The Wild Blue Yonder

Most of the reviews of this movie on here are negative. I can TOTALLY see where they are coming from, but it seems that everyone else's LEAST favorite parts are what transfixed me. Yes, some of the astronauts-in-space shots went on a bit long, but the music is so beautiful. The opera, tribal music, and string instruments used throughout the film, to me anyway, illustrated the beauty contained in the unknown and unknowable. The shots under the "frozen sky" really DO look like an alien landscape. They are beautifully shot, and bring with them a feeling of both freedom and claustrophobia. And Brad Dourif's voice, his eyes, they make him a more convincing alien that ANY million-dollar sci-fi blockbuster. Just a man kicking dirt at the side of the road, so upset as his (and OUR) failings. If you have PATIENCE, try this movie.

We are by now quite commonly aware of the various statistics illustrating our remoteness from our nearest supposedly 'habitable' planet, that even Alpha Centauri, a very close neighbour, is some 3 light years off and many hundreds of years travelling at conventional means (that would be our fastest rocket propulsion in a vacuum, and a slingshot trajectory). But there was something about Herzog's description of this fact, spoken directly into the camera by a suitably intense Brad Dourif (though this is Brad's forte), that hit home, that filled me with that sense of wonder, that was also also tinged with dread. Perhaps it was the context, Herzog's narrative about alien travellers having many generations ago escaped their distant and dying world to eventually arrive here on Earth, attempt to colonise and then witness generations later, humanity's own attempts to escape the dying Earth and seek out a barely habitable world across space.

There is a primary loneliness in this concept, especially so in the human's arrival at that very same long-abandoned world, deciding to cope as best as they can with the liquid-helium atmosphere. Nothing like earth but then nothing else like Earth was anywhere discovered.

This feast of philosophical posers is coloured with actual Nasa on-board shuttle footage, that, although initially falls short of complementing the science-fantasies of the narration, does eventually blend successfully. And by the time this is settled the viewer is already drawn in. The thoughts and visions being presented us, the zero-g astronauts and ice-divers floating to the semi-atonal wailing in Ernst Reijseger's soundtrack, have put us in a place of submission and meditation rare for cinema. It would be interesting to know whether Herzog created this story line around the Nasa footage or the inverse. For by the end of the film, everything is convincing.

A very unusual cine-poem that will stand up to repeat viewing. For i know each time i will come away with the feeling i have been infused with some ethereal wisdom.

g

I just saw this film at the L.A. Film Fest and I was intrigued by the idea. Brad Dourif was the perfect choice for the alien role and even though I do not believe this film will be embraced by mainstream American film goers, I think this is one of the most beautifully photographed films in some time, which of course is a tribute to a master filmmaker like Werner Herzog. Herzog is definitely one of the most talented directors in the world who hasn't really found a niche in America, which is a real shame. This is a great film which I don't think any other filmmaker could have made so beautiful, comical, and overall enjoyable.

I respect Herzog and like how he goes in strange directions, but with that sometimes he wanders down the wrong path, or maybe wrong isn't the word. He sometimes wanders down a boring path. Somehow Herzog got his hands on some space footage and some antarctic underwater footage and thought he could compose that into a sci fi movie.

This is of course a visually distinctive journey and a must for all die hard Herzog fans, but I felt it was a bit too strange and far out. Brad Dourif plays an alien on earth who says he sucks at what he does or something along those lines, which is kind of funny.

Maybe you have to be in the right atmosphere to enjoy this journey, but if you are only going to see one Herzog film, don't make it this one.

Well, you know you make friends and any good friend you don't abandon, no matter what.

We get old, things change. We relax into what we still imagine is risky adventure. And in friends we don't point out the reality that what might have been important then, isn't now.

Herzog is a friend, a good one. I've trusted him in the past and when he's let me down it has been honorably. So I'll come to anything he makes, even though I know sometimes I'll have to make excuses for him.

And that's what I have to do here, apologize, justify.

When Herzog approaches a project, you can see that it has only one conceptual thrust. Just one. That's been fine for me because he takes that one idea — whatever it is — to such extremes with such honesty and commitment it blossoms into levels that resonate.

The idea here is similar to one he has explored before: the images don't matter, anything can be used, even stock images. The story doesn't matter at all; any tripe can suffice, the more generic the better. There need be no point, no message, no root into your soul, or the group soul.

All we need is aeolian sound, edited in a way that corresponds in an obvious way with splashes of color. Its the rhythm of the thing, established aurally and only then visually, with the visual pace lagging. Its a way of letting us know that anyone who does this can impart religion of any content.

Throughout is a supposedly wised up guy constantly reminding us that he could have told us so.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.