Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

nickboldrini This film is worth watching purely for the climactic final battle, which is brutally shown. The build up and story are interesting, but some editing wouldn't have gone amiss.

JohnnyLee1 Magnificent production but pacing and acting are sometimes questionable. I loved the lighting and sets and recreation of 1890's Wyoming but the basic story of the two guys in love with the same girl is Paint Your Wagon without the gold or the songs! And that triangle took up too much time. The story (for it hardly has a plot) is too slight for such a lengthy movie. Sam Waterson is lost for a great chunk of it. And I cannot make out John Hurt's role. Also, it isn't based on any historical events which for me detracted from its appeal. Apparently there was no confrontation between immigrants and "stockgrowers."

adamshl It's rather a shame when the Director's explanation of his production is more engrossing than the film itself. That's what I found in listening to Michael Cimino's lecture on Criterion Collection's second disc--a 2012 216-minute "final cut" of this historical epic. The film has obviously been doctored up on Blu Ray: Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond's work is now clean, scrubbed and brilliant. Gone is the dull haze and smokey pale that reportedly annoyed early critics. In fact, frame for frame this is a marvelous looking film.However, that alone does not make a complete art work. Coming to the piece cold with no preparation, I simply could not invest myself in the characters or their plight. Not even the opening graduation exercise and ensuing grand waltz particularly captured me. As the film unfolded, I found it difficult to clearly understand what the conflict was really about. By the time I did the movie was well half over. Then, after all the blood and gore action, I finally learned the story of this series of range conflicts in Johnson County, Wyoming was fictionalized!I also learned President Benjamin Harrison did not support either the land barons or the European immigrants, rather he sent in troops to quell the general conflict. Therefore much of the gross brutality in Cimino's work is pure fiction. That revelation to me does not argue well for the late, admittedly talented and committed, director.The performances throughout are all very professional as is the editing.

sol- Learning of a plot to slaughter immigrants, a Wyoming sheriff takes action in this sprawling western from Michael Cimino. The film boasts detailed period sets, mobile camera-work from Vilmos Zsigmond and a talented ensemble cast, and yet it is easy to see why this was a commercial flop. For all the extra character detail that we get due to the enormous length and leisurely pace, there is little tension and sense of imminent danger. Kris Kristofferson has some great moments early on as he reacts in horror to Sam Waterston's speeches about killing immigrants, but his disgust is often sidelined as the movie progresses. He has time to romance brothel ladies and roller-skate without any urgency to stopping the planned slaughter and the characters outside of Kristofferson are dull. John Hurt has some solid moments as a college chum whose idealism has turned to cynicism as an adult, but the rest of the cast feel wasted. The film has some great touches for sure, and with a slowed The Blue Danube Waltz sublimely appearing on the soundtrack near the end plus several detailed battle scenes, the film is not an entire waste. This is, however, a movie for which its checkered history is more fascinating than the films itself, with the bloated near four-hour final product the direct result of Cimino being given carte blanche after winning two Oscars for 'The Deer Hunter' two years earlier.