Let me get the fanboy shit out first: This is easily one of the best box sets I will ever own. Finally a huge collection of the legendary director’s work, whose behind-the-scenes stories make any American director’s complaints about filming seem like a kid whining about recess. Since his first short film, the now-minor Herakles (1962), Herzog has thrown himself into film philosophically, and literally to making images, with a career filmography not of blockbusters and stars but of compelling stories and outsiders as heroes.
Werner Herzog is one of the few filmmakers in history to have made consistently great films across different formats – films from 10 minutes to over 2 hours, in both fiction and documentary. Maybe only fellow countryman Wim Wenders is close in scope, while Martin Scorsese has made a small handful of docs, and pure documentary filmmakers, like the innovative Errol Morris, have not had success with narrative features.
The box set has six discs with various languages and subtitles. What makes this truly significant is how hard these films have been to see outside of film festivals and the odd retrospective series. Even with the popularity of Herzog’s narrative features (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo), only one in this box had a wide DVD release – the poetic landscape portrait of the Kuwaiti oil fires, Lessons of Darkness, previously found with a second disc of the rare Fata Morgana. Wodaabe: Herdsman of the Sun has been long out of print on VHS and Land of Silence and Darkness only recently came out on DVD, under the radar of the press. The rest are rare to impossible to find until now, with four shorts available on a disc from England, and the lucid doc about Herzog himself, I Am My Films, previously getting tossed around on a bootleg vhs made from a 16mm print somewhere in the world.
What is apparent in this collection is Herzog’s enduring knack for telling a unique, true story. Yes, you can go on Google and find an interesting subject no one has heard of. But a group of people who are both blind and deaf and still communicate with others? A woman who survived a plane crash and then two weeks alone in a jungle? A tribe in the Sahara who consider themselves the world’s most beautiful people? A “documentary” on mirages? Herzog knows a good story.
Then examine the way certain subjects are handled by Herzog. This is his genius. A doc on auctioneers – as a new language. The story of a ski jumper shot in super-super-slow motion, with Herzog talking about him like he was saving the world from killer meteorites. And you believe he could.
Or the deceptively simple Lessons of Darkness. Sure the landscape shots of the Kuwaiti oil fires are stunning. But Herzog’s narration (available in both English and German) and his filming style breaks the situation doooooown. The landscape is described not as Earth but as “a planet in our solar system.” The firemen putting out the fires are studied as madmen on the loose.
Or combine these two facets of the Werner with the short doc La Soufriere. Herzog heard about a volcano island about to explode. In the island’s only city, it was reported that a single man refused to leave. Herzog HAD to go to this island to find the man. He took two cameramen and went to the city, where even the snakes had deserted. He found both the man and a creepy city that existed only then, only there.
The set is not a complete collection of the man’s work. That would be too mammoth. But with many of his recent titles becoming available – The White Diamond is a great, already-neglected film – the Herzog shelf at the video store is getting closer to perfect.
Herzog himself would shy away from the hyperbole. In interviews he insists he is just a man telling stories and feels his audience shares the dreams he has. It’s just that Herzog is a lot better at illustrating those dreams than the rest of us.
Look - this review is obviously for people who are only slightly aware of Herzog, who have seen only Grizzly Man. Anyone that knows of Herzog is already out the door: “Herzog box what? Oh fuck – I’m there.”
4 COMMENTS ON “Werner Herzog’s Box Set of Documentaries and Shorts”
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This past weekend I saw 3 Herzog documentaries at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. These were compelling enough to make this box set interesting. My only concern (besides the price, which is outrageous) is image quality. The doc on the ski jumper was particularly bad: if transferred to DVD as I saw it, this would be by far the worst DVD transfer in existence. The other two films were acceptable-to-excellent. Lessons of Darkness was stunning. I’d very much appreciate your comment on image quality in this DVD box set. Thanks.
I threw the DVDs in again to check the quality. WOODCARVER looks and sounds great. Whatever print they used was clean, no scratches or faded colors. That said, understand that it represents the original film stock used, in full 70s color, more muted than today’s pseudo-vibrant HD shooting. It looks beautiful — pure. Sound is clean as well. Subtitles are new and come from the DVD, not the print, and are white with a black outline on each letter, perfect. The film after that, DARK GLOW OF THE MOUNTAINS, also looks and sounds great. It has an English narrator over German dialogue. Rumor has it that Herzog likes English narration better for some of his docs than strict subtitles.
On disc one I checked Herzog’s very first film, the short HERAKLES, a strange predecessor to “An Inconvenient Truth” as if edited by Bruce Conner, with powerlifters presented with 20th century Herculean challenges. It has some scratches but its in really good shape, again with new video subtitles. Some of the other shorts on the same disc, also very rare, have minor scratches at the beginning but stop soon after. THE FLYING DOCTORS OF EAST AFRICA looks amazing with some Technicolor-looking moments. And if you know German, you can watch the German language version sans narration or subs.
I also checked I AM MY FILMS, a feature doc about Herzog that I previously saw a bootleg VHS of that was 100th generation. Here it is back to normal, some dark shots but they look correct, on the fly with no lighting. Set up interviews with proper lighting looking good and clear. Although its disturbing to see Herzog without a moustache, like Superman without the cape.
Other spot checks looked real good. Obviously the newer films look wonderful. I think its safe to say this collection represents the best quality of these films, especially when dealing with the rarity of some titles.
Incidentally, after starting WOODCARVER I totally forgot what I was looking for because the film is so dam good. Those slow motion shots?!? The insight into true human flight? Herzog wearing a Dallas Cowboys jacket? Killer.
And I have to disagree about the cost. $40 a disc is not worse than any special edition disc and if you buy the set it averages only $32 each. That is a deal for films that are guaranteed incredible, many impossible to find, and the money goes to the filmmaker (I am assuming from his website). Buy it now.
-Plante
Will these discs play in standard US DVD players?
Thanks Mike.
yep! Region 0, the way all things should be.