Editing Heaven's Gate (film) (section)

==Release==
United Artists spent $1.5 million advertising the film during the three weeks before its premiere.{{sfn|Medved|Medved|1984|p=182}} During an intermission at the film's November 19, 1980, premiere at the New York Cinema 1 theater, the audience was so subdued that Cimino was said to have asked why no one was drinking the champagne. He was reportedly told by his publicist, "Because they hate the movie, Michael."<ref name = BachFinalCut /> After a sparsely attended one-week run, Cimino and United Artists quickly pulled the film from any further releases, completely postponing a full worldwide release.<ref name="Doc">{{cite video | people = Epstein, Michael | year = 2004 | title = Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyeOmPMHRYg | medium = television | publisher = Viewfinder Productions }}</ref> On April 24, 1981, the film opened in 810 theatres<ref name=reissue>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=April 29, 1981|page=3|title='Gate' Creeks Open To Disastrous Biz; UA Laying Low|last=Ginsberg|first=Steve}}</ref> in a "director's cut", a two-hour-and-twenty-nine minute (149 minute) version that Cimino had recut for a third time.<ref name=Doc />

===Box office===
Following a brief theatrical release in November 1980, during which the film was poorly received by critics, United Artists decided to pull the film from theaters, re-releasing it in April 1981 in a truncated cut. Despite the efforts to capitalize on the film with a re-release, it was a significant financial failure, earning $3.5 million domestically against its $44 million budget.<ref name=eller>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-box-office-flops-pictures,0,7165703.photogallery#axzz2tJcnZf9r|author=Eller, Claudia|title=The costliest box office flops of all time|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=January 15, 2014|access-date=August 23, 2020}}</ref> The film grossed $1.3 million in its opening weekend<ref name=reissue/> and closed after the second week, having grossed only $3.5 million against its $44 million budget.<ref name=Doc/> The film is considered one of the biggest [[List of biggest box-office bombs|box office bomb]]s of all time.<ref name=eller/> Bach claimed that the film needed to make $140 million ({{Inflation|US|140,000,000|1980|fmt=eq}}) to break even.{{sfn|Medved|Medved|1984|p=183}}

===Critical response===

The initial critical reception to the film was almost universally and fiercely negative. ''[[The New York Times]]'' critic [[Vincent Canby]] panned the film, calling it "something quite rare in movies these days - an unqualified disaster," comparing it to "a forced four-hour walking tour of one's own living room." Canby went even further by stating that "[i]t fails so completely that you might suspect Mr. Cimino sold his soul to the devil to obtain the success of ''The Deer Hunter'' and the Devil has just come around to collect."<ref name="Canby">{{cite web |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940CE4D61638F93AA25752C1A966948260 |title='Heaven's Gate,' A Western by Cimino |author=Canby, Vincent |author-link=Vincent Canby |date=November 19, 1980 |work= [[The New York Times]] |access-date=February 22, 2012}}</ref>

Reviewing the shorter cut in the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'', [[Roger Ebert]] criticized the film's formal choices and its narrative inconsistencies and incredulities, concluding that the film was "[t]he most scandalous cinematic waste I have ever seen, and remember, I've seen ''[[Paint Your Wagon (film)|Paint Your Wagon]]''." He also heavily criticized the cinematography, calling the film one of the ugliest he'd ever seen.<ref>{{cite news|author=Ebert, Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|date=1981| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/heavens-gate-1981 |title=''Heaven's Gate'' |work= [[Chicago Sun-Times]]|access-date= March 13, 2012}}</ref> Ebert stated that he was initially in disbelief over the vast negative reception from critics but admitted after seeing the film that "it was as bad as everybody said." On ''[[Sneak Previews]]'', Ebert's co-host [[Gene Siskel]], who saw both the original and shorter cut, also panned the film calling it a "turkey" and pinpointed the film's failure on the illogical character choices.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dDY74wzwbY |title=Heaven's Gate (1981) movie review - Sneak Previews with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel |website=[[YouTube]] |access-date=2024-04-26 }}</ref> Kevin Thomas of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' issued a dissenting opinion when he reviewed the shortened film, becoming one of its few American champions and calling it "a true screen epic" while stating that in two decades as a critic, he had never felt "so totally alone."<ref name=Doc/> Thomas' paper actually had its former lead film critic and editor come out of retirement to write a thoroughly negative front-page review of the movie for its Arts section, and moved Thomas' positive review to an interior page of that section.

