Heaven's Gate, film and article

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andrewstx

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I have had a favorite film, and now magazine article about the Johnson county war. It is based on a true event in Wyoming , The movie was a bomb, mostly because of it’s length., nearly 3 hours.

It is about the war, when the rich Wyoming Catell growers association tried to kill all the small ranchers. The WCG hired a private army to kill the small ranchers with families. The texas army was promised $50 a day, and $50 per each person slain.

But the small ranchers would not go as sheep to the slaughter they faught fol back and nearly won.

But the film was true as shown In the History Magazine, True west.
 
Sorry about the spelling. I have Aphasia as the result of a stroke.
 
Your spelling looks great!

I’ve seen the picture. I really don’t think the running time was the problem, as equally long or longer films have succeeded.

If anything, it may have been cut too much, as the Director’s Cut was longer (3:39) and probably was a more coherent version.

There’s a rather interesting book titled **Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of Heaven’s Gate, **by Steven Bach, about all the pitfalls the production fell into.

ICXC NIKA
 
andrewstx said:
I have had a favorite film, and now magazine article about the Johnson county war. It is based on a true event in Wyoming , The movie was a bomb, mostly because of it’s length., nearly 3 hours.

It is about the war, when the rich Wyoming Catell growers association tried to kill all the small ranchers. The WCG hired a private army to kill the small ranchers with families. The texas army was promised $50 a day, and $50 per each person slain.

But the small ranchers would not go as sheep to the slaughter they faught fol back and nearly won.

But the film was true as shown In the History Magazine, True west.
Click to expand...
I live not far from where the war took place and so was interested to see the film when it came out. Too bad there was extra stuff in the film that wasn’t pertinent nor authentic, which I think dragged the film down a bit. Artistic license is supposed to be used to make something better, not worse! The extraneous material, such as that big long scene of the dance was not necessary. Eastern European ethnic culture wasn’t part of the war.

Of course the war itself was true! I’m glad you liked it the film.
 
I had heard about this movie as the “worst movie/biggest bomb ever” for many years, so I finally decided to see it. After reading the backstory about it, I watched the 3.5 hour director’s cut and I thought it was worthwhile and interesting. Not great, but certainly not terrible. It had its moments. I thought Kris Kristofferson especially was excellent.
 
According to the film the small ranchers being liquidated were Eastern Catholics or as Orthodox. Religion was not mentioned in the article. I had forgotten as well until the article came out.

I lliked the film due the sepia and the general accurdence of the film to history. I dislike the brothel scenes. And the yacht sequence which was not connected with anything else.

This picture was before VCRs. I saw several times at the theater.
 
The yacht sequence, many years after the battles, establishes the events as a flashback in the hero’s mind.

ICXC NIKA
 
Wampa said:
Since this thread isn’t too old, it’s seems worth a bump with this relevant news.

Michael Cimino, Writer-Director of ‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ Dies at 77:
hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-cimino-dead-deer-hunter-908188
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I remember travelling through a small town in the Idaho panhandle, and the place was all dressed up in western decor. I asked the bartender and she said it was supposed to represent the town of Casper, where Kristofferson gets off the train in the movie. It must have cost a bundle to fix things up like that, but it only appeared for a few seconds in the film.
 
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