Viewed in
2010
Formats
Netflix HD streaming (Xbox 360)
Premise
Werner Herzog visits the Antarctic.
Liked
The amusing characters.
Hated
The score
Thoughts
That was pretty interesting.
While Herzog intended to document the frozen continent, he discovered that the people who inhabit the bases were just as fascinating as the landscape itself. Pretty much everyone there was quirky with unique stories to tell. Apparently, it takes a certain mentality to want to work in such a desolate location.
I was enlightened to see that Antarctica was more than ice and penguins, as the film captured its different environments, natural and man-made. The scenery at the bases were interesting, not just because of the eclectic collection of employees, but also because of all the different experiments that were happening. If you have seen enough shows about this place, most of the nature footage would not be anything new, but the accumulation did paint a clear picture of what Antarctica's surprising diversity. My favorite scenes were the frozen towers of steam spiking out the sides of an active volcano.
While Herzog was never onscreen, he was as much character in this film with his meandering narration. Sometimes he went on some random diatribe, completely irrelevant to what I was looking at. His stream-of-conscious manner of describing his subjects were hilarious, especially when he got impatient with how his subjects were telling their own stories.
I could not put my finger on it, but I found the score to be incredibly annoying. Perhaps the music choices were trying too hard to manipulate the footage to greater heights?
Overall, I enjoyed this documentary thanks to some cool footage, but mostly thanks to unexpectedly interesting characters.
What I would change
Chose more subtle background music.
