WCC Film Series: Heaven's Gate

This summer, the Wachholz College Center is excited to launch the WCC FILM SERIES, an ongoing series featuring a variety of films and film themes throughout each season. Each film will feature a short talk-back to begin the evening, providing the audience with important information and interesting facts about the film(s) they are about to view.

The theme for the summer of 2025 is MADE IN MONTANA - featuring a selection of cinema highlighting several lesser-known movies that were shot under the Big Sky! While production crews often utilize Montana's stunning backgrounds to set the scene before retreating to the comfort of a studio lot, the seven feature films of this summer were created almost entirely in the Treasure State. Therefore, each one taps into the same culture and landscapes we all share and relates it back to us in new and surprising ways. We hope that by curating a lineup of Montana-centric cinema specifically for the community, audiences might find something new and surprising about our home state in each one of these films.

FEATURED FILM:
Title: Heaven's Gate
Year: 1980
Director: Michael Cimino
Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt
Rated: R  (Nudity, Graphic Violence, Language, Drug Use)
Run Time: 1hr 47mins

Heaven’s Gate, directed by Michael Cimino, is an epic Western that dramatizes the Johnson County War of the 1890s, in which wealthy Wyoming cattle barons clashed violently with immigrant homesteaders. Cimino assembled a star-studded cast—including Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, and John Hurt—and pursued an obsessive level of detail in production, shooting over 220 hours of footage with Vilmos Zsigmond’s lush cinematography. Upon its release, it became infamous as a box-office bomb—costing around $44 million but earning just $3.5 million—becoming the flop that nearly bankrupted United Artists and signaling the end of the fleeting era of director-driven Hollywood. Montana serves as both a magnificent backdrop and a crucible for Heaven’s Gate’s ambitions. Filmed extensively in northwest Montana—from the shores of Two Medicine Lake where the fictional town of Sweetwater was built, to scenes shot near Kalispell, Glacier National Park, and Flathead Valley—the production profoundly impacted the region, both economically and environmentally. While the local economy soared—bringing in around $14 million and employing hundreds of Montanans as extras and crew—the film crew’s heavy footprint prompted backlash, including Landmark Park Service bans due to ecological damage in sensitive areas. Its massive sets—like the iconic roller-skate rink and the log-structured main street—now linger in local lore and have influenced Glacier Park film tourism and heritage preservation efforts 

In sum, Heaven’s Gate is inseparable from Montana: its sweeping vistas and historical towns emerged directly from the landscape, while the public and critical outcry reflect the tension between cinematic grandeur and environmental stewardship in America’s rural heart.