Heaven's Gate

Founded in 1919, United Artists was the first American film production company owned and operated by the artists themselves, established to allow the creatives the opportunity to control their own financial interests rather than depending upon the commercial studio heads.  Although the new venture struggled in its early years to compete within the established system, it eventually thrived under the leadership of producers Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin, benefitting from its status as the first studio without a “studio” by relying on original projects from independent producers.  As mainstream studios fell into decline, UA’s innovative cost structure and artist friendly environment found the company well-positioned for the New Hollywood era, making history by becoming the first studio to win the Best Picture Oscar three years running for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, “Rocky”, and “Annie Hall”.

Born in 1939, Michael Cimino grew up as part of an upper-middle class Italian American family on Long Island in New York and excelled in his early education.  After attending Michigan and Yale, where he studied painting and architecture, he began his film career as a director of commercials before moving on to screenwriting and motion picture directing by the early 1970s.  Based on his early success with these initial projects, burgeoning studio EMI gambled on the young director and bet big, funding his tumultuous production of “The Deer Hunter” and watching as both the schedule and budget were overrun.

In early 1978, after struggling for years under the corporate management of Transamerica which had acquired United Artists in the late sixties, both Krim and Benjamin took their teams and left UA to form their own movie studio.  In their place, Transamerica promoted two mid-level corporate executives to lead the studio forward, Andy Albeck and Steven Bach.  With little experience in film production, they agreed that what they needed was their own visionary artist and believed they had found him upon their viewing of an advanced screening of “The Deer Hunter”.

Epic in its scope, tragic in its suffering, and deeply moving in its exploration of friendship and survival, Cimino exhibited the kind of vision that the new leaders at UA were desperately seeking.  And as a result, a deal was struck for Cimino to film his next project with the studio, a modestly budgeted historical retelling of the little-known Johnson County War which had taken place at the end of the previous century.  Within months, “The Deer Hunter” would captivate audiences and go on to win Best Picture and Best Director, firmly establishing Cimino as cinema’s next great auteur.

Within a week of these Oscar victories, the filming of “Heaven’s Gate” would start and immediately fall behind schedule.  With an attention to detail unprecedented in film history, Cimino’s attempt for perfection created what is arguably the most authentic representation of the American West on film.  Forgoing the use of miniatures, models, or matte paintings, every location, costume, and vista was meticulously created on set, feeding the director’s sense of unrestricted artistic obsession.

“Heaven’s Gate” begins in 1870 with Jim Averill, running full sprint to join his Harvard graduating class procession.  Inside, the commencement speakers debate whether it is the mandate of the Eastern elites to bring civilization to the emerging West.  Graduation is followed by a mesmerizing dance sequence set to The Blue Danube, providing an elegant, sweeping moment of harmony and grandeur before the looming tragedy.

Following this dazzling prologue, we fast forward twenty years to an older Jim as he arrives in Wyoming to preside as Johnson County’s marshal.  The immense power of the fully operational train pulling into the station and the enormous scale of the thriving town that the camera pulls back to reveal showcase the unbridled ambition that Cimino devoted to each frame of the film.  Every working gear of the locomotive, every painstakingly costumed customer shopping at the town store, and every horse-drawn wagon packed with impoverished immigrants and their belongings are nothing less than a magnificent recreation of a time that has long since disappeared.

After meeting the wealthy antagonists and learning of their murderous plan to rid the land of the immigrant population that has turned to cattle stealing for their survival, we are drawn into the movie’s central love triangle, as Jim visits his love Ella Watson, head of the local bordello.  Sharing moments of tranquility together, the reunion is interrupted by Nate Champion, the immigrant enforcer for our cattle-baron villains.  Played brilliantly by Christopher Walken, he conveys pure affection in his scenes with Ella and reluctant admiration in his interactions with Jim.  As an aside: Cimino’s subtle placement of a random man casually juggling just outside the window as Jim and Nate first reconnect is beautifully evocative and excessively eccentric (apt descriptions for the film itself).

The threat to the immigrant landowners continues to build, as the mercenaries arrive in Johnson County to deliver the retribution promised by the rich cattlemen, culminating in a difficult-to-watch assault on Ella by three hired men.  Nate realizes the evil of his employers, and after confronting them is gunned down in an emotionally brutal ambush.  The film culminates in a chaotic battle which ends with the population decimated, Ella shot and killed, and Jim disillusioned and defeated.

Cimino’s uncompromising perfectionism, fueled by immense hubris, essentially emptied the coffers at UA with a then unimaginable cost of $44M, leaving the studio anxiously waiting for the film’s eventual acclaim.  Ultimately, reviews were scathing, box office was nil, and UA’s reign was effectively over with a sale to MGM in 1981.  Never again would a studio allow this level of unchecked artistic freedom.

Ironically, “Heaven’s Gate” is not an artistic misfire, but a uniquely flawed cinematic masterpiece; a symphony of vision and craft, where each stroke, note, and frame weaves together to transcend time.  Cimino’s achievement evokes beauty, truth, and emotion in a way that feels soul confirming and singularly eternal.  In the end, his obsessions burnt his career to the ground; in its ashes was left a diamond.