Heaven's Gate

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.

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 thoroughly enjoyed this podcast. So I was thinking how could this be better ? Well, the images and interviews for one. What is remarkable about some of the reviews is that there are people who rate this low because they immediately claim that they could never fall for something like this , well anyone can tell you that these reviewers are actually the most vulnerable since certainty breeds deception. The timing of this amidst the NXIVM drama unfolding may take away from the fact that these very real and profound events took place years before and have little to nothing to do with the type of bs peddled in NXIVM. Now It's helpful that more of these stories are coming to light now and while we can hope that time and education will help us or our loved ones from making the same mistakes some things can not be avoided as we quest for righteousness acceptance and love in this life. Those of us who remember the events leading up to this as it unfolded finally get an in-depth retelling of events.

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 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.