Rating: 
Summary: Roger Ebert is wrong--What a waste of time
Review: I found Gates of Heaven to be boring. In a nutshell, the movie shows that some people love their pets more than their human relatives. This observation is not an exciting new discovery. ...
Rating: 
Summary: This is Great!
Review: I read Ebert's review before I saw the movie. Although I tend to agree with Ebert, I went into the film expecting to be let down. I watched it with my wife. After the first 15 minutes we looked at each other and sighed "boring". Then something strange happened. About 2/3ds of the way through we sat there stunned. My god, this is great!
I could personally care less about other people's pets, but that doesn't matter in this film. Somehow Morris gets all of these people to go deep. The rendering plant owner who makes a business of turning pets and farm animals into soap and glue explains his practical view of the end of life. The man who started a pet cemetery triggered by his hatred of rendering plants and his profound love of animals sounds a lot like the animal rights activists of today.
The sometimes silly but poigniant commentary of pet owners dotted throughout the documentary give glimpses of love and loss.
We were really taken with the second set of pet cemetery owners. They are pure capitalists who are successful in business because they know their customers and how to squeeze the most out of a buck. In spite of that rather stark exterior, they wonderfully round out Morris's study of human nature. They show jealousy, loneliness, joy, pride, delusion, frustration and cunning, but no apparent love.
I would recommend this film to anyone, but caution the viewer to be patient and open minded, and you will be rewarded.
Rating:
Summary: Roger Ebert is right - it IS a great movie!
Review: I read positive reviews of Gates of Heaven on Roger Ebert's website (he calls it one of the ten best movies of all time), and I got a video store copy in excellent condition from a friendly retailer on Amazon Marketplace. It really is one of the greatest movies ever made! Gates of Heaven tells the sometimes hilarious but always poignant story of a pet cemetery in Southern California which went bankrupt. As a result, 450 dead animals had to be dug up and relocated in a more prosperous cemetery, the Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park. Errol Morris interviews the people involved with the first pet cemetery, an old woman named Florence Rasmussen who compares the love given by pets with her ungrateful grandson, and the Harberts family, who own Bubbling Well. All these people have something to say about how humans attach themselves emotionally to animals, about success or failure in their careers and personal lives, and how pet animals seem to give the unconditional love all humans need, but which so few humans seem willing to give their fellow humans. Leonard Maltin described this film as "An allegory about the absurdity of American priorities." I can see what he means: Why do we spend so much money on pet food while millions of humans go hungry every day in America? Why do we eat some animals while making others our pets? Animals make great companions and can foster tremendous emotional attachment, but are they really worth the kinds of expensive funerals shown in this movie? Regardless of your feelings about animals, Gates of Heaven (unrelated to the disastrous Heaven's Gate) is the sort of movie that raises questions like those above. By all means rent or buy this movie!
Rating:
Summary: Truly Amazing
Review: If you held a gun to my head and made me name my favorite film, I'd probably pick Gates of Heaven. I've thought a great deal about what makes it so special, and maybe the fact that the answer still eludes me, that it's still a mystery, is a major reason. I know that it confirms for me why I love "absurdist" playwrites like Beckett and Pinter. Those two (and any great writer) would have been jealous of the extrodinary monologue that the old woman delivers mid-way through the film. I don't have a ton of knowledge of the documentary form, but I know that what Morris does is unique. It's as close to fiction as you can get without hiring actors. It's just a flat out beautful, poetic, hilaroius film. God bless you, California. Thanks for giving us these people. And thank you Mr. Morris for reading the newspaper. (The scenes where the elder brother is mowing the little plot shirtless intercut with his self-help spiel are classic).
Rating:
Summary: Birth of Genius
Review: In one of Errol Morris' first films, the master of interview via the interratron (unique v ideo monitor setup whereby interviewees look themselves in the eye) captures unbelievably strange, and unquestionably real moments from a wide range of people. Centering upon a pet cemetary, Morris investigates attitudes and lifestyles surrounding our relationships with animals and inevitably, each other. Best known for the pivotal film "The Thin Blue Line" which resulted in the exoneration of Texas death row in mate Randall Adams from murder charges , other equally remarkable films by Morris include "Vernon, Florida" (originally intended to be a documentary on "nubbies," or folks who commit insurance fraud via self mutilation-abandoned when crew members were nearly run down by the "king of the nubbies"), and the more recent "Fast, Cheap and out of Control." You will not go wrong viewing and supporting this truly original artist's vision.
Rating:
Summary: Masterwork
Review: This film, along with Morris' short, "Vernon Florida", and Orson Welles' "F for Fake" get my votes for the best documentaries ever made by American filmmakers. It's a shame and a sham that this film is out-of-print, let alone not the subject of a Criterion DVD. It's difficult to explain just what is so triumphant and beautiful about Morris' films, this one being his best. You could say, "Well, it's these people he finds," and you'd be right but not really hitting it on the head. He somehow does better than anyone else what you must do to create compelling "true stories" - you must get your subjects to reveal themselves completely, to speak for the camera from their heart-of-hearts. This movie is "about" people who have a passion for their pets, especially the final resting places of their pets. But Morris' camera, within that framework, records an unfolding of universal truths. You can't buy this great movie from Amazon - but your local Blockbuster probably has it. So, as soon as you can, head next door to your local independent video store and rent it. In fact, you should probably hook up a second VCR and rip it for yourself. It's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: best documentary I have seen
Review: What is most impressive about this film is that it manages to get ordinary people talking about extraordinary subjects without the speakers' ever even realizing the depths of their observations.By asking people to speak of their deceased and beloved pets, Errol Morris has coaxed out of them deeply moving reflections about heavy philosophical issues. There are few films that combine humor, sympathy, and thought in so stirring a fashion.
Rating:
Summary: Gates of Heaven
Review: You watch this documentary over and over again until finally you decide you need to write a consumer review and post it on amazon.com. Anyway. This is truly an incredible documentary. Morris' ability to sniff out the story, and the characters, reaches its pinnacle here. A wonderful, quirky story laced with some breathtakingly beautiful shots.
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