Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer review
A missed opportunity. This mildly informative and mildly entertaining documentary feels like a disappointment given its subject matter.
The approach is generic. A lineup of celebrity talking heads adds little depth, their contributions are superficial. Herzog’s wife and brother offer some interesting insights, Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson are amusing, Carl Weathers embodies the typical American pop-culture fan, referring to Herzog as a “badass” and comparing him to Darth Vader. Most contributions are reduced to one or two lines of platitudes praising Herzog’s work.
There are some attempts at style: images of building demolition played in reverse to give the illusion of reconstruction, this is of minimal visual interest and fails to communicate anything about the subject matter. The only aesthetic strength comes from the numerous excerpts taken from Herzog’s films, but these are excessive, along with other clips of career highlights, from eating his shoe to his unfazed reaction at being shot at by an air rifle during an interview. The emphasis on Herzog’s apparent eccentricity or ‘madness’, which he himself has always rejected, is uninspired. The many anecdotes and famous excerpts from his films, such as the depressed penguin or the tantrums of Klaus Kinski, play like a ‘greatest hits of Herzog’. Anyone who has ever searched “Werner Herzog” into YouTube is already all too familiar with these scenes.
There are occasionally interesting insights into film history in Germany, but they fail to go beyond the surface level. The narrative feels unfocused, moving between film history, celebrity interviews and new footage of Herzog interacting with aspiring young filmmakers. There are missed opportunities to discuss the ethics of Herzog’s filmmaking, such as his collaborations with Bruno S. a mentally handicapped actor, whose two films with Herzog are passed by, as are his interactions with native communities he worked with on “Aguirre, the Wrath of God”, “Fitzcarraldo” and others. Nor is Herzog challenged to provide deeper insights into his aesthetic approach to filmmaking and his notions of ‘ecstatic truth’. Although not one to intellectualise his work, it would have been interesting to hear Herzog discuss his attitudes towards Realism and Cinéma vérité.
The filmmakers fail to meaningfully engage with Herzog; there is a sense of detachment and lack of introspection from the filmmaker, who has confessed that self-reflection isn’t really his thing. He resorts to re-telling the same anecdotes he has told countless times in countless interviews. Evidently, Herzog’s demeanour has softened in his old age, made all the more apparent when we cut from the present day to an excerpt of his vigorous younger self in Les Blank’s “Burden of Dreams”.
Too much time is spent on Herzog’s relation with America — the apparent target audience. It is cringe-worthy to watch American talk-show hosts and their audiences giggling at the eccentric man with a funny accent as he recounts his tales. Considering the richness of his filmography, Herzog deserves better than to be reduced to an American pop-culture figure, whose films are known more for the adverse conditions in which they were made rather than the quality of their images and stories. However, it is difficult to deny that Herzog has brought this upon himself to some extent: he lives in Los Angeles and embraces the strangeness of (some of ) its subcultures, he also regularly appears in Hollywood films and television productions, as well as promoting his work in the American media. Perhaps he doesn’t believe any of this will negatively impact his legacy, after all, he insists that his books will outlast his films. Whether this is a reflection on the perceived quality of his writing compared to his filmmaking or a comment on the nature of civilisation, it’s hard to say. In any case, having read Herzog’s books, I don’t share his opinion — my enjoyment of them notwithstanding.
The documentary could serve as an introduction to Herzog’s work for newcomers, but it fails to capture the essence of his artistic vision and philosophy. The lack of deeper exploration results in a hagiographic portrayal, made for Herzog’s legacy rather than offering insight into his life and work. The best way to discover him remains watching his films and reading his books.