Heaven's Gate (1980) [Director's Cut]

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Heaven's Gate (1980) [Director's Cut]

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Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film based on the Johnson County War, a dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s. The cast included Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert and Jeff Bridges.

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Heaven's Gate (1980) [Director's Cut]

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Plot: The film opens in 1870 as two young men, Jim Averill (Kristofferson) and William C. "Billy" Irvine (Hurt), are graduating from Harvard University. The Reverend Doctor (Joseph Cotten) speaks to the graduates on the association of "the cultivated mind with the uncultivated," and the importance of "the education of a nation." Irvine, brilliant but obviously intoxicated, follows this with his opposing, irreverent views. A celebration is then held after which the male students serenade the women who are present, including both of their girlfriends. The film then flashes forward 20 years, where Averill is now the sheriff in the booming region of Johnson County, Wyoming, where European immigrants are in conflict with wealthy ranch owners, sometimes stealing their cattle for food. Nathan Champion (Walken) – who knows Averill – is an enforcer for the landowners, and he kills a settler for suspected rustling and dissuades another from stealing a cow. At a meeting of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (a group of wealthy ranch owners), the head of the Association Frank Canton (Waterston) tells members, who include a drunk Billy Irvine, of their plans to kill more than one hundred named settlers, or "thieves and anarchists" as Canton calls them. Irvine leaves the meeting and goes upstairs to a billiard room, where he encounters Averill and tells him of the Stock Growers' "Death List". As Averill leaves, he exchanges bitter words with Canton. The Association begins hiring men to take on the task of killing the settlers named on the list.
Ella Watson (Huppert), a bordello madam who accepts stolen cattle as payment for use of her prostitutes, is in love with both Averill and Champion, and is teaching the illiterate Champion how to read and write. Averill gets a copy of the Association's target list from Captain Minardi (Terry O'Quinn) of the U.S. Army and later reads the names on the list to the settlers, who argue about what to do, one becoming enraged enough to shoot the mayor (Paul Koslo) in the ear. Cully (Richard Masur), a train conductor and friend of Averill's, sees the train containing Canton's posse and rides off to warn the settlers, but is murdered by the posse after stopping to sleep. Later, a group of men come to Ella's bordello and rape her. All but one are shot and killed by Averill. Champion, realizing that his landowner bosses seek to eliminate Ella, goes to Canton's camp and shoots the remaining rapist, after which he and Canton become enemies because of Champion's refusal to participate in the slaughter. "Trapper" (Geoffrey Lewis) – one of Champion's friends – is walking away from Champion's cabin when he encounters Canton and his men. He is given one minute to warn Champion and their friend Nick Ray (Mickey Rourke) and then return to safety. However, as soon as Trapper emerges from the door he is shot, and the gun battle begins.

–from wikipedia

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Heaven's Gate (1980) [Director's Cut]

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Heaven's Gate (1980) [Director's Cut]

Close

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Heaven's Gate (1980) [Director's Cut]

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Heaven's Gate (1980) [Director's Cut]

Close

×

Heaven's Gate (1980) [Director's Cut]

Close