1992 ‘Lektionen in Finsternis’ Directed by Werner Herzog
This film shows the disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames. In contrast to the common documentary film there are no comments and few interviews. What must have been the hell itself is presented to the viewer in such beautiful sights and beautiful music that one has to be fascinated by it.
Werner Herzog is the only living person who could say things like "the oil is treacherous because it reflects the sky; the oil is trying to disguise itself as water" and not seem like an utterly ridiculous weirdo.
The introductory Pascal quote regarding the "grandiose splendor" of humanity’s collapse is counterfeit, but the visions Werner Herzog finds to illustrate it are absolute. The apocalypse is unmistakable even if the disbanding Gulf War goes unnamed, the 13-part structure posits Ecclesiastes in the desert from the vantage of the most sublime helicopter shots ever captured. Kuwait City at dawn, "The War" (CNN views in grainy night vision), "afterwards everything was different." Space-engulfing camera sprawls contemplate, mourn, and exalt the ensuing wreckage: Craters, bones, gnarled pipelines stretched by the lenses. And oil. "The oil is treacherous, because it reflects the sky. The oil is trying to disguise itself as water." Other appearances are no less deceiving—abandoned, flat-roofed hangars resemble Aztec pyramids,…
I want my life to be narrated by Werner Herzog. Can you imagine just walking down the street?
"Kent, Ohio. A desolate wasteland of forgotten industries. The smell of burning tires runs across the city like a deer running from gunfire. A rumble of feet mirroring the great quakes of yesteryear as bodies pour into chipotle to get a buy one get one free deal."
Remarkable, hypnotic documentary by Werner Herzog ranks amongst the directors' best work.
With some of the most phenomenal aerial photography Herzog attacks the post war oil fields in Kuwait after the first Gulf War. Towering pillars of fire and smoke, lakes of muddy oil that appear as reflective as water, and giant trucks acting like modern electric dinosaurs-all take place over a vast and stretching dessert; with Herzog occasionally giving sparse and ultra poetic narration.
The film goes beyond all conventional documentary techniques and becomes a deep meditation on the conjuncture of man and nature. Herzog is not merely saying that war is bad of beautiful, but that the consequences of war can be far more devastating and long term…
I'm grateful that human beings have such vast capacities for love, because at least that can start to compensate for the destruction we wreak on the earth and on each other. In this short doc, Werner Herzog uses a handful of tools—footage (from the ground and air) of postwar Kuwait, interviews with survivors, classical music, and verses from the Book of Revelation—to detail the extreme intensity and absurd scale of that destruction. It's enervating to watch. I'm grateful that it's less than an hour long, but I know full well that had Herzog the resources and inclination, this film could move to every continent and stretch on for an eternity.
I'm an absolute sucker for helicopter shots and distant, abstract narration so this, upon rewatch, is still the perfect war movie.
Part of my FSDO challenge
( letterboxd.com/lonza/list/im-a-model-student-fsdo-challenge-2k17/ )
Week 29 - Genre - Documentary - Cinema Verite
True to the bone and impactful. At least partly. The absence of people for most part of the film didn't help in creating empathy. The shots are great but, again, partly empty. Empty of what? I think empty of pathos. I know it's a documentary, but it's not a full justification.
Haunting beyond words.
Werner Herzog should deserve a special seat in the history of cinema. He is one of the very few who is equally masterful in fiction and documentary.
Oil fields burning in Kuwait after the first Gulf War, while we learn of the terrible consequences on the environment and the locals. The silver lining being, of course, that the lesson was learned. Oh wait.
While Werner Herzog has stated that he looks at his 1992 film Lessons of Darkness as a work of science fiction, it shouldn't be discounted as a documentary either. But unlike the recent Wild Blue Yonder, where Herzog made a true science fiction documentary, this time the line is further blurred by making everything involving humans ambiguous as to their connections with their surroundings. Despite the locations being discernible as to where it's at, and the two interviews being indicative of where the people are possibly from, he keeps his 54 minute plunge into the Kuwait oil fields a primarily visual trip.
It sometimes even felt like someone had decided to do a documentary on some civilization in the future…
This is what the whole planet will look like if we don't stop fighting each other. Hell flames and black rain plague the vast desert with an otherworldly feel to the footage. Herzog gets close to the carnage and the survivors to distill the emotional wreckage of this environmental nightmare.
Hypnotic. Operatic. Apocalyptic. Gorgeous and awe-inspiring from beginning to end.
I want a little Werner Herzog doll that says, "the oil is treacherous because it reflects the sky; the oil is trying to disguise itself as water," every time I squeeze it.
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