Editing Heaven's Gate (film) (section)

===Workprint cut, premiere cut and an alternative cut===
Notwithstanding the 325-minute "workprint" cut shown to executives in June 1980, Cimino had rushed through post-production and editing to meet his contractual requirements to United Artists, and to qualify for the 1980 [[Academy Awards]].<ref name = Doc/> The version screened at the November 1980 premiere ran three hours and 39 minutes. Bridges joked that Cimino had worked on the film so close to the premiere that the print screened was still wet from the lab.<ref name=Doc/>

After the aborted one-week premiere run in New York, Cimino and United Artists pulled the film; Cimino wrote an open letter to the studio that was printed in several trade papers blaming unrealistic deadline pressures for the film's failure.<ref name="Egan">{{cite news|last=Egan|first=Jack|title=Bombs Away|access-date= March 13, 2012 |date=December 8, 1980|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_eQCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16|page=16}}</ref> United Artists reportedly also hired its own editor to try to edit Cimino's footage into a releasable film with no real success.<ref name=Egan/>

Ultimately, Cimino's second edited version, a 149-minute version, premiered in April 1981 and was the only cut of the film screened in wide release. The original negative for the longer version no longer exists because it was directly edited for the 149-minute version ([[Separation masters|YCM separation masters]] of the longer version were used as the source for the Criterion Collection release).  This cut of the film is not just shorter but differs radically in the placement of scenes and selection of takes.<ref name=Wood/> This version, after leaving theaters, was not released on home video of any kind in the United States but was later released on DVD in France ("la Porte du Paradis"). This version has also aired on the MGM HD cable channel and was available free-with-ads on US streaming provider [[Tubi]] from March to November 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.tubi.tv/2017/03/07/tubi-tvs-march-free-movie-arrivals/|title=Watch Free Movies at Tubi TV: What's New for March 2017|website=blog.tubi.tv}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/everything-free-tubi-tv-november-2017/|title=Here is Everything FREE on Tubi TV in November 2017|website=cordcuttersnews.com|date=November 3, 2017 }}</ref>

In 1982, [[Z Channel]] aired the 219-minute 1980 premiere version of the film on cable television – the first time that the longer version was widely exhibited – and which Z Channel dubbed the "director's cut." As critic [[F.X. Feeney]] noted in the documentary ''[[Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession]]'', Z Channel's broadcast of ''Heaven's Gate'' first popularized the concept of a "director's cut."<ref>Cassavetes, Xan (director), Feeney, F.X. (critic). (2004). ''Z: A Magnificent Obsession''. [Film]. [[Independent Film Channel|IFC]].</ref>

When MGM (which acquired the rights to United Artists's catalog after its demise) released the film on [[VHS]] and [[videodisc]] in the 1980s, it released Cimino's 219-minute cut with the tagline "''Heaven's Gate'' ... The Legendary Uncut Version." Subsequent releases on [[LaserDisc]] and [[DVD]] have contained only the 219-minute cut.

Due to the wide availability of the 219-minute 1980 premiere version of ''Heaven's Gate'' and its frequent labeling as either "uncut" or the "director's cut," Cimino insisted that the so-called "original version" did not fully correspond to his intentions and that he was under pressure to bring it out for the predetermined date and did not consider the film ready, making even the 219-minute version essentially an "unfinished" film.<ref name=Wood/>

The 216-minute version shown in Venice is quite similar to the 219-minute version, but with no intermission. Some shots in the second part are slightly shorter and a shot with a single line has been cut (just after John Hurt is beaten by Sam Waterston).