Heaven's Gate: O Culto dos Cultos

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?

Dark and shocking. An eye opening look at one of the strangest UFO cults from back in the days. Worth watching. And you can not say that for most things coming from HBO right now.

The documentary is well made. Lots of original material, interviews with ex members. No annoying voice-over or anything like that. Its really masterfully edited in order to be able to tell the story in such an authentic way. Also nice it caputures the time period contect of the story. Its a period of over 20 years so its interesting to see other things going on that might have inspired or influenced the cult. What I find lacking is that it tries to hard to explain what happens to much from the perspective from the cult members. They do have some outside experts on cults and psychology and all that but what happened is only discussed very broadly, about general techniques used by cults to "brainwash" people. What is unique about this cult is that it started quite large but over the course of those 20 years more and more left, only leaving the people that, well to be frank, apparantly were not 100% there.

What I kept thinking when watching all the cult members performing some acts: These people are obviously completely insane. Not only because of the eventual suicide but also with other things, like performing dangerous surgery in the form of castration on their own members. And of course literally looking at Star Trek for inspiration. I thought the moment that they returned a fancy telescope to the store because they thought it was broken, they couldnt see the UFO through it. Very telling... I had the idea if I was watching a documentary of the local psych ward instead of a cult at times. Usually there is at least some form of coercion by the cult leadership through hierarchy or some other method. People are prevented to leave by threats or something. Nothing like that here, they even all went to Seaworld just before it ended.

Especially because the group was never violent in any way, or tried to hide what they thought, you really got to wonder why these people were never helped. Everybody seems to have been thinking: Oh well, if thats what they want? Or that is was sort of funny to watch these idiots make a spectacle out of themselves. Anyway, the second half of the final episode is quite interesting as it shows all the reactions the event got. But for the most part during the 4 hours I was thinking: Im not watching a documentary about a cult, Im watching home videos of people suffering from mental illness in desperate need of help.

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.