Vindicated By Time

Time has a funny way of changing things. We generally accept that over time our cars will break down, our waists will expand and our tastes will change. We are comfortable with this basic life-cycle and the way history records it. But "time" also has a way of allowing us to rediscover works that may have just been born at the wrong time.

Rarely do works that are initially panned and commercially ignored get the chance to be rediscovered. When something fails, we generally move on and historians tend to mark this accordingly. Yet, every now and then something emerges from the past, gets reanalyzed, finds new fans, and a "new" classic is born.

Moby-Dick got trashed by critics when it was first published in 1851. The negative press caused Herman Melville, who had been a somewhat popular author in the 1840s, to fall into depression and obscurity. It wasn't until the '20s and the '30s — over three decades after Melville's death — when scholars rediscovered Moby-Dick and reevaluated it as one of the classics of American literature.¹

The Impressionists (Claude Monet, Pierre-August Renoir, Edouard Manet, etc.) were ridiculed at first (at their first joint exposition, the public came en masse to mock their work....

Even in recent history, Weezer's second album, Pinkerton, was initially trashed by both critics and fans and sold dismally. Rolling Stone readers named it the second worst album of 1996, and Rivers Cuomo viewed it as an Old Shame for years. Today, it's regarded as one of the greatest albums of The Nineties, and as one of the albums responsible for bringing emo to the mainstream.

In film there are several noted and famous movies that needed time to find an audience and critical praise.  The Night Of The Hunter was neither a critical, nor a commercial success, when it came out. Today, it's considered a masterpiece.  Other films such as Citizen Kane, Vertigo, It's A Wonderful Life, Pinocchio, The Shawshank Redemption all also to one degree or another needed time to be fully appreciated.

But when we talk about flops in movie history few movies can provide the resume that Heaven's Gate provides.  This is a film that flopped to such drastic proportions that it destroyed a genre, a studio and a director all at one time.  It has become synonymous with movie flops over time - so much so that when Waterworld was sinking, it was called "Kevin's Gate" around Hollywood circles.  This film seemingly is the poster child for director's indulgence and bloated spending. 

I'll admit that this movie was of no interest to me until I began to read of Criterion's recent treatment.  Essentially Criterion teamed with director, Cimino to revisit and remaster the director's original vision for this film.  It's pretty well documented that after a very brief release the studio eliminated nearly 70 minutes and re-released hoping to appease early audience feedback.  This was all in vain, and the failure of westerns, United Artists and Michael Cimino all seemed cemented in time.  But I must admit - this is a truly remarkable film.   Heaven's Gate is quite nearly a masterpiece.  There are a few small imperfections, but the scope and detail of this film are incredibly immersive.  I'm not sure why critics and audiences had such vile for this film initially.  And I suppose the studio-altered shorter version only confused and bewildered audiences.  But I have seen very few films that attempt something so grand and spectacular as this.  It's odd to me that many of the things Cimino was ridiculed for on this film are generally lauded today as commonplace (his attention to detail, insistence on realism, casting of character actors, etc...)  I don't know if this will ever be viewed as a classic, but I believe that it is a far superior film than what legend has handed down.  Perhaps one day Cimino will be vindicated by time.