On April 24, 1981, the film opened in 810 theatres in a "director's cut", a two-hour-and-twenty-nine minute (149 minute) version that Cimino had recut for a third time. Reviewing the shorter cut in the "Chicago Sun-Times", Roger Ebert criticized the film's formal choices and its narrative inconsistencies and incredulities, concluding that the film was "he most scandalous cinematic waste I have ever seen, and remember, I've seen "Paint Your Wagon"." He also called the film one of the ugliest films he'd ever seen. Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" issued a dissenting opinion when he reviewed the shortened film, becoming one of its few American champions and calling it "a true screen epic" while stating that in two decades as a critic, he had never felt "so totally alone."