Editing Heaven's Gate (film) (section)

===Historical basis===
The basic plot elements of the film were inspired by Wyoming's 1892 [[Johnson County War]], the archetypal cattlemen–homesteaders conflict, which also served as the background for ''[[Shane (film)|Shane]]'' and ''[[The Virginian (1946 film)|The Virginian]]''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofweste0000hyam/page/115|last=Hyams|first=Jay|title=The Life and Times of the Western Movie|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster#Imprints|Gallery Books]]|location=[[New York City]]|year=1984|isbn=978-0831755454|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofweste0000hyam/page/115 115–116]|edition=1st}}</ref> Most of the film's principal characters bear the names of figures in the war but the events portrayed in ''Heaven's Gate'' bear little resemblance to historical events.<ref name="Davis, John W. 2010">Davis, John W. (2010). ''Wyoming Range War: The Infamous Invasion of Johnson County''. Norman, Oklahoma: [[University of Oklahoma Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8061-4106-0}}.</ref>

====Inaccuracies====
Homesteaders began to settle northern Wyoming in the 1890s, claiming land under the [[Homestead Acts]], but there were no hordes of starving European immigrants killing rich men's cattle to feed their families, as depicted in the film.<ref>Larson, T.A. (1990). ''History of Wyoming''. Lincoln, Nebraska: [[University of Nebraska Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8032-7936-0}}.</ref> [[Nate Champion]] is portrayed as a murderer and "enforcer" for the stockmen, but he was a popular small rancher in [[Johnson County, Wyoming|Johnson County]], nicknamed "king of the rustlers" by the stockmen because he resisted their tactic of claiming all [[Maverick (animal)|unbranded young cattle]] as their own.<ref name="Davis, John W. 2010"/>

[[Ellen Watson#Life with Averell|Jim Averell]] was another homesteader who lived about {{convert|100|mi|km}} southwest of Johnson County. Two years before the invasion began, he and his wife Ellen Watson were murdered by stockmen, who falsely accused Watson of exchanging sexual favors for stolen cattle.<ref>{{cite web |access-date=April 5, 2015 |url=http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/women/averill.html |title=Jim Averill & Ella Watson (Cattle Kate) |publisher=The Spell of the West |archive-date=April 11, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150411110749/http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/women/averill.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> There is no evidence that Watson was a bordello madam, as portrayed in the film, nor that Watson or Averell ever knew Nate Champion.<ref name="Davis, John W. 2010"/>