57
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Time OutTom HuddlestonTime OutTom HuddlestonA grippingly violent parable, a touching, tragic romance and – thanks to legendary cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and an unprecedented attention to historical detail – quite simply one of the most beautiful, immersive films ever made.
- 100The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinIt's a film of rare beauty and scope, a feast for the eyes and a harrowing, unflinching meditation on the cruelty of capitalism. It rivals William Friedkin's Sorceror in its bone-deep cynicism and eviscerating take on the free market's coal-black heart of darkness.
- 75Slant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierSlant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierTo his credit, Cimino renders us helpless not before carnage or greed, but before his epic’s breadth of motivation and circumstance. It’s not the past’s ugliness that terrifies us in Heaven’s Gate, but its far more intimidating immensity.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThis beautiful but notoriously disappointing film is one of the most overblown epic Westerns of any decade.
- 40The first scenes of Heaven’s Gate are so energetic and beautiful that anyone who knows the saga of the $35 million epic might begin to think it was going to be worth every penny. Unfortunately 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.
- 38Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThis movie is a study in wretched excess. It is so smoky, so dusty, so foggy, so unfocused and so brownish yellow that you want to try Windex on the screen. A director is in deep trouble when we do not even enjoy the primary act of looking at his picture.
- 30The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyNothing in the movie works properly. For all of the time and money that went into it, it's jerry-built, a ship that slides straight to the bottom at its christening. Heaven's Gate is something quite rare in movies these days - an unqualified disaster.