February 29, 2012

Gates of Heaven

From my Second Ebert's Great Movies Marathon, part 7 of 15


Gates of Heaven, 1980. People talk about the pet cemetery business. Directed by Errol Morris.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad). Not that kind of movie.
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: n/a
Acting: n/a
Music: 3/4 (Good). No music, except when it's played on camera.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). No commentary, no explanations, no hint at what Morris is thinking - just People. Although it consists of almost nothing but talk about pet cemeteries, that's not what it's about. Here's what Ebert's essay has to say about one of the film's monologues: "William Faulkner or Mark Twain would have wept with joy to have created such words as fall from her mouth, as she tells the camera the story of her life. She paints the details in quick, vivid sketches and then contradicts every single thing she says."
Objective Rating (Average): 2.9/4 (Good)

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