In 1999, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' placed the film on a list of the 100 worst ideas of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991230,00.html |title=The 100 Worst Ideas Of The Century |date=June 14, 1999 |access-date=April 8, 2018|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |first1=Melissa |last1=August |first2=Harriet |last2=Barovick |first3=Michelle |last3=Derrow |first4=Tam |last4=Gray |first5=Daniel S. |last5=Levy |first6=Lina |last6=Lofaro |first7=David |last7=Spitz |first8=Joel |last8=Stein |first9=Chris |last9=Taylor}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

Writing in ''[[The Guardian]]'' in 2008, [[Joe Queenan (author)|Joe Queenan]] declared ''Heaven's Gate'' the worst film made up to that time. "This is a movie that destroyed the director's career," he wrote. "This is a movie that lost so much money it literally drove a major American studio out of business. This is a movie about Harvard-educated gunslingers who face off against eastern European sodbusters in an epic struggle for the soul of America. This is a movie that stars Isabelle Huppert as a shotgun-toting cowgirl. This is a movie in which Jeff Bridges pukes while mounted on roller skates. This is a movie that has five minutes of uninterrupted fiddle-playing by a fiddler who is also mounted on roller skates. This is a movie that defies belief."<ref>{{cite news|last=Queenan|first=Joe|title=From hell|date=March 20, 2008|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/mar/21/1}}</ref>

''[[The Verge]]'' said: "Based on 30 years of critical assessment, ''Heaven's Gate'' stands as one of the worst movies ever made. That's not an exaggeration".<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Opam |first1=Kwame |title=Steven Soderbergh tries to fix 'the worst film of all time' with his own fan edit |url=https://www.theverge.com/2014/4/28/5661664/steven-soderbergh-tries-to-fix-the-worst-film-of-all-time-with-his |website=The Verge |access-date=August 15, 2020 |language=en |date=April 28, 2014 }}</ref>

====Reassessments and legacy====
In subsequent years, some critics have come to the film's defense, beginning with European critics who praised it after the film played at the [[Cannes Film Festival]].<ref name=Doc/><ref name="Khan">Khan, Omar. [http://www.thehotspotonline.com/moviespot/holly/h/HeavensGate.htm "''Heaven's Gate'' (1981)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091219183035/http://www.thehotspotonline.com/moviespot/holly/h/HeavensGate.htm |date=December 19, 2009 }}</ref> [[Robin Wood (critic)|Robin Wood]] was an early champion of ''Heaven's Gate'' and its reassessment, calling it "one of the few authentically innovative Hollywood films ... It seems to me, in its original version, among the supreme achievements of the Hollywood cinema."<ref name=Wood /><ref>[http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/faves.shtml "Top Ten Lists by Critics and Filmmakers"]. Combustible Celluloid. Retrieved November 25, 2010.</ref> [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] calls the film "a wounded monster" and argues that it takes part in "a rich American tradition ([[Herman Melville|Melville]], [[Henry James|James]], [[Charles Ives|Ives]], [[Jackson Pollock|Pollock]], [[Charlie Parker|Parker]]) that seeks a mighty dispersal of what has gone before. In America, there are great innovations in art that suddenly create fields of apparent emptiness. They may seem like omissions or mistakes at first. Yet in time we come to see them as meant for our exploration."<ref>[[David Thomson (film critic)|Thomson, David]] (October 14, 2008). ''"Have You Seen ...?": A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films''. New York City: [[Random House]]. p. 363. {{ISBN|978-0-307-26461-9}}.</ref> [[Martin Scorsese]] has said that the film has many overlooked virtues.<ref>[[Richard LaGravenese|LaGravenese, Richard]] (director); [[Ted Demme|Demme, Ted]] (director). (2003). ''A Decade Under the Influence: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow''. [Film]. [[Independent Film Channel|IFC]].</ref> Some of these critics have attempted to impugn the motives of the earliest reviewers. Robin Wood noted, in his initial review of the film, reviewers tended to pile on the film, attempting to "outdo [each] other with sarcasm and contempt."<ref name="Wood">{{cite book|last=Wood|first=Robin|title=Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan|year=1986|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=0-231-12966-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/hollywoodfromvie00robi/page/267 267, 269, 283]|url=https://archive.org/details/hollywoodfromvie00robi/page/267}}</ref> Several members of the cast and crew have complained that the initial reviews of the film were tainted by its production history and that daily critics were reviewing it as a business story as much as a motion picture.<ref name=Doc/> In April 2011, the staff of ''[[Time Out (company)|Time Out London]]'' selected ''Heaven's Gate'' as the 12th greatest Western of all time.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.timeout.com/london/feature/1019/the-50-greatest-westerns-r-the-full-list|title=The 50 greatest westerns|work=[[Time Out (company)|Time Out]]|location=London|date=April 2011|access-date=April 17, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130114014912/http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/1019/the-50-greatest-westerns-r-the-full-list|archive-date=January 14, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> While [[Peter Biskind]] covered the many excesses and problems with the movie in his book ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'', he also noted that ''Heaven's Gate'' was not dissimilar to other big-budget, troubled projects of the late 1970s and early 1980s (such as [[Steven Spielberg]]'s ''[[1941 (film)|1941]]'' and [[Warren Beatty]]'s ''[[Reds (film)|Reds]]''), and that the backlash against ''Heaven's Gate'' could have easily been directed elsewhere. Biskind speculated that Michael Cimino's personal unpopularity was the main reason this film became so widely reviled. [[Philip French]] praised the film in his original review.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/aug/04/heavens-gate-review|title = Heaven's Gate – review|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = August 3, 2013}}</ref>

