ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"We flew into the unknown, a seemingly endless voyage," intones Werner
Herzog, the richly melodious narrator of ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE
WORLD.
This famous do***entarian was off to visit Antarctica, but he was
vociferously not going there, he said, to make some penguin movie. (Don't
believe this entirely, however, since some of the movie's best and
funniest
moments come when it starts considering unusual penguin behavior.)
The maker of GRIZZLY MAN, a creepy do***entary about grizzly bear activist
Timothy Treadwell, and of FITZCARRALDO, a do***entary about a man trying
to
build an opera house deep in the Peruvian jungle, Herzog is known for
making
fascinating and risky films. His latest, ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE
WORLD, is about the people who work at the McMurdo research station in
Antarctica. Almost like junkies, a rag-tag group of individuals come for
several months every year to live there. Many of them abandon families
and
good jobs and do anything from plumbing to bus driving to be part of the
action there. He likes to refer to them as "professional dreamers."
Most of McMurdo's inhabitants are world travelers, mainly to dangerous
third-world countries, and they have lots of bizarre stories to share with
Herzog, who manages to bring out the quirkiness in everyone he interviews.
Herzog proves pretty weird himself. In a typical musing, he wonders why
chimpanzees couldn't just ride off into sunset on goats, since they are
inferior animals, much like the cowboys rode their horses in the Old West.
When Herzog first sees McMurdo, he is shocked. He tells us that this town
of one thousand hearty souls looks like an ugly mining town, and it does.
As big construction equipment and humongous buses go everywhere, the
setting
is anything but pristine. Venturing just a little ways away from base,
however, one goes to a stunningly beautiful piece of the planet. One of
the
many intriguing trips Herzog takes while there is to follow what might be
called ice cave spelunking.
The movie is the best when it is the funniest. In its penguin section,
Herzog inquires about gay penguins, prostitute penguins and deranged
penguins. The stories these off-the-wall questions generate are
hilarious.
Another funny bit occurs in survival school, a mandatory two-day class in
how to handle everything from a burning vehicle to white-out conditions.
Participants are made to wear buckets -- with funny faces painted on them
--
over their heads, as they have to negotiate their way blind through the
snow
and ice. Their antics, as they flounder around, prove to be pure Keystone
Cops silliness.
Much of the movie occurs underwater, as we follow the divers below the
ice.
Without tethers or comp*****, which don't work that near to the South
Pole,
the divers face dangerous conditions. They must always be aware of the
location of the hole in the ice from which they entered.
A gorgeous film, it's funny, wacky and consistently entertaining. It's
also
nothing like any other travel film you've ever seen before.
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD runs 1:39. It is rated G for would be
acceptable for all ages.
The film opens in limited release in the United States on Friday, June 27,
2008. The movie was shown recently at the Camera Cinema Club
(http://www.cameracinemas.com)
of Campbell and San Jose. Henry Kaiser,
the
film's producer, underwater cameraman and composer, was there for some
fascinating Q&A.
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