Editing Heaven's Gate (film) (section)

====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>