Steven Soderbergh recuts “Heaven’s Gate”

Talk about an obsession! From Rolling Stone:

Heaven’s Gate is one of the most notorious cinematic bombs of all time. A 1980 Western about an armed conflict in Wyoming between rich cattlemen and poor farmers, made for a then-astronomical $44 million, it not only destroyed the career of director Michael Cimino (a rising star on the strength of The Deer Hunter) — this marathon-length epic basically put studio United Artists out of business and ended the auteur-driven ’70s golden age of Hollywood. Now director Steven Soderbergh has decided to fix it.

The film was originally released with a running time of over three and a half hours (219 minutes, to be exact); since then, it’s been re-edited by various people, including Cimino himself, at various lengths. But last week, director Steven Soderbergh released “Heaven’s Gate: The Butcher’s Cut”.

Where can you see Soderbergh’s recut version of the film? On his website which you can visit here.

Here is Soderbergh’s commentary regarding the recut film:

ob-ses-sion (noun)

1. preoccupation
2. state of being obsessed
3. uncontrollable persistence of idea

synonyms

mania
fascination
fixation

As a dedicated cinema fan, I was obsessed with HEAVEN’S GATE from the moment it was announced in early 1979, and unfortunately history has show that on occasion a fan can become so obsessed they turn violent toward the object of their obsession, which is what happened to me during the holiday break of 2006. This is the result.

Mary Ann Bernard

Who is “Mary Ann Bernard”? That is Soderbergh’s mother’s maiden name, something he has used in the past as a pseudonym for his role as editor.

For background, there is an 8-part documentary on the making of Heaven’s Gate which you can currenly find on YouTube. Here is Part 1:

For more of the Rolling Stone article, go here.

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