Director: Werner Herzog
All the Herzog films I've seen have generally been about the individual's struggle against society. Antarctica is therefore the perfect place for him to film - there is a 'society' there at the McMurdo base, filled with souls who've fled normal life, and then there's the vast wilderness that surrounds. Herzog not only manages to film the beauty and strangeness of Antarctica's natural wonders, but he's also able to get some insight into what kind of people decide to come here. In doing so, he asks much larger questions about the animal kingdom, human civilization, and humankind's place in societies and on the planet.
One thing Herzog does in this film that he also did in Grizzly Man is that he either dupes a subject, or finds an unwitting one - he puts a moment in the film where it appears as though the subject thinks the camera is off. This makes the person appear quite awkward and bizarre. It's rather unfair of him to do this, but I can guarantee that Herzog does not care.
I just watched this a couple of weeks ago, and thought it was excellent. The penguin walking the wrong way was almost too perfect.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that penguin was like the subject of every Herzog film I'd ever seen.
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