I have never seen a Werner Herzog film so this is the perspective of one who is essentially experiencing his filmmaking for the first time. Take from that what you will. I have been aware of Herzog's work for years and have nibbled around the edges but never jumped in. I nearly rented Fitzcarraldo more than a dozen times and almost saw both Rescue Dawn and Grizzly Man in recent years. Both films sounded fascinating, as did this one. Perhaps it was the inherent bleakness of some of his work that held me back. There is bleakness in ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD but there is also a deftly humorous touch and (at times) the hand of a showman who knows how to play to an audience and ask engagingly human questions.
The scene on Saturday night was one of a packed house. This was day three of the Los Angeles Film Festival. There was an introduction by a rep from the Sierra Club. I knew that we would have global warming on the brain that night. Encounters is not about global warming per se but about Herzog's exploration of the personalities and mysteries that inhabit a science outpost at the South Pole (McMurto Station). The people who have come there are eccentrics, quite often brilliant, though sometimes a bit daffy. They are ecclectic square pegs that just wouldn't fit anywhere else. Or so Herzog would have us believe.
This film is interested in science but it is really more of an exploration of mysticism and a search for answers at the Earth's end. Herzog likes to create mini-narratives and vignettes of larger than life personalities. He will not sit still for interviewees who are full of themselves nor will he hesitate to leap in and ask engagingly silly questions. While talking to a geneticist and an arctic ice diver about the discovery of three new microscopic species found on an ocean dive Herzog blurts out, "So...is this a great moment???". His question is an attempt to seize back the narrative back from clinical professionals who damn well don't know how to tell a good story. Herzog needs for the moment (any moment) to be larger than life, proto-religious even. Filming academics and scientists must be as difficult as working with kids or animals. They just never do what you want them to do.
The South Pole is stunningly beautiful even as it begins to melt before our eyes. The people who come there seem to appreciate this drama though they are often quite stoic in how they respond to things that would vex a normal person. It is a harsh environment and the people there know how to survive. It is an odd mix of personalities. As one worker amusingly states, "Everyone not tied down, falls to the bottom of the planet." As Herzog meets them one by one he creates portraits of these people by asking them unusual questions and then letting the camera continue to run far after the question has been answered. In the spaces between the dialogue, the camera captures the essence of who they are and we laugh at them at times because they can be downright goofy. At other moments we appreciate how incredibly interesting and soulful they are, and we are grateful to have audience with them.
In the bleak shadow of global warming the appropriate balance for this film appears to be one part inquisitiveness, one part humor, and one part resignation to our own impending demise. We are the modern day dinosaurs. Herzog overtly states that most scientists here feel there is no hope for the human race. We are beginning the slow march toward the end. But it's good to know that in the shadow of our own demise we can still appreciate factiods about homosexual penguins. We can nod as we observe the thin line between the behaviors of animals and those of ourselves. We can glory in the radiance of natural light as we look up from the ocean's bottom and glare through a melting ice shield. We can appreciate the people who work in this environment. We can learn from the fact that among these blue collar workers and scientists, global warming is not "subject to further study". It is a fact. And that "factiod" is coming to get us. We had better enjoy the beauty and grandeur of these changes as they happen because otherwise, there isn't a whole lot of other pleasantness comin' our way.
I enjoyed the experience of watching this film and I genuinely get the feeling Herzog enjoyed making it as well.