yes55 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Yes, later, we see an actual small band obviously playing the "Blue Danube" music, as if to correct the narrative problem mentioned earlier. It might have made more sense to use this band all along - and to have used less immediately familiar music! First time I saw this I thought "When filming this in Oxford did they just put on a tape of the 2001 soundtrack? Did they have people waltzing with no music?" Weird problems like this made almost the most expensive movie ever seem cheap throughout.

yes55 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Most film-goers already associated this Strauss waltz with 2001, which had used a fairly long sampling of it... so Cimino seems to want to outdo that by making this dancing go on and on and on... it doesn't work. Also: where is the music coming from? It sounds recorded in a modern day studio, but they are obviously dancing to it, the "dance" isn't in our heads like the ships in 2001... so is there some live orchestra playing it somewhere to such perfection which we cannot see? It makes no sense.

SinAutor (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

this scene contains a masterful display of choreography and photography. the producers even stated " it looks like david lean decided to make a western" fair enuf it bombed at the box office, but that is no way to gauge how good a film is. the imagery in the film and mise en scene is astounding.

8data (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

its a masterpiece!

hubleywhip (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

what a wonderful mix of choreography and photography. like my fair lady crossed with barry lyndon.

procommenter (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Extensive plastic surgery will make Kristofferson appear youthful!

Tripp1993 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

United Artists died in 1980. CAUSE OF DEATH: Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate", the worst star-studded picture in history. RESURRECTION: 1981, when MGM bought UA, almost died again in 2005, and was resurrected in 2006 by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner.

Onaryc59 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

"Creative freedom in Hollywood was no more in the 80's thanks to dumb, expensive projects like this." The trouble is, you can't have creative freedom without dumb projects like this sometimes. If all creative freedom was successful, the studios would let it happen all the time. You want creative freedom, you have to accept its failures. Can't have it both ways.

NotHomelessAnymore (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Lol, this scene is awkward on so many levels. Even if you like Heaven's Gate, at least try to appreciate how it sunk United Artists into bankrupcy. Cimino was notorious for bullying producers into extending his budget and schedule and famously blew millions of dollars destroying a set (a whole town) and reconstructing it a few yards along. Creative freedom in Hollywood was no more in the 80's thanks to dumb, expensive projects like this.

shirazhound (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

The critics came for a Western and got an opening straight out of Jane Eyre. This flick shoulda opened with K>K> on the train heading to Johnson County.