Encounters at the End of the World 2008
Werner Herzog’s documentary about Antarctica, he points out quickly, is not about fluffy penguins. It is not really a nature movie at all. Instead it is about the human inhabitants of the frozen continent and not in typical documentary fashion. The movie is more like they gave some guy a videocamera and he went around and talked to people on camera. So he doesn’t talk to people in charge for the most part, instead talking to the guy who drives a bus or works in a greenhouse. In other parts he does talk to some of the researchers, though you don’t necessarily find out that much about their work. When video cameras first came out my brother, who was about 13 at the time took a camera his other brother had rented and went around filming things, eventually sitting on the couch and filming a TV show that was on. Herzog does the same thing in one part, filming at least a few minutes of a horror DVD people are watching.
Herzog has a pothead philosophical nature to him and he is drawn to similar people, making you wonder just what they’re growing in that greenhouse. So there are long conversations about bizarre things that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the location. More than anything, you get to see a bunch of quirky people. If you like quirky people, you will like the movie. If you like penguins, it will probably be a disappointment. You do learn a few things about Antarctica and Herzog has an eye for the unusual that makes this anything but typical. But it can’t seem to shake the feeling of a being some guy with a video camera.
I’ll give it a B+.
Written: 04 Jan 2009