Heaven’s Gate follows Averill (Kris Kristofferson), a well-meaning Harvard lawyer, who heads West to help immigrants fight against cattle barons killing and harassing the impoverished community trying to eke out a slice of the American Dream in the 1800s. Huppert plays Ella, a bordello madam torn between her affection for Averill and Champion (Christopher Walken), a hired gun enlisted by the barons led by a villainous ruffian (Sam Waterston). Although struggle and murder are baked into the movie’s DNA, Heaven’s Gate finds beauty in the landscape of the American West and intrigue in the shifting passions and loyalty of the three central characters.
In light of the recent persecution of immigrant communities across the country, revisiting Heaven’s Gate brings with it a new sense of urgency. It’s a film that does not shy away from the brutality of what it means to displace a population, nor does it sugarcoat its effects on the people both indirectly and directly affected. Who else benefits from such emotional carnage than the people with business interests as they eye their bottom line to justify their xenophobia. Cimino is also careful to lay out how corrupt and lawless the period felt as one man with all the right degrees and pedigree is helpless to do the right thing. It is a cruel portrait of American history, but it’s perhaps one of the most accurate, which might be why patriotic audiences fresh off of electing Ronald Reagan for president rejected such a negative view of their country’s history. It’s the kind of history conservatives would also like the public to forget and schools to stop teaching, but one that Cimino takes head on in his bleak epic.
Across the country at the Paris Theater in New York, a rarely screened historical downer will take center stage with an introduction by filmmaker Azazel Jacobs. Although They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is about a dance contest, there’s a sense of desperation soaked into every frame of Sydney Pollack’s Depression Era drama. Dozens of couples sign up for a physically grueling dance contest for a chance at $1,500. The winners are the last couple standing. As the contest wears on, tensions boil over, and tragedy rolls in with almost every new round.
Led by Jane Fonda and supported by a cast that includes Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, Red Buttons, and Bruce Dern, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? looks at the various characters hungry enough to attempt such a feat, humanizing their struggles in grueling, sweaty detail. The movie, which came out in 1969, held all the pessimism of the Vietnam War era, watching as working class people got caught in a machine (this time, a contest) trying to survive and risking their well-being to do so. Occasionally, Pollack’s camera looks up at the audience, an assortment of strangers comfortable enough in their own lives to not have to participate in such a deadly spectacle watching this contest as entertainment, and not a gladiatorial fight for a paycheck. Thinking of our present day’s financial insecurity and feeling of scarcity, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? won’t be an easy watch, but it will be breathtakingly impressive on the archival 35mm print the theater has pulled for the occasion.
Bleak Week isn’t just limited to Bleak Week. There are even new bleak movies to look forward to, like the Argentine-Swiss drama The Currents, Milagros Mumenthaler’s film about a young mother struggling to return to normalcy after falling into a lake, or the upcoming Death Of Robin Hood, which most notably includes the word “death” in the title. Sometimes to move toward the light, you have to embrace a little bit of darkness, and there are plenty of movies to give you a case of June Gloom.
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