Synopsis:

Steven Soderbergh made a fanedit of Michael Cimino's much maligned 1980 epic 'Heaven's Gate' back in 2006 (For his own amusement). This year he decided to release it onto the internet via his blog, but the visual quality was very poor, as it was cut from the un-restored DVD (Also compressed for streaming). I really wanted to enjoy Soderbergh's dramatic slashing-in-half of this overlong but beautiful film but the poor quality stopped me. So now I've recreated 'The Butcher's Cut' frame-by-frame based on the restored 2012 'Heaven's Gate' Blu-Ray. It's Steven Soderbergh's fanedit with me just presenting it in the best possible light. 'Heaven's Gate' has many strengths, including some the most beautiful cinematography you're likely to see, a wonderfully poetic script and one of the greatest scores ever recorded. But pacing, strict editing, character motivation and narrative clarity weren't among them. I think Soderbergh has addressed many of these flaws and also reduced the inflated running time down to almost exactly a half.

Intentions:

To match Soderbergh's visual cuts frame-by-frame using the newer 2012 HD source (Which was not available when Soderbergh made his fanedit). While every care has been taken to reproduce the 180 or so visual cuts exactly, some shots differ by a frame or two. This is due to tiny differences in the source movie from the DVD to the Blu-Ray. I have also tried to reproduce the "spirit" of Soderbergh's soundmix. However, I've made my own adjustments to the mix, to further smooth transitions and improve small areas, when I thought it necessary.

Change List:

