Deranged Penguins and other Encounters at the End of the World

Werner Herzog - the filmmaker whose documentary ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD – just received an Academy Award nomination – once made good on his promise to eat a shoe (yes EAT A SHOE) as a motivation ploy for fellow filmmaker Errol Morris. It worked, Morris’ classic GATES OF HEAVEN was completed and released, and made the name of it’s now legendary filmmaker.

This anecdote should tell anyone, whether their familiar with his work or no, that Herzog is wackier than your average bear (his last film was GRIZZLY MAN, get it? Get it? heeehehhheeee :-)), and - btw - no less effective.

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD chronicles Herzog’s trip to the South Pole. He makes it clear from the get-go that this is no travelogue, no NOVA episode, and no romantic mediation on the demands of life as a cute penguin. His explorations have the same wanderlust as its subjects, whose reasons for being at the South Pole count as many as there are inhabitants of this unfriendly terrain. Herzog avoids entirely the “checklist of important facts” approach of so many television science docs, instead asking the kinds of random questions which beset any curious mind in a bizarre environ. Nor does he over-sentimentalize. Herzog’s voice sways from so many extremes that he could seem scattered. He could, that is, if these switches didn’t ultimately create a strange kind of balance. Just when you think Herzog is getting uncomfortably pretentious, he undercuts himself with self-aware humor. Just when he’s exploring the banal disappointments inherent in any visit to an exotic locale, he side swipes you with images full of true wonder. And where the film finds its most haunting resonance, in: the futility of nature, the isolation of the truly unique, the delay of science, the potential of extinction, etc. Herzog is savvy enough – and generous enough as a filmmaker - to refrain from stating those themes too explicitly. Instead, Herzog invites the most powerful ideas swim through the audience’s thoughts like the deep sea divers under the world’s icebergs, who inspired his adventure in the first place...