit wrote:
Can anyone recommend any later Gregory Peck films (besides The Omen and Boys From Brazil)?
A couple of war films (MacArthur and The Sea Wolves), a cold war flick (The Chairman) and Arabesque have turned up. I'd like to see more of his later period, but trying to avoid outright clunkers.
I sort of liked Peck in Old Gringo and Other People's Money, although the movies less so, and my fondness for Old Gringo may be tied to my belief that Ambrose Bierce is America's pre-eminent philosopher, despite his undue optimism.

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gromit
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:28 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai
Thanks. I'll pick up Pork Chop Hill.

I always thought Mockingbird was a bit boring. But that turned out to be an advantage once, as I got laid for the first time halfway through.

What about Moby Dick?
A Ray Bradbury script of Melville sounds pretty good.

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bart
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:37 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 2381 Location: Lincoln NE
Peck has a significant role in the remake of Cape Fear (with Nick Nolte in his original role).

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gromit
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:01 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai
The original Cape Fear is so much better.

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Ghulam
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:25 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4742 Location: Upstate NY
Joe, thanks. Now that you have reposted it, I remember Rod's excellent review.
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