Filmmaker: Werner Herzog

[tallchris]

If you can listen to the former Death Captain dude talk about his experience and still support the death penalty. . .I dunno man.

Out of all of the testimonies recorded in the film, this was easily the most emotionally powerful. The damage he endures is a good enough reason why there shouldn't be a death penalty. In a sense, he's the last person anyone would think of.

Exactly.

Damn, starting to think about his interview again. . .

[same]

Ya kidding? Not Crap!

nah, i wasn't kidding. i know people, filmies, who like herzog himself, what he stands for (?) but not his films. from what i've seen and read i like him and his films.

I think I may have the inverse feelings about Herzog. Dude seems like kind of a megalomaniac*, although the same could probably be said about most great auteurs.

He does have a handful of shit films (Fata Morgana, Cobra Verde, and Nosferatu are all pretty borderline, if not downright bad. Bad Lieutenant was a pile of shit.), but overall I love his work. I love his recurring themes on the harshness and brutality of nature that are always present in both his docs and his narrative films. He does great interviews on camera. He often asks extremely insightful questions and then follows them up with some hilarious, if totally uninformed, stoner shit. I love it, but it's sometimes frustrating because you want to actually learn something about the subject, not just laugh.


*He's constantly on camera in his docs. Does all the narration (which is usually great), and is always just flat out telling the audience about his personal opinions on the subjects he's documenting. It's like, he's less concerned with showing you something interesting and letting you ponder it for yourself, than he is with cramming his own ethos down your throat. He's like Michael Moore, if Michael Moore made good, interesting films.

[Angus Jung]

He does have a handful of shit films (Fata Morgana, Cobra Verde, and Nosferatu are all pretty borderline, if not downright bad. Bad Lieutenant was a pile of shit.)

The first 3 you mentioned are very-good-to-great. Haven't seen Bad Lieutenant.

*He's constantly on camera in his docs.

This is a more recent development. In his earlier documentaries he is not on camera, though he does provide narration for most of them.

Basically, his career changed after "Grizzly Man." He seems to have taken "Grizzly Man's" popular success (relative to his other films) to heart. I see, in much of his post-"Grizzly" work, evidence that he's become very much aware that people are interested in his eccentric persona, and he seems to be deliberately playing it up. I think it's been to the detriment of a lot of his recent work, though I haven't seen "Into The Abyss."

I thought both "Encounters At The End Of The World" and "Cave Of Forgotten Dreams" (sounds so much like a Choose Your Own Adventure book title) were really good, but that's about it in terms of his more recent work.

[Angus Jung]

A few years back (before "Grizzly Man" came out) I got to see a film screening (of "Wild Blue Yonder," a terrible movie) and live Q and A session with Herzog in San Francisco.

I forget the wording of the question that he was asked, but at one point he answered an audience question by saying, "I'm going to die pretty soon, and there is a bunch of shit that I want to get done before then. So I'm going to try my best to get all this shit done, even if I have to cut corners on certain aspects of it." That's something I've kept in mind ever since.

[same]

He does have a handful of shit films (Fata Morgana, Cobra Verde, and Nosferatu are all pretty borderline, if not downright bad. Bad Lieutenant was a pile of shit.)

The first 3 you mentioned are very-good-to-great. Haven't seen Bad Lieutenant.

*He's constantly on camera in his docs.

This is a more recent development. In his earlier documentaries he is not on camera, though he does provide narration for most of them.

He's in a lot of the early stuff too. He's all over the place in La Soufrière. And you get a lot of behind-the-head interview shots on stuff like ..Sculptor Steiner et al.

As for those first 3 films I mentioned, I feel they all suffer from being rather campy and dated. They all ride the line between good and bad. And Fata Morgana just seems like some stoned hippies riding around the desert shooting things they think look cool and playing their favorite Strawbs songs over top of it. The whole "filming mirages" thesis is tenuous at best.

I thought both "Encounters At The End Of The World" and "Cave Of Forgotten Dreams" (sounds so much like a Choose Your Own Adventure book title) were really good, but that's about it in terms of his more recent work.

Yeah, those are two of the best films of the past 5 years that I've seen. Absolutely astounding, mostly because of the subjects, but he really digs up some gems. And the scoring choices are great, as usual.

[tallchris]

Same and Angus Jung, I'd be really curious what you guys think of "Into the Abyss", since it's pretty different then a lot of his recent documentary work.

[Cranius]

Cave of Forgotten of Dreams is as good as any of his documentaries so far, full of wonder. Look out for the bit where an expert on neolithic culture plays the 'Star Spangled Banner' on a flute made from the radius of a vulture. Simply otherworldly.

[same]

Same and Angus Jung, I'd be really curious what you guys think of "Into the Abyss", since it's pretty different then a lot of his recent documentary work.

Missed it in theaters. Didn't avoid it, just been cinematicly lethargic the past year. I'll make a point to watch it it this week.

[Rodabod]

I watched Fitzcarraldo the other night. Totally mental. Really enjoyed it.

[same]

I watched Fitzcarraldo the other night. Totally mental. Really enjoyed it.

