Heaven's Gate

The text on the back of the videobox when I rented this dirge implied that Heaven's Gate is notorious as one of the worst films ever made because the cruel studio took a masterpiece and slashed and burned it, and the critics never got to see the original, which (oh hooray!) is now available for home viewing. Actually, the critics saw the original, hated it, and then the studio tried to edit it into something watchable, which of course was impossible because the problem was not only that the film was far too long, but much of the dialogue was unintelligible, the characters were undeveloped, and the plot was tedious. Why anybody would waste any tears mourning the fate of this dreadful film and Cimino's wounded feelings is beyond my comprehension.