Heaven's Gate 1980

Vincent Canby, New York Times: Heaven's Gate' is something quite rare in movies these days -- an unqualified disaster. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The longer version is impressive as long as the characters and settings remain in long shot; only when the camera gets closer do the problems start. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: It really is a stinker. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This movie is $36 million thrown to the winds. It is the most scandalous cinematic waste I have ever seen, and remember, I've seen Paint Your Wagon. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: On a purely sensory level, Heaven's Gate is overpowering. Read more

Tom Milne, Time Out: For all the abuse heaped on it, this is -- in its complete version, at least -- a majestic and lovingly detailed Western which simultaneously celebrates and undermines the myth of the American frontier. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: If anything, Michael Cimino's inert disaster of a Western has gotten worse over the years ... Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: The balance of director Michael Cimino's film is so confusing, so overlong at three-and-a-half hours and so ponderous that it fails to work at almost every level. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: The lie of frontier idealism is debunked, and Vilmos Zsigmond's mistily gorgeous cinematography is virtually an act of mourning in and of itself. Read more