Lessons of Darkness (1992)

This film shows the disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames, with few interviews and no explanatory narration. Hell itself is presented in such beautiful sights and music that one has to be fascinated by it.

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writer:

Werner Herzog

Star:

Werner Herzog

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Werner Herzog	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

This film shows the disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames, with few interviews and no explanatory narration. Hell itself is presented in such beautiful sights and music that one has to be fascinated by it.

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Plot Keywords:

environmental disaster | oil field fire | combustion | heat | sealing an oil well | 

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Genres:

Documentary | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France UK Germany

Language:

German English Arabic

Release Date:

26 October 2002 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Lessons of Darkness

Filming Locations:

Kuwait

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canal+, Première, Werner Herzog Filmproduktion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

54 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Werner Herzog says he prefers to think of this as a science fiction film, not a documentary.

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Goofs

In an aerial shot, the shadow of the camera's helicopter is visible (about 10 minutes, 8 seconds into the film).

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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.

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Connections

Featured in Der letzte Dokumentarfilm (2000)

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Soundtracks

Das Rheingold, Parsifal, Götterdämmerung
Written by Richard Wagner

User Reviews

Must be seen to be believed

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.