Synopsis:

This is a recreation of the rarely seen "Theatrical Cut" or "2nd Director's Cut" of 'Heaven's Gate' using the beautiful HD Blu-Ray transfer of the "Preview/Premiere/1st Director's Cut". The much shorter cut is not a studio-imposed hatchet-job but the result of 6 months of Director Michael Cimino's further work in the cutting room, trying to perfect the film. It's 67 minutes shorter, features a voiceover, radically rearranged scenes, altered dialogue, music and SoundFX and 18 minutes of new footage. For whatever reason he did not chose to restore this cut of the film for Blu-Ray and opted to present his first much longer cut that he himself had withdrawn. So here is my attempt to recreate that "2nd Director's Cut" in the best quality possible.

Intentions:

Using the low-quality French DVD 'La Porte Du Paradis' (Which appears to be the only copy of the 2ndDC available) as a guide, I've conformed the Blu-Ray transfer frame-by-frame and cut-by-cut to match. The unique soundtrack of the 2ndDC is preserved, but any colour-timing differences have not been (The transfer was too faded and murky to judge what the colours may or may not have been). Instead I have re-graded any shots I've used from the DVD, to match the Blu-Ray footage which makes up around 90% of this edit.

Change List:

General Cutlist: - I've made no sound edits, Cimino made all of those. Complete 2nd DC soundmix sourced from LPDP - I haven't noted trims below where it was less than 3 frames as I made far too many to mention. Most were just 1 frame where Cimino omited the original 1st DC splice - Re-graded all shots from LPDP to match BR footage as closely as possible (Also sharpened and grain added) - Total Visual Cuts = 643 (I have not listing any audio-changes by Cimino, although there are many) Considering more than an hour of footage was removed there aren't that many whole scenes removed. It's mostly 600+ small trims but here are some of the larger removals... - Billy's Speech at Harvard - Jim watching a man be beaten to death and later talking to his widow - Jim breaking up the post-Cock-Fight brawl - Canton executing a prisoner - Jim and JB drinking into the night - Nate and Jim's morning confrontion - Jim shouting at Ella - Ella speaking at the town meeting - Most of the post-battle montage including the woman commiting suicide - Old Jim's rich wife from the epilogue is removed There also aren't that many large additions, again it's snippets of footage and alternate takes but here are three major additional scenes... - The Small Man and the Russian's speeches at the town meeting - Jim arriving at the battle before nightfall - Jim kills Major Wolcott (Before, Wolcott just kinda went missing?).

Additional Notes:

