Documentary Movie Reviews

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Gates of Heaven (1978)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 11/20

11/20: Just like Vernon, Florida, Gates of Heaven features more mind-numbingly maudlin interviews with simple-minded folks.

The things they say are so obvious that I don't need to be pointed them. The documentary also has an annoying trait of going all over the map. At first, it's about the pet aftercare business; the next thing I know, there's a crackpot giving pointers about motivation. Then, I'm listening to an old lady rambling on and on about how her son took advantage of her or something.

Located in Napa, California, the Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park is going strong today. Well, that's great for the Harberts family who founded it. There are approximately 500 pet cemeteries across the nation, and the Napa park remains the largest with over 20,000 buried pets since its inception in 1971. Originally, veterinarians threw animal carcasses in dumpsters or took them to rendering factories to be converted into fat or animal feed.

Oddly, German director Werner Herzog said he would eat his own shoe if Errol Morris, then a film student at the University of California-Berkeley, completed Gates of Heaven and released it theatrically. Eventually, he did live up to his promise which was captured in a short film that's apparently called Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

All in all, Gates of Heaven is too simple and boring, and by calling it "a masterpiece...one of the top ten films of all time," Roger Ebert had no credibility to begin with.

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