Jessica Danko

It would be a huge feat to improve on the film ‘Lust for Life’ starring Kirk Douglas, as this film was made with great understanding, sympathetic portrayal, great effort at accuracy, and brilliant actors. We are taken through the whole of Van Gogh’s story. On the other hand, ‘At Eternity’s Gate’ is full of artistic license and adds to the picture or portrayal of Vincent as a lunatic pervert. There are certain lines in this film which were never written by Van Gogh in his letters. The ending of the film was based on a conjecture formulated by the two writers who wrote ‘Jackson Pollock - an American Saga’ and recently a biography on Vincent. A review of the said book, said, you cannot understand how such a selfish, horrible, egotistical person could produce a single beautiful painting. The modern way of finding out about Vincent is through his actual published letters, and not focussing on the myth of the madman who cut off his ear. This film unfortunately perpetuates the myth. However Dafoe and Isaac were well cast and did a great job in a poor film.