Heavens Gate

The inside story of how the opening scenes of a famous Hollywood epic, Heaven's Gate, were filmed in Oxford in April 1980 - a blockbuster movie that notoriously helped bring about the demise of the studio United Artists. The Diary's author, Vivian Ridler (internationally renowned as the great Oxford University Printer 1958-78), was a gifted filmmaker himself, and provides unique technical insights as he plays the role of a supposed 'Harvard Elder' - even being singled out for one scene by the director Michael Cimino (Oscar-winner for The Deer Hunter). Key Oxford landmarks are used in the film: Tom Tower, Queen's Lane, Catte Street, and especially the Sheldonian (where a 'Harvard graduation ceremony' is taking place) and Mansfield College (where a dance sequence in the quad is filmed dramatically from above - captured in this highly illustrated book by a two-page colour photo, complemented by Vivian's two-page overhead plan showing where all the cameras were positioned). And in the Diary, Vivian chats to actor John Hurt (starring in the movie alongside Kris Kristofferson) in The White Hart pub. Supplemented by a full account of the making of the rest of the movie in the Rocky Mountains, together with critical reaction on its release, plus descriptions of all six of Cimino's other movies, this is the first illustrated book about an iconic Hollywood director contemporary with Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg.