‘Heaven’s Gate’ Returns to the Big Screen in Kalispell with Wachholz College Center’s ‘Made in Montana’ Film Series
The creation of the enigmatic and polarizing Hollywood director Michael Cimino, the movie was filmed primarily along Two Medicine Lake in East Glacier Park in the late 1970s
The FVCC Wachholz College Center’s “Made in Montana” summer film series’ upcoming selection of the 1980 Western epic “Heaven’s Gate” might look a little familiar to some Flathead Valley residents.
The creation of the enigmatic and polarizing Hollywood director Michael Cimino, “Heaven’s Gate” was filmed primarily along Two Medicine Lake in East Glacier Park in the late 1970s, and the film’s cast and crew were based out of Kalispell during the shoot, with many of them staying at the now-shuttered Outlaw Inn.
Among the cast were actors Kris Kristofferson, Jeff Bridges, Christopher Walken, Isabell Huppert, John Hurt, Sam Waterston and Willem Dafoe in a minor role which he has said he was eventually fired from by Cimino for laughing during the setup for a shoot.
That type of anecdote is, in miniature, representative of the reputation the film’s creation has taken on over the years, with film buffs and industry insiders often zeroing in on Cimino’s limited interest in diplomacy, compromise, and even truthfulness as he sought to create what he thought was his next masterpiece after his acclaimed Vietnam epic “The Deer Hunter.”
Although it was filmed in northwest Montana, the story of “Heaven’s Gate” takes place in Wyoming, including around the fictional town of Sweetwater. It’s a fictionalized retelling of the Johnson County War, an episode in late 19th century Wyoming history in which cattle barons hired an army of men to kill 70 people who they suspected were rustling cattle.
The $40 million movie was a box office disaster at the time of its release, and as a result Cimino has been blamed by some for the demise of an entire studio and the end of a golden era for auteur directors in Hollywood. Critical reappraisals have been more kind to the film, especially since the original long version, with a run time of three hours and 36 minutes, was released in 2012. It’s the three-and-a-half-hour director’s cut that audiences will get to see at the Wachholz Center this week.
The London-based television producer and author Charles Elton wrote in his 2022 book “Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate and the Price of a Vision,” that at the time of the movie’s original release, Kalispell was one of the few places where it was well received by audiences.
A ticket from a special Kalispell screening of the movie “Heaven’s Gate.”
The Wachholz Center’s summer film series has been helmed by Dwight Camillucci, the college center’s technical director, and his old friend and fellow Glacier High grad Clayton McDougall, with McDougall putting together the programming for the film series. To help deepen the connection for filmgoers, the series has included short introductory talks before each screening. For “Heaven’s Gate,” Camillucci said they’ll be taking a slightly different tack.
In the leadup to the Aug. 13 screening, they’ve conducted interviews with Flathead residents who were involved in the filming of “Heaven’s Gate,” and have stories to share about the experience. The plan is to forgo the regular talk, and instead play snippets of the interviews on a loop before the movie begins.
Given such a long runtime for the movie, Camillucci said he didn’t want anyone to be further intimidated by the time commitment. Ideally, this setup will keep the pre-screening activities short and sweet so that “Heaven’s Gate” can start playing at 7 p.m. At the same time, Camillucci said he wants to give people an opportunity if they are curious to learn a little more about the film, in case they want to follow up on their own after it ends.
Camillucci himself is a recent first-time viewer of “Heaven’s Gate,” having finally just seen it a few weeks ago. Reacting to the experience he said that he went into it with limited background information and was kind of blown away by the experience.
“I think it holds up really well,” he said. “I think it’s a really great piece of American cinema history and especially Montana cinema history.”
And it’s a movie that he thinks benefits from the special treatment the film series is offering in the college center’s McClaren Hall space.
“These days we watch so much on our TVs at home, or even on our cell phones,” Camillucci said. “And I think giving our community an opportunity to sit with other people and see this film, how I think it was intended to be seen on a really big screen, is something special.”
The WCC Film Series screening of “Heaven’s Gate” is Wednesday, Aug. 13, at 7 p.m. at the Wachholz College Center. Tickets for seniors are $8. Standard tickets are $10. For more information, go to waccholzcollegecenter.org.
The “Made in Montana” film series will continue on Aug. 20 with a screening of “Sweetgrass,” a 2009 documentary about Montana sheepherders. Prior to that screening, audiences will have a chance to hear from Brent Roeder, a range sheep production expert and faculty member at Montana State University’s agriculture program.
On Aug. 27, the series will feature a showing of the 1991 film “Thousand Pieces of Gold,” which tells the story of a Chinese woman sold into marriage and living in a gold rush boom town in the 19th century. It was filmed in Madison County, Montana. After the movie, McDougall will conduct a zoom intervirew with the film’s director, Nancy Kelly.
The film series will wrap up on Sept. 3 with a screening of the 1976 Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson film “The Missouri Breaks.” In the film, Brando’s character is hired to hunt down cattle rustlers led by Nicholson. The movie was filmed in Billings, Red Lodge, Virginia, Harrison and Nevada City.
