Heaven's Gate

I really wanted to like this. I really did. Unfortunately, it was a boring and tedious 4 hours of attempting to make associations between Christianity, science fiction and cultism to explain this mass suicide. This series would have been greatly improved by delving into the mental illness aspect of the two leaders as well as the members. The series gave this group of lost souls a flowery lens, instead of really looking into the grifting, child abandonment and other reprhensible behavior this group of folks participated in. This would have been an amazing opportunity to shed light on the the types of personalities that are at risk to be swallowed up by psycopathic charismatic leaders. This series almost felt like it was making an excuse for the outcome, when it could have really used the platform to shed light on the ugly truth of the matter mental illness and at-risk populations.

I must say this doc is slow to the point, but it offers a truly inside look at this, almost entirely from first hand accounts. The music was great, with a great score, and soundtrack with some unexpected tunes from bands you know. One thing that this doc did right was the fact that they never broke the aspect ratio, as in they kept everything in 16:9 or relative, instead of going full Wes Anderson with the true aspect ratios of the different sets of film used over the years. In other words, they never broke the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. This detail might not seem important, but it helped maintain the immersion and once I noticed I couldn't help but appreciate the tricks they used to make it work. Great editing, and a film that takes its time. It lets most of the anecdotes breathe and be felt with proper impact, and it did not feel like they were manipulating the testimonies for any sort of rhetoric or agenda, other than to take a very deep inside look into the strange minds of men.

I was basically unfamiliar with the factual story behind this, and the apparently disrespectful approach taken by the media at the time. This documentary series had an amazing tone--one of respect. The series did not start by passing judgment through assuming an easy conclusion about the events. Instead, the series set out the "backstory" of Do and Ti and what they were looking for, and how they planned to accomplish their dream. The viewer was left to make an independent conclusion as to whether the basis for this was religion, science fiction, fantasy, mental illness or malice. I detected no tone (or desire) in the film makers to laugh, sneer or feel superior.

Speaking only for myself by the end of the series, I found myself saddened by the non-arrival of what the group (won't call them a cult) had been waiting for. An absolutely remarkable series.

While they have many sources to interview, they fail to illuminate any of the interesting parts in the story of heavens gate. Nothing about day to day cult life, nothing about the teachings beyond the wikipedia introduction segment level, there is barely any backstory. Watched 2 episodes and learned nothing about heavens gate or cults in general. Dont watch this, do something fun instead or read the whole wikipedia page and learn more in less time...

Such strange priorities by the production company to give you zero, just constant babbling about nothing related to cults or heavens gate or the life in the cult.

Also bewildering chronology, who was in the cult when?

Heavens Gate has been a subject i've always been extremely interested in. I've even written school papers on them. That being said, there are major misconceptions about this "cult", and this documentary series is one of the best things to watch to get information about Heavens Gate that doesn't come off too one-sided or misconstrued. So little is known about this cult, its origin, its teachings, it's difficult and confusing innards, and it's oddballed participants and leaders, but this documentary series does a really good job explaining all of its extremely interesting inner workings, how the cult changes over time, and how it ultimately ended. Heavens Gate is a really sad, mysterious, odd and even charming story as a whole, and this series really bundles it up nicely.

Definitely recommend this to anybody who's interested in cults, religion, or even aliens / ufos.