Maybe too much was expected from Michael Cimino after all the acclaim he got for The Deerhunter and he went overboard with it. His next film, Heaven's Gate, became synonymous with overblown budgets and a director run amuck with creativity. We haven't seen anything like it since the silent days of Erich Von Stroheim.
If you're going to tell the story of the Johnson County War, than by all means tell it. For reasons I can't figure out, Cimino felt it necessary to show the close relationship of John Hurt and Kris Kristofferson before the main action of the film and included an elaborate Harvard graduation sequence. I'm not sure why the whole 45 minutes or so wasn't cut from the film. Maybe it was to show that at least one sheriff in the old west had a Harvard degree.
Be that as it may, we next find sheriff Kristofferson objecting mightily to the Cattleman's Association forming a private army under the lead of his predecessor in office, Sam Waterston. Hurt is one of the members of that association now. Cattle rustling they say is running rampant.
According to a Wikipedia article on the Johnson County War, the snowy year of 1888 was the root cause of the problem. It killed so much stock and left the cattlemen were very thinned out herds.
It also left a lot of small ranchers and farmers, many of them immigrants, starving on the plains. They took to killing stray cattle just to keep from starving. The cattleman reacted like the nobles in Merrie Old England did when the peasants killed the king's deer.
Since the small ranchers and farmers had the numbers, they controlled Johnson County and these offenses were lightly dealt with. Not good enough for the big shots in Cheyenne. They organized this punitive expedition to restore law and order as they interpreted the term. As Gabby Hayes said in Tall in the Saddle, he's for law and order depending on who's dishing it out.
That's roughly where Wikipedia and Heaven's Gate are in agreement. After that Cimino is kind of loose with his facts on both sides. Still the spirit of anarchy in sparsely populated Johnson County, Wyoming is captured in the film.
One incident that is captured verbatim is the killing of Christopher Walken's character Nate Champion who led the small ranchers and farmers of Johnson County. What you see there is what actually happened.
Isabelle Huppert plays prostitute Ella Watson true life character who exchanged stolen cattle for a poke as they called in the old West or at least in Breakhart Pass. She's a major star in French cinema and returned there after the beating Heaven's Gate took with American critics. She's very good in the part, but the real Ella Watson was lynched by the Cattleman's Association, not what you see here. Ditto for Kris Kristofferson's character.
Best performance in the film by far though is Sam Waterston. The difference between his character Frank Cantone and Jack McCoy is deep and broad, yet curiously enough they're both about Law and Order. Cantone has minimal regard for the rules of evidence though. Waterston's performance is absolutely chilling.
The action sequences in the final battle are among the best ever staged. Too bad it took so long to get to it though.
If you're going to tell the story of the Johnson County War, than by all means tell it. For reasons I can't figure out, Cimino felt it necessary to show the close relationship of John Hurt and Kris Kristofferson before the main action of the film and included an elaborate Harvard graduation sequence. I'm not sure why the whole 45 minutes or so wasn't cut from the film. Maybe it was to show that at least one sheriff in the old west had a Harvard degree.
Be that as it may, we next find sheriff Kristofferson objecting mightily to the Cattleman's Association forming a private army under the lead of his predecessor in office, Sam Waterston. Hurt is one of the members of that association now. Cattle rustling they say is running rampant.
According to a Wikipedia article on the Johnson County War, the snowy year of 1888 was the root cause of the problem. It killed so much stock and left the cattlemen were very thinned out herds.
It also left a lot of small ranchers and farmers, many of them immigrants, starving on the plains. They took to killing stray cattle just to keep from starving. The cattleman reacted like the nobles in Merrie Old England did when the peasants killed the king's deer.
Since the small ranchers and farmers had the numbers, they controlled Johnson County and these offenses were lightly dealt with. Not good enough for the big shots in Cheyenne. They organized this punitive expedition to restore law and order as they interpreted the term. As Gabby Hayes said in Tall in the Saddle, he's for law and order depending on who's dishing it out.
That's roughly where Wikipedia and Heaven's Gate are in agreement. After that Cimino is kind of loose with his facts on both sides. Still the spirit of anarchy in sparsely populated Johnson County, Wyoming is captured in the film.
One incident that is captured verbatim is the killing of Christopher Walken's character Nate Champion who led the small ranchers and farmers of Johnson County. What you see there is what actually happened.
Isabelle Huppert plays prostitute Ella Watson true life character who exchanged stolen cattle for a poke as they called in the old West or at least in Breakhart Pass. She's a major star in French cinema and returned there after the beating Heaven's Gate took with American critics. She's very good in the part, but the real Ella Watson was lynched by the Cattleman's Association, not what you see here. Ditto for Kris Kristofferson's character.
Best performance in the film by far though is Sam Waterston. The difference between his character Frank Cantone and Jack McCoy is deep and broad, yet curiously enough they're both about Law and Order. Cantone has minimal regard for the rules of evidence though. Waterston's performance is absolutely chilling.
The action sequences in the final battle are among the best ever staged. Too bad it took so long to get to it though.