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18 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Must be seen to be believed, 30 April 2002
9/10
Author: David Cavallo (dcavallo@nyc.rr.com) from New York, NY

Herzog has been making brilliant films since the late '60s, and frankly it's a bit of a pain in the arse keeping up with such a prolific director.

However, if you are a fan of his features and staggering documentary work, "Lessons of/in Darkness" demands your immediate attention.

The film is essentially a birds-eye view (often quite literally) of the plague of oil-choked death, fire, chaos and destruction that resulted from the brief but grotesquely internecine technological blitzkrieg of the Gulf War. Herzog, of course, takes particular interest in the seeming madness of the crews of mercernary American firefighters that are putting out the oil well fires across the deserts.

Various points on the conflict and its aftermath inevitably bubble to the surface, but arise without overt proselytizing. The images do the majority of the talking.

And they are eye-popping. Startling, frightening visuals that stand out even in the Herzog canon -- great vistas of blackness and glowing terror that would make any sci-fi director soylent green with envy. They are accompanied by little else: brief interstitials, an almost nonexistent, terribly serious Herzog narrative and a ghostly and elegiac score.

The short interviews with individuals who suffered are heartbreaking, perhaps all the more so due to their brevity.

See this.

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13 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Herzog's apocalyptic vision of Kuwait is grand and memorable, 15 September 2000
9/10
Author: FilmFlaneur from London

Herzog's grandiose manner, sense of the operatic, and true historical events come together awe-inspiringly in this apocalyptic vision of oil fires and destruction left in the wake of the Gulf War.

If ever a man was fitted to undertake the portrayal of destruction on such a grand scale, then Herzog is he. It would be interesting to know whether this documentary was a commission or Hertzog directed this film on a personal, artistic basis. Whatever the reason for its production, Lessons of Darkness (it's English title) is a stunning piece of work. The Kuwaiti landscape is presented in sweeping, wide angle shots making it look like the surface of an alien planet rather than the Middle East. Huge oil fires, the cratered burnt desert, dark oil spills, crumpled and abandoned machinery and war vehicles, appear in surreal and awesome parade which both take the viewer's breath away in their beauty and shock through the utter devastation.

A central section, in which quiet footsteps walk alongside a ghastly display of torture implements, provides a shocking contrast to the images that open the film. Here the impact is smaller, more intimate but as moving.

In the third and last part of the film, firefighters attempt to douse the oil blazes, their hoses and equipment rearing up and out in the smoke and sunshine, shining like monsters in the alien landscape.

The sonorous music of Wagner perfectly complements a vision which is an entirely characteristic, memorable addition to Herzog's oeuvre.

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14 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
atmospheric magic, 26 June 2000
Author: Kalle Ryan from New York City

I was lucky enough to catch a one-off showing of this at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and it completely floored me. Although not for everyone (as with all Herzog films), he gives us a present day apocalyptic vision, infused with biblical and mythical power that ranks as highly as any of his feature film efforts. Herzog's lush visuals reach a new peak (in particular the aerial footage), as they are accompanied by incredibly fitting music and narration. This film is as close as cinema comes to painting. If you get a chance to see this, then do not hesitate. Prepare yourself for a rush.

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13 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Like a nightmare realized, 2 March 2000
10/10
Author: sgtslut from California, U.S.

Lessons of darkness is one of the most captivating, hypnotic experiences I have ever witnessed. I felt like I was in a strange nightmare and in an alien world. The film is almost purely visual; it is breathtakingly shot. It feels more like science fiction than most sci-fi films ever made. Absolutely haunting.

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9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Mission Accomplished, 30 December 2005
10/10
Author: terry nienhuis (nienhuis@wcu.edu) from Cullowhee, N.C.

