Encounters at the End of the World (Blu-ray)

This is truly a disappointing film. I had lot of expectations from this one. unfortunately, herzog came across as pretentious. The documentary showed lot of promise in the begining by showing the residents of Antartica. In the end, the documentary ended up as a science project. Altough Herzog swayed away from the topic of the global warming, he still made sure that it is important to talk about the deep sea creatures and the risks associated with diving in the deep for research. I would have loved to see Herzog spend more time with residents and talks more about their motives. I know it will be boring but heck this not a work of fiction. 6/10.

Really? We were entranced when we watched last weekend. I like to define Encounters as part Planet Earth and part 60 Minutes. Quite gorgeous, too, I thought. And that was DVD, but BD.

Jason

jason,

yes it is quite gorgeous but the documentary did nothing new.

If you're looking for "motivation" you definitely want to look somewhere other than Herzog.

And it's certainly a work of fiction, as are all of Herzog's docs.

i don't get why you say it is a work of fiction? yes he can represent the facts however he want but he is still telling the truth on what deep sea divers do as part of their research.

He makes up parts of it, though this is one of the docs where he uses a little less fabrication presumably because the material is sublime enough for his taste as is. It's never clear which parts of his docs Herzog makes up, but there are suspicious moments. I am certain the man who talks about "the lines" intersecting in Antarctica was coached by Herzog since H has used that language elsewhere, and the same for the guy who supposedly keeps a backpack ready to go at any time which is just like Deiter Dengler (which was, I think, also a made up detail.) And the part with them putting their ear to the ice is taken right out of another of his docs.

The basic gist is mostly true, of course, but Herzog is still stitching into his grander narrative that he's been building since the 60s though I have to admit he seems to be paying much more attention to specifics (i.e. people) these days than abstractions.

Thanks Chris for clarification. this helps !

ranjan,

as has been seen elsewhere, documentarians frequently stage or re-enact moments so that they can get better framing or exactly what they want to show (i.e. they can edit a 30-minute conversation down to just 5 minutes). therefore, documentaries really aren't as "factual" as some people characterize them. maybe chris can e-mail you a copy of his master's thesis, which is partly about how herzog blurs the lines between fiction and fact.