I had planned to watch GATES OF HEAVEN and VERNON, VL since I have had the dual Criterion DVD for sometime. This was on the GATES OF HEAVEN DVD. It was something I had been aware of since college, but never actually watched, so I thought, “Why the hell not!”. It acts as a really great preamble into GATES OF HEAVEN. I love how serious Herzog takes the whole thing while preparing to cook it. It adds a whole other reality to the piece. I also haven’t seen Werner Herzog this young. He looks a little like Donald Sutherland in ANIMAL HOUSE (or maybe that is because of the jacket he wears and his mustache). He is a great man in terms of inspiring people; caring enough to try to help Morris get started and then get the film more recognition by doing this on stage and making it a film. The short film acts as such a fantastic conclusion to the Herzog/Morris/GATES OF HEAVEN story. It is also the best example of “putting your money where your mouth,” Les Blank also did a great job on the edit when this could have been 8 minutes of Herzog just eating a shoe. I loved the comparisons and the use of shots from Charlie Chaplin’s THE GOLD RUSH.
