heartland be in production about the same time a michael cimino heaven gate heartland cost a fraction to make but be 10 time the piece of film . heaven gate be the big and most expensive ( $ 40 mil in 1980 . ) hollywood flop of all time and it failure result in the sale of the united artist studio to mgm imdb entry heartland cost a few hundred thousand dollar and benefit from great writing and direction and photography and act . it easily draw you into the beauty and joy and hardship and sorrow of pioneer life . it sad that hollywood sometimes would pour million into turkey ( base on a director single big hit ) and neglect such a wonderful story .