1. Heaven's Gate (1980)
There'll be a few groans at this point, such is the inevitability of my choice. But how can any such list worth its salt not have
Heaven's Gate right at the very top? While all the other films on this list may have left punters fidgeting in their seats or warning their friends to wait for the DVD, this film single-handedly sank United Artists, and in doing so ushered in a more conservative age of film-making where the power shifted from the creative artists to the pencil-pushers. We can talk all we like about the reputation of
Heaven's Gate, or its budget, or its troubled production history: if you want to follow that line of discussion, click below for part 1 of the excellent documentary
Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate. But even if we put those things out of our minds, or are not aware of them at the time of watching the film, you would really struggle to justify taking this long to tell a fairly straightforward story about the Johnson County War. Before the film was released, producer Stephen Bach was shown a rough cut which ran to 5 hours and 25 minutes; its battle scene alone was the length of a normal film. Even with the subsequent trimming, the battle is still drawn out, and there is no need for the 20 minutes of roller-skating in the middle. Even without these, the storytelling is so needlessly languid that we end up caring very little about the characters. If Hollywood ever gets around to remaking this film, the contract should definitely stipulate that it be told in 90 minutes.
Disagree with my choices? Feel I've missed something out? Drop me a comment below, or visit Mumby at the Movies for more reviews.