Heaven’s Gate – Director’s Cut – DVD review

Michael Cimino, 1980

Second Sight

Michael Cimino’s once-woebegone Western emerges battle-scarred but finally restored to its original cut – all 216 glorious minutes of it.

Yes, it was over-budget, overlong and nearly bankrupted a studio, but the film itself is boldly novelistic in scope, beautifully played by its leads, Kris Kristofferson, Isabelle Huppert and Christopher Walken, and its brutal depiction of what it means to be poor in America still resonates in the age of Obama. But above all it is a thing of beauty, Vilmos Zsigmond’s luminous and painterly cinematography outshining all else.