Lessons of Darkness

Name: Lektionen in Finsternis
Genre: Documentary, War
Released: 2002-10-26
Duration: 54 min
Rating: 8
Cast: Werner Herzog

Original title: Lektionen in Finsternis

TV Movie
1992
Not Rated
54m

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

6.3K

YOUR RATING

Documentary War

This film surveys the disaster of the Kuwaiti oil fields in flames, with little narration and scarcely any interviews. Hell on Earth is presented in such transcendent visions and music that ... Read allThis film surveys the disaster of the Kuwaiti oil fields in flames, with little narration and scarcely any interviews. Hell on Earth is presented in such transcendent visions and music that one can only be fascinated by it.This film surveys the disaster of the Kuwaiti oil fields in flames, with little narration and scarcely any interviews. Hell on Earth is presented in such transcendent visions and music that one can only be fascinated by it.

See production, box office & company info

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

6.3K

YOUR RATING

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Photos13

Trivia
Director Werner Herzog cheerfully admitted that the quote at the beginning of the film, allegedly by Pascal, was completely made up and falsely attributed to give it more weight.

Quotes
Narrator: Two figures are approaching an oil well. One of them holds a lighted torch. What are they up to? Are they going to rekindle the blaze? Is life without fire become unbearable for them?... Others, seized by madness, follow suit. Now they are content. Now there is something to extinguish again.

Connections
Featured in Zomergasten: Episode #7.3 (1994)

Soundtracks
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 (Death of Aase)
Written by Edvard Grieg

User reviews36

Review

Featured review

War speaks for itself

Gorgeous and moving. Nominated for a 1992 Academy Award for Best Documentary, this film stands back and lets the subject tell the story. There is little dialog, little is added to the footage from the director - the images and sparse interviews themselves are dramatic enough, and then some. The viewer is left to his or her own thoughts on the subject of world-scale war and its aftermath, inspiring a very personal and often spiritual experience. What Herzog did add frames the subject with appropriate intensity and awe, without becoming grandiose.

I did not find the film to be especially "arty" or inaccessible, though an impatient frame of mind (not to mention a dependence on heavy-handed narrative) has lead to frustration and misunderstanding for some viewers.

If you are interested in this subject matter, I would recommend "Fires of Kuwait", an IMAX film available on video (for sale). More astonishing footage, and the fascinating story of the firefighting teams that extinguished all 607 of the oil wells ignited by the retreating Iraqi troops.

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