I only saw this movie once ,i was at the premiere in New York city and saw that print. Its been 40years but i still remember it. There was a special excitement in the cinema,people were anxious to watch what they expected to be something special,because the buzz over Ciminos genius was enormous at the time. The opening of the movie is pretty grandiose,and the crowd we were feeling we were in for atreat. Then John Hurt has to deliver a speech that goes on and on and on and its the first scene that people felt something is wrong here. When the movie was over i remember very well .people were perplexed,it wasnt that the movie was bad,it had told an impressive story with a lot of drama ,but first thing it wasnt the great masterpiece thing everybody was expecting and second it wasnt a fun or really satisfying movie. So i think most felt like i did,the crowd was silent,it wasnt that it was bad but it wasnt really good either. The one thing that bothered me personaly ,was the casting of Isabelle Huppert,a good actress but i never considered her a movie star and this movie needs a female movie star to balance the men. On the positive side,this movie is photographed really beautifuly and visually its a really goodlooking movie. The strory about the Johnson County wars is Ciminos pointing accusing finger at america,and this annoyed a lot of people. Also a lot of people were envious of Cimino at the time and were praying fo him to fail. By all accounts the movie is nowhere as bad as critics made it to be,They were mostly criticizingg Cimino not the movie.
Review of Heaven's Gate
