Just what I expected

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This lo-fi documentary has the unusual subject of pet cemeteries. More specifically, it focuses on the cemeteries at Foothill Memorial Gardens in San Francisco and Bubbling Well Memorial Park in Napa. It's probably as famous for being the film that led German director Werner Herzog to eat his shoe at its premiere than anything else (as encouragement Herzog had stated he would eat his shoe if Errol Morris ever completed his film, he did and Herzog duly obliged). Gates of Heaven takes a slightly unusual approach to its subject in that it deals with it in a determinedly straight-faced manner despite its potential for absurdity and lets the material speak for itself. Morris does not interject, nor does he use editing techniques for cheap laughs, taking people out of context. In this way, a film such as this requires more work on the viewer's part than, for example, a documentary by Michael Moore which has a clear agenda and makes it obvious to the viewer what it demands they should be thinking. Gates of Heaven, on the other hand, just presents interview footage and allows us to form our own opinions on what we see.The subjects are the pet owners and the cemetery people. It's made up mostly of static shots of people talking. In all honesty, despite the commendable intentions, this minimalist approach to the material is a problem in that quite a lot of the interview footage is rambling and tedious. It isn't often either very enlightening, or particularly funny. The idea I think must be to take a strange scenario but to use this as a means of looking at the people involved more than anything else. The result is quite mixed, as the characters involved aren't in all honesty always especially interesting and the pet cemetery subject probably requires a more inquisitive approach in order to extract more interesting material. So, while I respect, the philosophy of Morris in this endeavour, I can't say I especially get much out of this film.

If this had been the first Errol Morris documentary I'd seen, then perhaps I would have enjoyed it much more than I did. After having seen possibly his best film, MR. DEATH (a magnificent documentary by Morris), I think my expectations for GATES OF HEAVEN were higher than what it delivered.This film is a documentary about pet cemeteries--the people who own them, run them, patronize them or who are in affiliated industries. Like other Morris documentaries I've seen, there is no narration--the people just talk and talk and talk. While this can work very well, in this documentary it created a piece with little sense of direction or purpose. Sometimes, what you saw was pretty interesting or insightful and often it just seemed like pointless rambling. I really wish Morris had taken the more poignant moments and fleshed them out some more. In particular, the rather sad old lady towards the beginning who just ranted about how her son takes advantage of her and how she's all alone--this was VERY powerful and compelling but then the scene abruptly changed--leaving me feeling rather annoyed. Another interesting person was the guy at the rendering plant. While I agreed, in part, with him and his sensibilities, he sure came off as a bit of a jerk and I wanted this to be pursued as well.Overall, this is a very hit or miss film with many dull moments--peppered by some that are actually a bit intriguing. My advice is to try some of Morris' other documentaries--with experience, they certainly got better.UPDATE: Apparently, director Werner Herzog told Morris that he'd eat his shoe if GATES OF HEAVEN ever got released. And, since it did, Les Blank made a strange little documentary in which Herzog talks (A LOT) and eats his shoe. I saw it on Turner Classic Movies recently.

This video has me half- crazed in trying to ascertain just what was the point of the whole thing. Does anyone need a movie to learn that humans have strong and sometimes bizarre pet relationships? Why mix a man"s dedication to building the best pet cemetary in the world with the tiresome motivation theory of his one son and the aimless meanderings of the other? What is the message here and why does this lame documentary deserve a cult following? Errol Morris is a favorite of mine, but this amateurish attempt of explaining death ia hardly a harbinger of his later,much greater efforts. Sorry, Ebert.

At first glance, Gates of Heaven appears to be a documentary about the lives of people that run pet cemetaries. On second glance, you realize you are witnessing a visual essay on the subject of death and dying, and how these average folk deal with it.There are esesentially three parts to the film. All deal with either the struggle to build a pet cemetery or maintaining a pet cemetery. The most interesting segment is with a family who runs a successful cemetery in the desert of California. You see generations of a family that has done nothing but run this business. They explain the philosophy behind why they choose to bury pets, and why pets deserve burial just as humans do.Morris lets the camera do all the work. With the exception of two shots every other one is static. A talking head documentary that could probably fit the definition exactly. Morris knows when exactly to inject humor into the film, just enough to keep you interested. If you saw this film nowadays, you would expect it to be on Lifetime or some other obscure cable channel. With a third glance and possibly a fourth, you can see the message Morris is trying to get across. Everyone has a way of dealing with death. It is just how you deal with it that determines how comfortable you are with it.