This underrated western is one of the biggest flops of all time

Although the Western genre has made a notable comeback through the medium of television, with shows like those of Paramount Yellow stone achieving high levels of success, it has had a hard time making the same impact on theatrical films over the years. Of course, there have been the occasional western or neo-western by the Coen brothers or Taylor Sheridan, such as True courage OR Hitmanthat have been both critically and commercially successful. Unfortunately, however, none of them have managed to rekindle the same renaissance of interest that audiences had in them more than fifty years ago. While westerns have slowly regained their strength, those of 1981 The Gate of Heaven has been credited by many for not simply killing audiences' interest in them for as long as it did. Since its release, the film's reputation has also been tarnished by how it supposedly ruined the New Hollywood Renaissance of director-driven cinema.

The controversy behind The Gate of Heaven It doesn't end there, however, as it also carries the legacy of having one of the most infamously troubled productions of any theatrical film released by a major studio. Even when it was first released, the film continued to grow an unfavorable legacy, with its initial cut being pulled from theaters after only a week of release. With the amount of recuts and re-releases the film has undergone and been released over the past forty years, it has garnered a much more favorable response. Depending on which version audiences might gravitate toward more, perhaps it's time the film deserves a second chance.

The story of the Gates of Paradise

The film is a 3-hour epic loosely based on real historical events

Written and directed by Michael Cimino (perhaps best known for his Oscar-winning classic, The Deer Hunter), the premise of The Gate of Heaven is ostensibly based on the Johnson County War that took place in Wyoming in the late 1800s. However, it bears little resemblance to any of those real events. The film follows James Averill, the sheriff of the fictional Jackson County, who becomes caught in the middle of a battle between its poor immigrant residents and wealthy ranchers. Aiding the cattle ranchers and ranchers is Nathan Champion, a mercenary who ends up becoming Averill's romantic rival for the hand of county local Ella Watson. As the war between the ranchers and the immigrants escalates, both men are forced to question their decisions and their place in the conflict.

The film had an all-star cast featuring the likes of Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, and Jeff Bridges, and even marked the screen debut of eventual screen legend Willem Dafoe. Despite also having an Oscar-winning director at the helm to bring such an epic scope to the story, HGate of Heaven was a film that seemed to have all the makings of a major hit. However, the film faced numerous setbacks during filming, including going over budget, requiring numerous reshoots, and even alleged animal cruelty. But the bad press would only get worse, as the amount of issues it faced in post-production ultimately led to one of the biggest film controversies in the history of the art form.

The Effect of Heaven's Gate's Box Office Flop

Some argue that the film's failure forever changed the way movie studios handle modern films.

In the 1970s, the film industry went through a period where many young directors like Steven Spielberg, William Friedkin, and George Lucas were not only given bigger budgets to work with, but also a certain amount of freedom to do what they wanted with very little interference from the studios. While this approach resulted in some box office hits, some of which have since been considered the greatest films of all time, such as Star Wars, JawsAND The ExorcistNot all of them managed to avoid box office flops. As studios slowly began to regain control over certain aspects of film production, the result of The Gate of Heaven is what finally ended the director's full control. The original cut of the film, which ran a total of 219 minutes, performed so poorly that it was pulled from theaters just a week after its release. When a new cut was put together and released to theaters again the following year, it didn't seem to help much; the film still met with critical disdain (with notable criticism Roger Ebert calling it “painful and unpleasant”) and grossed only about $3 million against a budget of over $40 million.

With all the negative word of mouth it was receiving, audiences wouldn't have risked sitting through nearly 3 hours of film. The film was such an infamous flop that it not only essentially ruined the rest of Cimino's career as a director, but nearly bankrupted his studio, United Artists. In the years since its release, however, there has been quite a bit of effort to both restore and re-edit the film into something that would be considered more enjoyable and streamlined. Oddly enough, similar to Zack Snyder's four-hour director's cut of the DCEU Justice League film, the reception of these newer cuts has been much more favorable than what came before. With all this in mind, is it possible that all the negativity that has surrounded the film for over forty years could finally settle in to make way for something better?

Why Heaven's Gate is Worth Revisiting

The more recent cuts have received much more positive feedback.

• The Gate of Heaven is currently available for streaming on MGM+ and for free on Tubi.

Despite the amount of negativity that has surrounded Heaven's Gate since its initial release, it's hard to deny that it still contains numerous redeeming qualities. Not only does the cast give their all in their performances, but the art direction alone is something to be greatly admired (after all, it didn't receive an Oscar nomination for nothing). Getting both past and present audiences interested in giving it a first or even second chance may be difficult depending on the length of the version chosen. Of course, with the financial success of other more recent films like Avengers: Endgame and by Christopher Nolan OppenheimerModern audiences have made it clear that there are indeed some films that they are more than willing to sit still for over three hours. At the same time, audiences, and especially film buffs, have always shown an interest in alternative cuts and re-releases of certain films.

With so many different versions to look at, The Gate of Heaven could easily become the centerpiece of a conversation, and not just about its troubled production or its original release. Audiences who love and hate it can have the opportunity to come together and compare which cut has the greatest strengths and which has the greatest weaknesses. The infamous story behind the initial release of The Gate of Heaven It will never be forgotten, but like most films that have been cut and re-edited so many times over the years, it's time that audiences and fans of the Western genre gave it another chance.