CJ Probst’s review published on Letterboxd:
Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate is an attempt at an epic western in the vein of the works of Sergio Leone with the romantic and humanist flair of Robert Altman’s McCabe & Ms. Miller. As far as the aesthetic of the film is concerned, Cimino seems to nail every detail. It is has some stunning cinematography from its dimly lit and rustic interiors to the showcasing of expansive and jaw-dropping American vistas. The costumes and production design all feel authentic and are wonderfully lived in by an enormous and talented cast. It even has an incredibly intriguing and promising premise, one custom fit for the genre. Indeed, this is a magnificent looking Western and it is easy to let yourself be immersed in the world Cimino has created. Unfortunately, Cimino obviously suffered from this same immersion and fell in love with his own movie, so much so that he was unable to let go of any of it and forgot about his audience, delivering a bloated and languidly paced final product.
People criticized Cimino of the same indulgence in his master work The Deer Hunter. It included a 40 minute wedding sequence that many people felt was extraneous filler before getting to the second act of the film. I feel he got away with it in that case as it served as a stark dichotomy between the Pennsylvania home life and the atrocities of the Vietnam War much like in Gibson’s recent film Hacksaw Ridge, also creating a rich atmosphere in which to allow the audience to connect to the characters before they were whisked away to Hell . When I saw that Heaven’s Gate was to begin at Harvard, I was expecting a similar structure to take place in opposition to the rest of the film’s setting, the western frontier. But no, Cimino brushes over the Cambridge scene in a matter of minutes transporting us straight to the film’s present day in Wyoming, in fact, it is the only thing Cimino would ‘brush over’ in this entire affair.
The first act of this film is torturous. Scene after pointless scene of characters wandering around this wonderful world he has built without advancing the story arc in anyway. It is also evident that Cimino was in love with his leading lady Isabelle Huppert for he has, again, scene after pointless scene of her doing nothing but traipsing around naked. A fiddley dance scene, a swimming scene, a making pie scene etc. it goes on and on like this for almost all of the first 2 hours. Notice that I didn’t say 20 minutes. 2 hours before we even get to the intermission. Of that first 2 hours, there was so much unnecessary baggage he could easily lost about half of it. The characters seem to just be aimlessly wandering around their environment waiting for someone to tell them what to do next. The plot doesn’t even really begin to shift at all until Christopher Walken pops up and the story begins to finally develop.
I did not intend for this review to be so long so, unlike the movie, I’ll wrap it up. After the intermission it is still gorged to the point of bursting but it moves along at light speed compared to the first half. Trimmed down and without all of the meandering bullshit, this is easily a 4.5 star picture if not higher. This is evident in the first moments of the movie, you just sit there and think, “Man this looks unbelievable, this is going to be special”, and it is, but I have to judge it as an entire piece though and am unable to forgive it of all of its excessive indiscretions. Cimino’s direction here, and I am assuming he must have had final cut, is the equivalent of those hoarders you see on television. His garage was probably full of 14 different complete sets of encyclopedias and all of his report cards from grade school. I don’t know, if I am going to watch an epic 4 hours in length, there are really only a handful of names from cinema adept at handling that sort of undertaking. Lastly, an epic’s length is usually the result of the great passages of time that transpire throughout their stories: years, lifetimes, sometimes generations. In 2001’s case, every generation ever (Running time of under 2hr 30min....just sayin'). The events of this story are not so grand in scope to justify that, this thing unfolds in like a week or two. The only real passage of time that took place was right here in my living room. With the right pair of scissors in the right hands, this could have been up there with the greats but as it stands, have the fast forward button on your remote within easy reach for the first act.