Gates of Heaven/Vernon, Florida

Gates of Heaven/Vernon, Florida

With his trademark mixture of empathy and scrutiny, Errol Morris has changed the face of documentary filmmaking in the United States, and his career began with two remarkable tales of American eccentricity: Gates of Heaven and Vernon, Florida. The first uses two Northern California pet cemeteries as the basis for a profound and funny rumination on love, loss, and industry; the second travels to a languorous southern backwater and discovers a handful of fascinating folks there—a determined turkey hunter, a curious minister, a laconic policeman—engaged in individualistic, sometimes absurd pursuits. Morris consistently creates humane portraits of true candor, and these early works remain two of his greatest and most provocative films.

Films In This Set

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New 2K digital restorations of both films, supervised by director Errol Morris, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays
  • Two new interviews with Morris
  • Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980), a twenty-minute film by Les Blank featuring Herzog fulfilling a bet intended to inspire Morris to complete his first feature
  • Footage of Herzog professing his admiration for Gates of Heaven at the 1980 Telluride Film Festival
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Eric Hynes

New cover by Peter Mendelsund

Purchase Options

Films In This Set

Gates of Heaven/Vernon, Florida

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New 2K digital restorations of both films, supervised by director Errol Morris, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays
  • Two new interviews with Morris
  • Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980), a twenty-minute film by Les Blank featuring Herzog fulfilling a bet intended to inspire Morris to complete his first feature
  • Footage of Herzog professing his admiration for Gates of Heaven at the 1980 Telluride Film Festival
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Eric Hynes

New cover by Peter Mendelsund