00.00.12 - Added TM2YC title 00.00.24 - Added 3 paragraphs of text from Soderbergh's website 00.01.00 - Removed Criterion and MGM titles 00.01.02 - Recut and rearranged UA logo to match ammount of time it is on screen in the BC 00.01.12 - Removed entire 20 minute Harvard prologue and credits and pushed them back 'til the end of the film 00.01.14 - Removed all of Jim train ride sequence and remixed audio on the cabin shot opening 00.02.17 - Removed 2 shots of Nate appraoching Kovac 00.02.46 - Removed last 2 shots of Kovac scene and added one shortened shot of the train 00.03.20 - Removed all of the immigrant march sequence and the shot of the train pulling into Casper 00.03.57 - Removed 3 shots of Jim and the trains arrival 00.04.21 - Removed 3 shots of Jim and the trains arrival 00.05.18 - Removed 12 shots of Jim and Cully talking 00.07.57 - Removed 8 shots of Jim walk through Casper and shortened his arrival at Zindel's 00.08.07 - Shortened shot of Jim walking through Zindel's 00.08.11 - Pushed back shot of Jim passing sewing woman 00.08.18 - Removed shot of Harmonica man watching Jim 00.08.37 - Shortened shot of Harmonica man 00.10.55 - Removed 3 shots of woman arguing with the ruffians 00.12.14 - Shortened shot of Cully and removed 3 more 00.12.38 - Shortened shot of woman pulling cart away and removed last shot of Cully 00.12.53 - Shortened shot of Butler 00.13.02 - Removed shot of Butler 00.13.30 - Added shot of Associating knodding from later in the scene 00.13.32 - Removed 5 shots of Canton taking and Billy listening 00.13.54 - Removed 4 shots of Billy interrupting 00.14.03 - Shortened shot of ladies waling outside the window 00.14.06 - Pushed back Billy standing up and shortened shot of Billy listening 00.14.09 - Added shot of Billy muttering and standing up over Canton talking 00.14.13 - Removed shot of Billy standing looking at Canton 00.14.37 - Removed 5 shots of the voting and of Billy watching 00.14.44 - Remixed audio of voting over footage of Billy walking out 00.15.13 - Shortened shot of Billy staring through the bannisters 00.17.57 - Removed 2 shots Billy playing Billiards 00.18.54 - Removed last 1.5 minutes of Billiards scene and shortened shot of Associating walking 00.18.59 - Removed shot of Canton getting up, all of Jim's cart ride to Johnson County and the midnight recruiting scene 00.19.59 - Pushed back Nate and the Married Man scene 'til later and removed the 1st Cock-Fight scene 00.20.17 - Removed 1st minute of 2nd Cock-Fighting scene 00.23.33 - Shortened shot of Jim talking to JB 00.23.56 - Removed last 3.5 minutes of 2nd Cock-Fighting scene 00.24.27 - Shortened shot of Jim walking up to Ella's door 00.25.09 - Removed 1.5 minutes of Jim and Ella in bed and going to sit at the table 00.26.27 - Removed 3 shots of Ella stripping and getting into bed 00.27.40 - Removed 7 shots of Ella rushing off to see the carriage 00.29.35 - Remixed audio of audience clapping over shot of Ella 00.29.44 - Removed 8.5 minute sequence of Jim and Ella's 'day out' together 00.30.10 - Removed fiddle player's extened rollerskating solo 00.33.00 - Removed final 5 minutes of rollerskating scene including all of Jim and Ella's waltz 00.34.11 - Removed 2.5 minutes of Nate's arrival at Ella's place 00.35.13 - Removed the last minute of Nate and Ella's talk and remixed the audio 00.35.33 - Removed Ella's arrival in Jim's bedroom 00.35.40 - Removed Ella leaving Jim bedroom 00.36.12 - Brought part of Nate and Ella's bedroom scene forward 00.37.11 - Removed 4.5 minutes of Nate and Ella talking an Nate wondering around 00.37.51 - Shortened shot of Nate carrying Jim and removed a reaction shot of the immigrants 00.38.11 - Shortened a shot of Nate looking at the Harvard photo and removed 2 more 00.39.10 - Removed a minute of of Jim's talk before Nate arrives to breakfast 00.41.37 - Removed the 2 minute argument Nate has with his friend 00.43.47 - Removed 2 shots of Jim reading the death-list 00.44.19 - Removed last 30 seconds of Jim scene with the Army Captain 00.44.19 - Added Nate's confrontation with the Married Man from earlier in the film 00.49.28 - Removed last 1.5 minutes of Nate and Ella's arrival at the cabin 00.50.38 - Removed last 2 minutes of Nate and Ella talk at the cabin 00.51.21 - Removed 30 seconds of Cully listening to the sound of the train 00.52.00 - Removed 2 shots of the train stopping and Canton getting out 00.52.54 - Removed 3 shots of talk outside the train 00.53.06 - Removed 4 shots of the train disembarkation 00.53.54 - Brought forward part of the first cabin scene 00.56.36 - Removed the last 1.5 minutes of the cabin scene 00.59.13 - Shortened shot of riders galloping after killing Cully 00.59.13 - Brought forward the attack on the whorehouse scene and shortened the first shot 01.03.00 - Shortened the rape of Ella by 20 seconds 01.03.29 - Shortened the rape of Ella by another 4 seconds 01.04.53 - Removed the final 3 shots as Nate storms out of the whorehouse, short.

Additional Notes:

- Unless impossible, every visual trim has been replicated exactly to the frame. Due to this cut being based on the 3rd DC and Soderbergh's original was based on the 1st DC a few small differences remain (A frame here or there) - The soundmix is very close to the spirit of Soderbergh's mix but I have made many small tweaks to make the audio cuts less noticeable where needed.

Other Sources:

Heaven's Gate (Criterion Blu-Ray) La Porte Du Paradis (French MGM DVD) - For one 20-frame shot of Billy.

Special Thanks:

Thanks to Steven Soderbergh for being brave enough to take on a fanedit of this epic-length movie. Thanks also go to those that have given me feedback in the ITW thread, including: Vultural, Aztek463, theslime, ThrowgnCpr, Brumous, hillbilly74, jswert123456, plurmonger, Ken Poirier, GregAlex, Dwight Fry, Neglify, Wraith and Gatos.