I am guilty of being a complete movie snob. Sami says that I won't see a movie unless Ebert, or someone of his ilk gives it four stars. There may be more than a sliver of truth to my frustratingly intelligent wife's theory.
My problem is that I cannot stand anything that doesn't feel real. Tons of chase scenes, shootouts and car explosions? Sorry, not for me. Romantic comedy? I don't think it works that way (Seriously, I can count on one hand the number of rom-coms worth re-watching. Maybe "When Harry Met Sally." My number one most hated movie is "Maid in Manhattan). Fantasy? Please revisit the first sentence of this paragraph.
Not surprisingly, I was tempted to watch "Gates of Heaven" after seeing that some obscure group had christened it "The Greatest Documentary of All-Time." Actually, to back up even further, sometime last winter one of the eight or so Korean channels that we get had a weekend-long foreign film/documentary marathon. One of the movies I saw was Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, The Wrath of God." I have always wanted to see this classic, but unfortunately, only Korean subtitles were added to the German dialogue. Afterward, they played a short documentary titled: "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe." This was made as a follow up to a comment to Errol Morris, director of "Gates of Heaven". Mr. Herzog told Mr. Morris that if he ever completed "Gates of Heaven," he would eat his shoe. Both followed through.
"Gates of Heaven" is about two pet cemeteries in California. One is a success, the other not so much. Sounds about as exciting as vacuuming right?
What makes this movie my new favorite isn't necessarily the subject matter, but rather how the story so completely personifies America and the people who inhabit the greatest country in the world. Closing in on nearly a year overseas, I drank this movie like medicine for a homesickened soul.
First off, the movie proves (especially in the case of the failed cemetery) that people in the U.S. have an undeniable urge to do good in the world. After years working for a non-profit, raising money for kids and adults with neuromuscular diseases, I am a true believer. There was not one day during my time at MDA, where I failed to interact with someone who chose to give either money or time, simply because they felt it was the right thing to do.
However, doing good is never as easy as it should be, and good intentions are difficult to maintain in the face of capitalism and beaurocracy. One current example that I keep coming back to is the appalling lack of a memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 nearly a decade later.
Conversely, the second half of the movie focuses on the more successful pet cemetery, which embodies what many would consider the American Dream- start with an idea and grow it to grand and intricate levels bigger than you initially conceived. In so doing, you can provide for your family, turn your life's work over to them, expand and establish your legacy.
Of course, I am not much of a social thinker, and I do my best to avoid any and all political discussion. What I am interested in is human interaction and how bizarre we all are in our own way. One of the things I miss most about the U.S. is the way certain people talk. In Korea, all conversation is one thousand miles-per-hour and completely monotone. I once had a Korean teacher tell me that she loves learning and listening to English because it sounds like we are singing. I appreciate the slow drawl of the characters filmed in "Gates of Heaven" because I am a bit of a slow talker myself and like to take a second or two to understand what is spoken to me before I respond. It is engrossing to hear what people have to say with a camera left filming them, instead of being stopped and asked another question. There is one scene of a local elderly woman who starts out talking about the mishap of the pet cemetery her pup was laid down in and finishes on an improvised tirade about her dead beat son and his "tramp" of an ex-wife. It is priceless.
"Gates of Heaven" was filmed in the late 70's. I don't think a documentary will ever come close to resembling it again. So called "regular people" act differently now with a camera pointed at them. They either speak with no filter, in an attempt to gain fame and notoriety (we the YouTube generation), or are so skeptical of being exploited that they hide behind "no comment" or prepared talking points as a way to protect themselves (or the company they work for) and remain politically correct (thank you 60 Minutes).
One of my favorite characters in the film is the head of a rendering company who admits to lying to the media when asked about receiving an elephant from a local zoo. Could you imagine the fallout from any admitted lie from a corporation today? The times, they have a' changed.
The movie also deals with such universal themes as death, of course, as well as companionship. You might watch the film and be intrigued in an entirely different direction than I was.
In one of the most poignant scenes near the end of the movie, one dog owner asks "After all there's your dog, and he's dead. But where is the thing that made it move?"
It is a question that I like to ask twenty minutes into every movie I watch. "What is the point? What makes it real? Where is the thing that makes it move?"
Sorry, "Maid in Manhattan," I don't know the answer. With "Gates of Heaven," I do.
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