Well, if like me, you'd find a McDonald's commercial narrated by Werner Herzog somewhat fascinating, then you might as well see this.
I should have a long time ago, the film is nearly 25 years old...
To me it is almost like a found footage film, with the narration on top taking some otherwordly images and pushing them a bit further out of the grasp of the gravity of our mundane existence. I expect for some moments in your past you've felt like "A Man Who Fell to Earth" before or at least been a "Brother From Another Planet" I feel like Herzog turns that trick here on his viewers.
Even looking at daily life with an overdose of introspection, some of what we see every day can become strange and alien. Moreso for the rare view of what happened in Kuwait after more of mankind's failures aka war.
So the story and titled chapters not quite fitting with the images, but offering something quasi-plausible allowed at least my mind to wander into these semi sci-fi scenes. But it is a trap....as amidst the make-believe movie we do then meet some undeniably real people, still reeling from the war.
We may want to dismiss this all as foreign and as remote as a Star Wars saga, but we hear from two women, the latter one with her mute child. That encounter, where Herzog no longer spins a tale but lets the woman tell her story is striking. Her tragedy dismisses the cinematic fantasy and burns as hot as any of the lit oil gushers.
It's a small but simple contrast but it sure worked for me. It helped make sure I appreciated the craft of the film, but did not merely "enjoy" the veneer of the film, its searing images and soaring soundtrack.
25 years later, I wonder about that young boy; how and who he is now. I also wonder to a lesser degree about those shots of some workers re-igniting the oil wells after working so hard to put them out, that was such a symbolic shot, if not lesson, in the darkness. Apologies to future children of flame wars...
I should have a long time ago, the film is nearly 25 years old...
To me it is almost like a found footage film, with the narration on top taking some otherwordly images and pushing them a bit further out of the grasp of the gravity of our mundane existence. I expect for some moments in your past you've felt like "A Man Who Fell to Earth" before or at least been a "Brother From Another Planet" I feel like Herzog turns that trick here on his viewers.
Even looking at daily life with an overdose of introspection, some of what we see every day can become strange and alien. Moreso for the rare view of what happened in Kuwait after more of mankind's failures aka war.
So the story and titled chapters not quite fitting with the images, but offering something quasi-plausible allowed at least my mind to wander into these semi sci-fi scenes. But it is a trap....as amidst the make-believe movie we do then meet some undeniably real people, still reeling from the war.
We may want to dismiss this all as foreign and as remote as a Star Wars saga, but we hear from two women, the latter one with her mute child. That encounter, where Herzog no longer spins a tale but lets the woman tell her story is striking. Her tragedy dismisses the cinematic fantasy and burns as hot as any of the lit oil gushers.
It's a small but simple contrast but it sure worked for me. It helped make sure I appreciated the craft of the film, but did not merely "enjoy" the veneer of the film, its searing images and soaring soundtrack.
25 years later, I wonder about that young boy; how and who he is now. I also wonder to a lesser degree about those shots of some workers re-igniting the oil wells after working so hard to put them out, that was such a symbolic shot, if not lesson, in the darkness. Apologies to future children of flame wars...