In 2012, the film was re-released to "soak up acclaim" as a 216-minute "[[director's cut]]" at the [[69th Venice Film Festival]].<ref name="2012-nytimes">{{cite news |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/venice-film-festival-michael-cimino-revisits-heavens-gate/ |title=Venice Film Festival: Michael Cimino Revisits 'Heaven's Gate' |date= August 31, 2012 |access-date=October 28, 2012 |author=Lim, Dennis |publisher= [[The New York Times]] (ArtBeats) }}</ref><ref name="2012-lemonde">{{cite news |url=http://sotinel.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/08/31/venise-2012-michael-cimino-retrouve-la-cle-du-paradis/ |title=Venise 2012: Michael Cimino retrouve la clé du paradis |date=August 31, 2012 |access-date=October 28, 2012 |author=Sotinel, Thomas |work=Le Monde |language=fr |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104043838/http://sotinel.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/08/31/venise-2012-michael-cimino-retrouve-la-cle-du-paradis/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="2012-lesoir">{{cite news|url=http://www.lesoir.be/archives?url=/culture/cinema/2012-08-31/mostra-de-venise-cimino-est-enfin-au-paradis-935062.php|title=Mostra de Venise : Cimino est (enfin) au paradis|date=August 31, 2012|access-date=October 28, 2012|author=Crousse, Nicolas|work=Le Soir|language=fr|archive-date=November 8, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108013822/http://www.lesoir.be/archives?url=%2Fculture%2Fcinema%2F2012-08-31%2Fmostra-de-venise-cimino-est-enfin-au-paradis-935062.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> on August 30 in the presence of Cimino, followed one month later by screening at the [[New York Film Festival]] in the "Masterwork" lineup, along with [[Laurence Olivier]]'s ''[[Richard III (1955 film)|Richard III]]'' and [[Frank Oz]]'s director's cut of ''[[Little Shop of Horrors (film)|Little Shop of Horrors]]''.<ref name="2012-times" /> It was then shown at the [[Lumière Film Festival|Festival Lumière]] in France, where Venice Festival director [[Alberto Barbera]] described the film as an "absolute masterpiece" that had disappeared, and whose 1980 cutting was characterized as a "massacre" by nervous producers and had been "one of the greatest injustices of cinematic history" that had destroyed careers (Cimino and Kristofferson) following "annihilat[ing]" critical reviews.<ref name="2012-times" />

In March 2013, the new director's cut was again featured back in New York City in a week-long run screening at the [[Film Forum]]. Writing in ''The New York Times'', critic [[Manohla Dargis]] said  of the restoration that it "looks good projected, if surprisingly bright", and "it also appears to be an act of directorial revisionism." Of the film itself she writes: "The film's scope, natural backdrops, massive sets, complex choreography and cinematography are seductive, at times stunning, and if you like watching swirling people and cameras, you may love it."<ref name=million/>

An article by Nicholas Barber on the [[BBC]] website in December 2015 traced the history of the critical reception of ''Heaven's Gate'' and concludes: "so much of ''Heaven's Gate'' is patently splendid that it is mind-boggling that anyone could pronounce it an 'unqualified disaster'. And the scenes which were slammed in 1980 as being symptomatic of waste and excess – the Harvard waltz, the massed rollerskating – are the scenes which take your breath away." Reflecting on the depicted negative attitudes to immigrants, he writes: "However unwelcome ''Heaven's Gate'' may have been in 1980, there hasn't been a more urgently topical film in 2015."<ref name="Barber">{{cite news|last=Barber|first=Nicholas|title=From Hollywood Disaster to Masterpiece|url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151120-heavens-gate-from-hollywood-disaster-to-masterpiece|access-date=March 5, 2016|date=December 4, 2015}}</ref> The film holds a 57% score on [[Rotten Tomatoes]] based on 47 reviews with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "''Heaven's Gate'' contains too many ideas and striking spectacle to be a disaster, but this western buckles under the weight of its own sprawl."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heavens_gate |title=Heaven's Gate (1980)- Rotten Tomatoes |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=October 5, 2023}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "average or mixed reviews".<ref>{{cite web|title=Heaven's Gate Reviews|url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/heavens-gate|website=Metacritic}}</ref>