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Small, Strange & Forgotten Films: Gates Of Heaven (1978)

November 15, 2010 in Film, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Trooper is the kind of dog who didn't have other dogs to relate to. He lived with adult human beings."

Errol Morris’ first great character study was his very first feature, the seriously peculiar and penetrating 1978 documentary, Gates of Heaven. The movie examines a California pet cemetery with 450 deceased residents and the many off-center human characters who have buried their beloved there.

Floyd McClure is the proprietor of the Foothill Memorial Gardens pet cemetery in San Francisco. He loved his late collie and hated the local rendering plant, so he followed his heart and built a final reward for dogs, cats, horses, hamsters, frogs, etc. While McClure has a great affection for animals, he hasn’t a great mind for numbers and is forced to sell his business to the Lamberts family, who transfer the deceased to a property in Napa. The movie is at its best once the Lamberts take over, as the father and two sons aren’t driven by love but by ambition, lessons learned from motivational speakers and familial rivalry. Interestingly, they do just as good a job for their clients as McClure did.

Against the backdrop of this transition, Morris interviews the eccentrics who have buried their loved ones with the honor that most people reserve for parents, siblings and spouses. At first these folks may seem nutty, but you gradually come to realize the important role the pets played for them, how they often filled a void that human love failed to occupy. The whole enterprise could have been a set-up to gawk and laugh at crazies and there are funny moments, but Morris ultimately has as much respect for his two-legged subjects as they have for their late, four-legged friends. (Currently on sale for $3.98 on Amazon and available for rent at Netflix and other outlets.)

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