Canby is mentioned several times in the documentary
Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate (2004). His notorious New York Times review of
Heaven's Gate (1980) in its original form is singled out as the most damning of its many negative reviews; producer
David Field criticizes the decision to withdraw the film and re-edit it as "it was an admission that everybody thought Canby was right". Canby's equally negative review of the shortened movie is quoted later ("like a fat man who's been on a crash diet, thinner but not appreciably different").