I’ve been think about Gates of Heaven ever since I watched it yesterday. I really think I need to see it again. I think there were a lot of subtle things that the film was trying to accomplish and show that I missed. I wish I knew more about documentaries. I wonder why they chose certain settings and decided to shoot people from certain angles. In one scene, there is a man sitting on the couch and the camera seems to be much lower then it is for any other individual. Also, the man who had the collie that died, that was handicapped (please forgive my inability to remember names), was never shown in the wheelchair except from behind and only once. When the other people were talking about the fact that he had a physical handicap so it made it difficult to bury the animals, I had not idea what they were talking about. I thought it was an interesting choice. I didn’t develop sympathy for him because of his physical ailment then.
I think my favorite part of the film came near the end. The son who used to be an insurance agent was sitting behind a desk with all his trophies, and plaques and this was contrasted with his father, who was sitting behind his desk with only two items on it (the one had some sort of animal carved on it) and behind him it was black and simple. The son started talking more about himself and the father kept on track talking about the cemetery. I liked this because I thought it was a subtle thing that influenced how I was feeling about the brother. I was annoyed that I was looking through and around all the clutter on his desk. I was distracted by all the things going on around him.