Today’s scene that I love comes from Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate.

You know what?  I’ve read that some people consider this scene with the skating fiddler to be an example of Cimino’s tendency towards self-indulgence.  The oft-made claim is that it’s a scene where Cimino is more interested in showing off than moving the story forward.  That may be true but still, I don’t care what anyone says, I like this scene.  It captures the communal joy of the settlers before the arrival of the mercenaries who have been hired to force them out of their homes.  To understand why the settlers fight, you also have to understand what they’re being expected to give up.