Tim Whalen

Gangs of New York meets the Grand Tetons. It could, maybe should, have been filmed in Brooklyn. The biggest problem with the movie? Too many people. Certainly, too many eastern European peasants wandering around in their Sunday bests. Who feeds these people? If they are farmers, they've bypassed millions of square acres of the best farmland in the world. They didn't think to stop in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa . . . ??? I forgot. Was Kristofferson's middle name "wooden"? Yikes, he's bad. You can tell Cimino took to heart everything they told him was good about The Deer Hunter. Maybe they should have kept their mouths shut and let him guess. Cimino thinks he's painting some sort of colloquial Americana. He's not. Whoever wrote this thing had no idea what 1870 Wyoming was like. Had no experience with cattle or horses or even outhouses. The latter, of course, is where this film belongs. Critics had it right the first time.