Detailed Cutlist: (LPDP = 'La Porte Du Paradis' French DVD of the 2nd DC) 00.00.00 - Added FE.org title 00.00.12 - Added TM2YC title 00.00.24 - Added 3 paragraphs describing the 2nd DC with music from the soundtrack 00.01.20 - Removed Criterion title 00.01.31 - Replaced Blu-Ray UA title with 1981 UA title from LPDP 00.04.37 - Replaced opening Harvard shot with textless from LPDP 00.06.24 - Removed long tracking shot of the marching band 00.06.26 - Shortneed shot of girls waving 00.06.34 - Removed shot of students marching and one of Jim running 00.07.59 - Shortened shot of students listening 00.08.04 - Added 4 shots of Jim gazing around and The Reverend talking from LPDP 00.08.14 - Removed shot of Billy laughing 00.08.17 - Removed 4 shots from The Reverend's speech 00.08.26 - Added 4 shots of Jim gazing around and The Reverend talking from LPDP 00.08.36 - Removed 6 shots of Jim, Billy and The Beautiful Girl 00.08.48 - Added 2 shots of Jim and The Beautiful Girl from LPDP 00.09.04 - Shortned the sequence of Billy fooling around 00.09.08 - Added shot of Jim laughing from LPDP 00.09.26 - Removed 2 shots of The Reverend being applauded 00.09.32 - Replaced shot of The Reverend with a shot of two teachers yawning from LPDP 00.09.35 - Shortened shot of The Reverend talking 00.09.52 - Moved shot of The Beautiful Girl clapping to middle of the shot of Billy prentending not to hear 00.09.53 - Removed shot of students cheering 00.09.58 - Added 2 shots of The Beautiful Girl smiling at Jim from LPDP 00.10.02 - Shortened shot of Billy approaching the podium 00.10.05 - Removed all of Billy's 4 minute speech to the students 00.14.01 - Brought forward Billy being punched 00.14.03 - Removed 2 shots of the scrum 00.14.09 - Removed 3 shots of the scrum 00.14.12 - Removed 3 shots of the scrum and shortened Jim climbing 00.14.14 - Shortened shot of Billy giving Jim a leg up 00.14.16 - Cut shot of Billy giving Jim a leg up in two 00.14.17 - Removed 3 shots of Billy being crushed in the scrum 00.14.27 - Removed shot of Jim swinging on the tree 00.15.54 - Last shot of The Beautiful Girl played in reverse 00.16.26 - Replaced shot of people on train roof with tex free one from LPDP 00.16.39 - Added shot of Jim looking out the window from LPDP 00.16.44 - Shortened shot of train by a third from the start and from the end 00.17.12 - Shortened pan in on the wood cabin 00.18.19 - Removed 2 shots of Nate approaching Kovac 00.18.25 - Shortened shot of Kovac calling to Nate 00.18.30 - Shortened shot of Nate raising his gun 00.18.33 - Shortened shot of Kovac calling to Nate 00.18.48 - Shortened shot of wife cradling Kovac's body 00.18.54 - Shortened shot of wife fetching sheet 00.18.57 - Shortened long shot of wife crying and removed shot of Nate riding across a stream 00.18.57 - Replaced short shot of cattle being lassoed with longer angle from LPDP 00.19.18 - Brought forward sequence of Nate confronting The Married Man 00.19.33 - Shortened shot of Nate looking at The Married Man 00.19.40 - Shortened shot of Nate shaking his head 00.19.44 - Shortened shot of The Married Man lowering his pistol 00.19.46 - Shortened shot of Nate staring 00.19.51 - Added much longer shot of The Married Man talking from LPDP 00.19.55 - Shortened shot of Nate staring 00.20.21 - Added 4 shots of Nate dismounting and his friend arriving from LPDP 00.20.44 - Removed 5 shots of Nate and his friend watching the fields being plowed and brought Nate punching his friend forward 00.21.40 - Shortened shot of Nate friend mounting his horse 00.22.58 - Removed 2 very long shots of the immigrant march 00.23.09 - Drastically shortened wide pan of the march by almost 3 quarters 00.23.14 - Shortened shot of mother walking and brought scene of Nate visiting Ella forward 00.23.21 - Pushed back Nate arriving 'til after Ella looks for him and shortened Ella watching 00.23.32 - Shortened Nate's arrival, removed shot of Jim's carriage and added shot of Ella smoking from LPDP 00.23.35 - Removed shot of Ella glancing back 00.23.37 - Added another shot of Ella smoking from LPDP 00.23.41 - Pushed back 2nd half of Nate's arrival and shortened it 00.23.47 - Shortened 2nd shot of Ella glancing back 00.23.59 - Added shortened cutaway to music box over Nate walking through the brothel 00.24.10 - Removed 2 shots of Ella and Nate talking 00.26.04 - Removed 2 shots of Ella and Nate talking 00.26.16 - Removed 10 shots of Ella and Nate talking 00.26.27 - Added shot of Ella kissing Nate's hand 00.26.32 - Added textless shot of train arriving in Casper from LPDP 00.26.49 - Shortened shot of Cully walking through the station 00.27.24 - Added shot of Jim getting dressed from LPDP 00.27.28 - Removed 8 shots of the trains arrival and Jim drinking 00.27.34 - Shortened shot of immigrants climbing down 00.27.38 - Shortened shot of Jim walking through the carriage 00.28.31 - Shortened shot of Jim and Cully talking 00.28.34 - Removed 7 shots of Jim and Cully talking and added shot of immigrants from LPDP.

Other Sources:

Heaven's Gate: Criterion Collection (US Blu-Ray) Heaven's Gate: Restored (UK Blu-Ray) La Porte Du Paradis (French PAL-DVD) Heaven's Gate (CD Soundtrack) Illustrated Audio Interview with Cimino & Producer Joann Carelli (US Blu-Ray).

Special Thanks:

Thanks to Criterion for restoring this controversial film... in any version.