Werner Herzog

I've been meaning to do a Werner Herzog post for a while, as I recently bought Aguirre: the Wrath of God, Fitzcaralo, and Burden of Dreams. Well, OnionAV just did an interview with him about his new movie, so I reckon that's a good enough impetus.

Aguirre begins with a 5 minute shot of andean indians and 15th century spaniards snaking down switchbacks from the Andes to the upper Amazon. It's unbelievably beautiful. The trailer has quite a bit of footage in it, moreso than usual, so you get a feel for what the movie looks like. The movie is generally about surviving in the wild, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Fitzcaraldo is about a man who comes late to the rubber plantation boom in Brasil and decides to claim a piece of property that is inaccessible. The major part of the movie is about hauling his 350 ton steamship over a hill to get into an adjacent river valley where the property is. The movie is generally about surviving in the wild, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Burden of Dreams is a criterion release, a making of Fitzcaraldo. It's great, and there are lots of extras. Grizzly Man is about the unhinged guy from socal who 'lived' with Grizzly bears in Alaska for something like 13 summers in a row, until they ate him and his girlfriend. It's riveting. The movie is generally about surviving in the wild, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Rescue Dawn is about POWs in Vietnam who escape their prison camp and trek out to safety. I liked it, but not as much as the others I've seen.

Update:
Bob Edwards Weekend had a nice interview with him on Nov. 28.