the deer hunter success with critic and public alike lead united artist to give cimino carte blanche on heaven gate and an epic western about the 1892 johnson county war the elliptical story and about the persecution of lowly european bear farmer by wyoming cattle baron and be a muddled mixture of class conflict and sumptuous pageant and underwritten and stereotypical character however and cimino fetish for authenticity and his sweeping sense of scale ensure that the film run at nearly four hour be rarely tedious it undeserved status a a cause célébre and with critic divide a to whether it be a masterpiece or a fiasco and derive from it inflated budget blame for the studio financial problem and cimino become a scapegoat for hollywood general decline and and the film and edit into an incomprehensible short version after it initial release and be a commercial disaster .