Land of Silence and Darkness (DVD)

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In his quest for the ecstatic truth, Herzog has always been willing to concoct (or "fake" if you prefer) scenes in his documentaries. "Land of Silence and Darkness," with its sparse narration and unobtrusive camera, seems deceptively straightforward but still contains a great deal of Herzogian invention. In the opening scenes, Fini speaks of a ski-jumper she saw as a child and how she remembers the look on his face as he soared through the air. In fact, Herzog wrote these lines (Fini never saw this; ski-jumping is Herzog´s own obsession which he explored later in his brilliant short documentary "The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner") to convey a memory of motion and beauty (an "ecstatic" moment).

At another point in the film, an intertitle appears: "When you let go of my hand, it is as if we were a thousand miles apart." Once again, this is Herzog speaking though he frames it as Fini´s thought. Critics who mistakenly consider documentary film nothing more than journalism, influenced by the grandiose reality-claims of direct cinema, would probably consider this cheating. In Herzog´s view this kind of invention, this "ecstatic truth," is truer than mere fact; perhaps even truer than Fini´s own words could ever be. For Herzog, a documentarian is a poet and an interpreter rather than a mere reporter. Critics who whine about Michael Moore´s alleged "fudges" will probably balk at Herzog´s approach to documentary. But let´s remember what Picasso said: art is the lie that makes us realize the truth.

You might be thinking this movie is more or less the documentary version of Arthur Penn´s "The Miracle Worker" (1962), but the two films bear little in common beyond subject matter. "Miracle Worker" focuses on letting us "get to know" Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan and to engage our sympathy for them, and mostly to good effect. However, like almost all of Herzog´s films, "Land of Silence and Darkness" takes minimal interest in character psychology; it doesn´t angle for in-depth understanding but settles instead for awe and admiration. "Land" is more invocation than drama and the journey of the deaf-blind is depicted as a holy pilgrimage rather than a road trip. And at the center of these solemn ceremonies stands Saint Fini, possibly the most remarkable person Werner Herzog has ever encountered in his cinematic travels; and that, dear readers, is saying a whole hell of a lot.

Video

The film is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Unlike with "Signs of Life," New Yorker hasn´t given "Land" the full treatment. The transfer is an improvement on the grainy, faded versions previously available, but the image is still too dark and soft and shows quite a few blemishes. It´s certainly watchable, and it´s the best copy I´ve seen, but a full restoration would have been greatly appreciated.

Audio

The DVD is presented in Dolby Mono. The film makes relatively sparse use of music, highly unusual for a Herzog film, and employs a very simple audio design. The sound mix is solid if unspectacular.

Extras

Nothing except for a few barely relevant essays about the deaf-blind in the liner insert.

Closing Thoughts

The documentary wars rage on today, but while Herzog was once a heretic in the land of the truth-tellers of direct cinema, his early experiments with subjectivity in so-called "non-fiction" now seem downright prescient. He was appearing on camera in his documentaries long before Michael Moore or Ross McElwee pulled off the same trick, and Moore´s fast-and-loose play with facts pales in comparison to Herzog´s wild inventions.

At the age of 63, Herzog suddenly finds himself in great demand. His new documentary "Grizzly Man" (one of the best films of 2005 so far) will open in theaters this month and play on the Discovery Channel shortly thereafter. He has two more documentaries ("The Wild Blue Yonder" and "The White Diamond") set to run on the festival circuit this year, and, in the most bizarre development, he will be directing a fiction version of his documentary "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" (1997) with Christian Bale scheduled to be his leading man. Is Werner Herzog, the Bavarian poet and mystic visionary, about to go Hollywood?

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