The story of that film's production is better than the film's plot.

[P.J. Craven]

Not as good as some of his other docs, but Into The Abyss is still outstanding.

[kerble]

dude is pissed at his cleaning lady:
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/we ... ning-lady/

[Ptommydski]

That's a very good parody letter. Had me in stitches. Love ST.

[P.J. Craven]

dude is pissed at his cleaning lady:
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/we ... ning-lady/

Calls to mind Encounters at the End of the World. Which is another pretty great doc, regardless of some of its overblown narration.

[Dr. Ew]

That's a very good parody letter. Had me in stitches. Love ST.

Written by my friend Dale SHAW, who some folks might remember as the singer for BLOOD SAUSAGE.

[Angus Jung]

That's a very good parody letter. Had me in stitches. Love ST.

Written by my friend Dale SHAW, who some folks might remember as the singer for BLOOD SAUSAGE.

Tell your friend I appreciated the Brad Dourif name-check.

[Marsupialized]

If you can listen to the former Death Captain dude talk about his experience and still support the death penalty. . .I dunno man.

It is not that I support the death penalty, it is that I support the family members getting whatever closure they want/need to be able to move on with their life. Personally I want the criminals in extreme cases to suffer as much as possible, and I think that is life with no parole. Death is a quick, easy way out and I think these types do not deserve that. People who are not murderers are forced to trudge through life, even when stricken with terrible diseases or what have you, why should these criminals not be forced to as well?

The way I see it, the woman said it made her feel better, was a weight lifted and she can now live a little bit easier. Good enough for me. These assholes stumbled in and destroyed her family, she did nothing wrong. The criminals in this case are slime through and through and do not warrant any kind of consideration whatsoever. Kill them, throw them in jail, whatever. Killing those pieces of garbage who would do nothing in this world but continually hurt and take from others, not any sort of loss. They knew damn well that Texas executes people like it's going out of style, they killed people and now they deal with the consequences of their actions and decisions, that's their bag of dicks to hold, nobody else's.

My focus is on the survivors, what would make them feel better? Want them in jail? Want them dead? What do you want?
The Captain, whatever, he had a job and sometimes elements of a job fuck with you. he quit when it got to be too much. That's life.

Great flick, we sat up talking about it for an hour.

[givemenoughrope]

If some thug kills someone in my family, I'll ask that he be sentenced to a sex change and to do nails in Madrid for just above minimum wage for years before being "accidentally" stabbed in the heart by his/her best friend's jealous lover. I'll sentence him to an Amoldovar film. But then I want to watch it, so Herzog can make a documentary about it. Then, I'll feel better.

great idea, sup.

[krs]

If you can listen to the former Death Captain dude talk about his experience and still support the death penalty. . .I dunno man.

It is not that I support the death penalty, it is that I support the family members getting whatever closure they want/need to be able to move on with their life. Personally I want the criminals in extreme cases to suffer as much as possible, and I think that is life with no parole. Death is a quick, easy way out and I think these types do not deserve that. People who are not murderers are forced to trudge through life, even when stricken with terrible diseases or what have you, why should these criminals not be forced to as well?

The way I see it, the woman said it made her feel better, was a weight lifted and she can now live a little bit easier. Good enough for me. These assholes stumbled in and destroyed her family, she did nothing wrong. The criminals in this case are slime through and through and do not warrant any kind of consideration whatsoever. Kill them, throw them in jail, whatever. Killing those pieces of garbage who would do nothing in this world but continually hurt and take from others, not any sort of loss. They knew damn well that Texas executes people like it's going out of style, they killed people and now they deal with the consequences of their actions and decisions, that's their bag of dicks to hold, nobody else's.

My focus is on the survivors, what would make them feel better? Want them in jail? Want them dead? What do you want?
The Captain, whatever, he had a job and sometimes elements of a job fuck with you. he quit when it got to be too much. That's life.

Great flick, we sat up talking about it for an hour.

In theory, our system of justice is not supposed to be based on revenge, which is what you are talking about here. The damage inflicted on the soul of a society by it's embrace of death penalties, and the lack of respect for life that goes along with it, far outweighs any benefit a victim might receive through the satisfaction of revenge killing. This lack of respect for life ripples out and effects all facets of daily life.

[Marsupialized]

If that's how you wanna see it, fine.
Me? I don't give a fuck what they do to them, grind them up into sausage for all I give a shit. Let the family torture and beat them to death with hammers if that is what they want, I have no problem whatsoever with that. Not my concern, that is between the family and the criminal and the court and the voters of each state. If Texas wants to allow that, and if the people of Texas want to allow that, go crazy. If other places want to outlaw the death penalty, go crazy. Makes no difference to me, I don't care about murdering criminals and aside from hoping they are never released to commit more crimes, don't give a shit what happens to them once they are ensnared in the legal system due to their own misdeeds and stupidity. I want the survivors to get whatever they need to help them move on, sometimes that is watching the person who killed their mother die, I am not going to say they are wrong for needing or wanting that and I know damn well it's no big loss to humanity to have one less piece of shit inmate laying in a cell somewhere, makes no difference whatsoever.