With stars such as Kris Kristofferson, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Christopher Walken and Mickey Rourke, plus an unprecedented budget, Heaven's Gate (1980) should have been a blockbuster movie. After directing the 1978 Academy and Golden Globe Award winning movie, The Deer Hunter, Michael Cimino's next project, an epic Western, was pounded by critics and marred by accusations of horrific animal abuse. Heaven's Gate became a legend alright, but for all the wrong reasons.
Heaven's Gate, doomed from the start
"Heaven's Gate is something quite rare in movies these days – an unqualified disaster," wrote Vincent Canby of the NY Times. The, "Ending, strange and dreamlike, blandly turns a blind eye to shut out the atrocities and casuistries we have witnessed," reported Time Out of London. Even Roger Ebert didn't hold back when he described Heaven's Gate, as, "A notorious picture, a boondoggle that cost something like $36 million and was yanked out of its New York opening run after the critics ran gagging from the theater."
In fact, continued Canby of the NY Times, Heaven's Gate failed so completely that the critic deigned to question whether director Michael Cimino had, "Sold his soul to the devil to obtain the success of The Deer Hunter." Cimino's overbearing attitude, plus the cost of production and the negative press it received, also didn't help and doomed the epic Western from the start; it grossed just over 3.4m. at US box offices.
The Western equivalent of The Titanic
If ever a movie could be labeled cursed, Heaven's Gate was the equivalent of The Titanic. Not only did it sink its director, it bankrupted and consequently collapsed the United Artists film studio, and changed the film industry forever, with its alleged ties to animal abuse.
In his quest for realism, says the American Humane Association (AHA), Cimino's movie included an, "Actual cockfight ... horse trips, and a horse being blown up with a rider on its back." Furthermore, the association asserted, eyewitness accounts from people on the set verified the abuse by describing, "Chickens being decapitated and steer being bled in order to use their blood to smear on the actors."
The AHA went on to cite one horse owner who actually filed suit against the producers, Cimino, Partisan Productions, and the horse wrangler involved with Heaven's Gate. This lawsuit they say, was settled out of court and included an allegation of, “Severe physical and behavioral trauma and disfigurement,” of an Arabian gelding.
The furor surrounding the abuse prompted calls from animal rights activists to boycott the movie and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) were pushed into contracting the AHA to monitor the use of all animals used in filmed media. It changed the US film industry forever and lead to the addition of the oft seen AHA movie disclaimer, “No Animals Were Harmed.”®
Inhumane treatment of animals in other movies
The AHA remains the film and television industry’s only officially-sanctioned animal monitoring program, but participation is voluntary and not enforceable outside of the US. Today, the AHA Rating System grades all movies and stipulates whether it was monitored by them or not. The results are maintained in a fully searchable and public, online database.
Several movies have been deemed unacceptable in the humane department, including Rambo III (1988) and The 13th Warrior (1999), for using tripwires on horses. The 1979 movie, Apocalypse Now, filmed the butchering of an ox and in Manderlay (2005), which starred Willem Dafoe and Danny Glover, a donkey was bled to death forcing actor, John C. Reilly, to quit the movie in protest.
Heaven's Gate trivia
Crimino, it is said, wanted Heaven's Gate to be the definitive Western and in fact, reports Imdb.com, several years before the making of the film, John Wayne was offered the role of male lead. Based on the Johnson County wars in Wyoming, the movie was actually filmed in NW Montana, with one location – West Glacier, a mere seven miles from my home.
As easily as The Deer Hunter jettisoned the director into Hollywood elite status, Heaven's Gate promptly buried him. In the five movies that Cimino was involved with – post his epic Western, he would never have another hit feature film. His 1985 Year of the Dragon – again starring Mickey Rourke, received mixed reviews and further controversy. Criticized as racist and stereotypical by Chinese American and Asian American communities, it was nominated for five Golden Raspberry awards, including Worst Director and Worst Screenplay.
Source:
- Heaven's Gate. 1980. Dir. Michael Cimino. Prod. Joann Carelli. Perf. Jeff Bridges, Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston. United Artists. Running Time: 219 min. (original cut) 149 min. (re-cut).
Elizabeth Batt - Elizabeth Batt is a former large animal nurse, certified NREMT, lover of equines and conservationist.
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