Gates of Heaven

1978

Action / Documentary

1
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 81% · 20 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 81% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 6604 6.6K

pet pet cemetery napa valley

Plot summary

A documentary about a pet cemetery in California, and the people who have pets buried there.

Director

Errol Morris Photo
Errol Morris

Top cast

Ed Quye Photo
Ed Quye as Self
Mike Koewler Photo
Mike Koewler as Self
Floyd McClure Photo
Floyd McClure as Self
Scottie Harberts Photo
Scottie Harberts as Self
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
761.6 MB
1280*960
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 23 min
Seeds 1
1.38 GB
1440*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 23 min
Seeds 15

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by faarupj-1 8 / 10

Interesting look into death and dying.

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.
Reviewed by enmussak 8 / 10

Who's Afraid of Roger Ebert?

Ebert put this film on his top 10 films of all time list. Now for this film to be up there with Citizen Kane and The Third Man, I was expecting to be thrown from my seat... that didn't happen. I don't know how to rate this film. All throughout the doc, I didn't know what to make of it. The people were strangely saying very, very profound things, but I had to try hard to discard their appearance and mannerisms. I have a fear that the antics of Christopher Guest among others mocking simple people puts this film as a disadvantage. Halfway though I asked myself "Is this a comedy that I'm just not getting?" It had a Guffman air to it, which is to simply let the people talk and expect you to laugh. But is wasn't. I listened extra hard and started to see that it clearly did not show any comedic elements, but I still didn't know what to make of it. This film requires multiple viewings, but I don't really wanna see it again.Ebert is right, this film is about much, much, much more than a Pet Cemetary. However, it is no where near one of the 10 greatest films of all time. Ebert must have lost a lot or pets or have a fixation on that movie theater in the sky.
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