"Averill" (Kris Kristofferson) is from wealthy stock, a Harvard graduate, and a decent man who takes up a job as a sheriff in rural Wyoming. Most of the town's population have fled persecution and poverty in Europe, and want to start afresh with their families. They are not afraid of hard work, but that doesn't ease the chagrin of the local cattle ranchers who find them little better than fleas to be swatted. "Averill" tries to keep order as best he can, but when the landowners band together, convince the Governor of the merits of their expansionist plans and then draft in the support of the US army then it looks like the migrants are in for a bumpy ride. As tensions mount, he encounters school colleague-cum-gunslinger "Champion" (Christopher Walken) and their school valedictorian "Irvine" (John Hurt) as the battle lines are drawn not just on the field, but for the affections of "Ella" (Isabelle Huppert) too. This really lost me pretty much at the start with Kristofferson cutting an unlikely figure at a graduation ceremony presided over by the "Reverend" (Joseph Cotton's only, brief, appearence) and entertained by the intellectual and quite sarcastic "Irvine" - he really did look like a fish out of water. Thereafter, Michael Cimino just takes far too long to get the story to the sharp end. We get, quickly, the dynamic of conflict and the ambitiousness of the ranchers but are all to often taken on meandering (and sometimes romantic) side-tracks that don't really add much to the story aside from permitting both men to look moodier, meaner and prove how determined each is to get the same gal. It does come alive for the last thirty minutes as the pot finally boils over and loyalties face the ultimate test, and along the way it does convey an occasionally convincing critique on just how the fight for survival amongst those pioneering Americans was brutal, perilous and laced with bigotry and fear - but if you follow the genre in the slightest, then that won't really surprise you. The acting here is competent, nothing more, and it's certainly a great deal grittier than the more sanitised "How the West Was Won" (1962) type of adventure, but it laboured it's points too much and often for me. Maybe a (shorter) director's cut might focus the story better? More like the Gate to Hell, really.