Lessons of Darkness (1992) looks and acts like a companion piece to Fata Morgana (1971). As with the earlier film, Lessons either captures viewers or leaves them confused and bored within the first few minutes. Early in Lessons we see an aerial shot of an unusual city. It is obviously a contemporary urban area because we see highways, traffic, stoplights, and large buildings, but it is also obvious that it is not an American city. The narrator (Herzog) announces that this city is about to be destroyed by war and the thought of this strange but vibrant place being destroyed becomes completely repugnant. Thus, Herzog succeeds here with the approach he initially planned and then abandoned in Fata Morgana. Lessons of Darkness triumphs as a mock Science Fiction story of an apocalypse that threatens all of civilization. Luckily, it doesn't take a college education to realize that the footage is shot in Iraq in the aftermath of the First Gulf War. Luckily as well, Herzog's anti-war statement does not need to be explicit to be effective. Early in the film, interviews with two Iraqi women suggest the human price of this military event. In the rest of the film, humans appear to be on the periphery of the "action" but they keep coming back to the center of our consciousness. Those who persist in their viewing will eventually encounter a chilling repetitiveness in this film (the fires are still burning!) However, that repetitiveness can become cumulative and mesmerizing. This is not a film experience for everyone, but for those who have a taste for it the film will be unforgettable.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
...captured the abominable and made it beautiful, 28 October 1999
9/10
Author: Andrew Djaballah from Montreal, Canada

Herzog has worked a masterpiece here...

In a similar endeavor to Aguirre, Fata Morgana and Nosferatu, Herzog has captured the grotesque absurdity of contemporary man and made it beautiful. He has begun creating the images essential to man's survival - those necessary for man to escape the inarticulacy in face of our modern times. The images in this film are not about war nor the atrocities of war. They are rather offering man - who is void of adequate images - a set of images with which he may begin to understand. To understand the complexities and the fundamental basis of these complexities for which at present, his language is fundamentally insufficient.

Chapeau Werner!

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
of another world, 11 September 2000
9/10
Author: hhargreaves from Christchurch, New Zealand

There is a sense with this documentary, that the middle east is part of another world altogether. It opens with a fly over of Kuwait pre-war, looking like a place far removed from this world, with its quasi-religious skyscrapers welcoming the camera as it comes over the port. Satellites are shown post-war, blown apart in a tangled mass resembling a fallen space station. Echoing a sci-fi, but with a ghostlike feeling only reality can achieve. The images are reinforced by some of the most moving music ever composed. Herzog struggles with a large lump in his throat, to clarify the situation with infrequent narration. The situation speaks for itself, no words are necessary, the images and the music combine to get as close to representing the unrepresentable as possible. I recommend Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (1983) to fellow admires of this film, and it's message.

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8 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Wow, baby such lovely and disastrous pictures - unforgettable, 11 October 2000
10/10
Author: (larskjelras@hotmail.com) from Copenhagen, Denmark

Herzog is such a darling bringing all his weirdness and filmmaking skills into a special little masterpiece like this one. Small details like a little flame in the middle of gigantic cloud of black smoke or making a bulldozer beautiful is captured and it is wonderful.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A pure masterpiece, unsurpassed in its visual power..., 8 April 2007
10/10
Author: The Great Cornholio from Berlin, Germany

This is less a documentary than it is a work of art. Herzog presents a visual symphony comparable to the grandeur of Dante.

The cinematography of this movie is a constant presence of beauty and terror, heart-throbbing and breathtaking, still always far from pathos. Inspiring and touching throughout its full length, Herzog demonstrates the power of pictures, the essence of film or photography as a medium separate from logical understanding.

There is no storyline to this motion picture since it defines itself as such, - not as a visual derogative of verbal expression but as a free form of expression displayed in sensuous, demanding and touching PICTURES!

This movie is a must for any photographer or person involved in visual arts, I have seldom encountered such a sincere and demanding work of cinematography.

In a frenzy of subjectivity this flick deserves a full 10 out of 10, I am ready to die now, thank you...

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Apocalypse Right Now (Spoiler: War is Gruesome), 3 November 1999
10/10
Author: batzi8m1 from Watsonville, California

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This ranks as one of the few documentaries, along with Littlest Soldier, where his politics and German Guilt are most direct. Usually he limits himself to studies of character, individuals. This one is about the character of modern warfare and brings up memories of The Doors' When the Music's Over, and reference to Apocalypse Now. Herzog flies in a helicopter, through oil fires, playing Wagner, and reading from the Apocalypse. This is a filmaker's documentary of life imitating art imitating life. Even if you don't think real images of scenes usually reserved for horror movies are moving, the photography of the colors of the sun through the smoke and fire is stunning. And those who think it's politics are one sided should note the equally graphic details of the results of both sides' work. For those that don't remember, there was a little action in the Persian Gulf in 1991.

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