Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writer:

Werner Herzog (written by)

Release Date:

17 October 2008 (Spain)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Filmmaker Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica to capture its landscape's rarely seen beauty on film.

Plot Keywords:

Penguin | Antarctica | Mountain | Hand | Bucket

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 nominations

Cast

David Ainley	...	Marine Ecologist
Samuel S. Bowser	...	Cell Biologist
Regina Eisert	...	Physiologist
Kevin Emery	...	McMurdo Station Survival School Instructor
Ryan Andrew Evans	...	McMurdo Station Cook
Ashrita Furman	...	Multiple World Record Holder
Peter Gorham	...	Physicist - University of Hawaii
Werner Herzog	...	Narrator
William Jirsa	...	McMurdo Station Linguist - Computer Expert
Karen Joyce	...	Computer Expert
Doug MacAyeal	...	McMurdo Station Glaciologist (as Douglas MacAyeal)
William McIntosh	...	Volcanologist - Geochronologist
Olav T. Oftedal	...	Nutritional Ecologist
Clive Oppenheimer	...	Volcanologist
David R. Pacheco Jr.	...	McMurdo Journeyman Plumber
Stefan Pashov	...	McMurdo Station Forklift Driver
Jan Pawlowski	...	Zoologist
Scott Rowland	...	McMurdo Station Transportation Dept
Libor Zicha	...	McMurdo Station Utility Mechanic

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:G | Canada:G (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario/Québec) | Netherlands:6 | Singapore:G

Filming Locations:

Antarctica

Company:

Discovery Films

Quotes:

Narrator: The National Science Foundation invited me even though I made it clear I would not be making another movie about penguins.

Movie Connections:

Features Them! (1954)

Soundtrack:

Il Est Digne en Verite

Psychotic Penguins And Other Stories

Werner Herzog makes Anartica, strange, magical, hypnotic, and relevant, mostly without the use of penguins(who are apparently at turns insane and suicidal prostitutes and swingers).

Some of the images were very familiar to his earlier "Wild Blue Yonder", but the narrative, holds together much stronger here.

Eccentric scientists, and travelers from all over the world, discussing the foundations of evolution, the invisible energies that permeate the cosmos, the constant shift of water and energy just beneath the surface of the ice, they also play guitar and wander around with boxes on their heads.

It's not so much a documentary about "Antartica", the geographical location, but about Antartica as an idea, an image, the people who go there, and why, a little of everything or anything that's is interesting. Though Herzog in voice over gives us a few pet peeves, and doesn't mind talking about not liking a person or place, just as much as finding one interesting, it can get a bit distracting, even annoying...but mostly it's kinda funny, and can break up some of the slower moments.

My favorite Herzog quote is "Documentaries are as close to truth as glaciers are to farting", here, staged as it may or may not be, you can still smell the ice, and it's stinks brilliantly.