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Title: Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Werner Herzog | ... | Narrator | |
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Scott Rowland | ... | Self - Transportation Dept. |
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Stefan Pashov | ... | Self - Philosopher, Forklift Driver |
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Doug MacAyeal | ... | Self - Glaciologist (as Douglas MacAyeal) |
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Ryan Andrew Evans | ... | Self - Filmmaker, Cook (as Ryan A. Evans) |
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Kevin Emery | ... | Self - Survival School Instructor |
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Olav T. Oftedal | ... | Self - Nutritional Ecologist |
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Regina Eisert | ... | Self - Physiologist |
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David R. Pacheco Jr. | ... | Self - Journeyman Plumber |
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Samuel S. Bowser | ... | Self - Cell Biologist |
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Jan Pawlowski | ... | Self - Zoologist |
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William Jirsa | ... | Self - Linguist, Computer Expert |
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Karen Joyce | ... | Self - Traveler, Computer Expert |
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Libor Zicha | ... | Self - Utility Mechanic |
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Ashrita Furman | ... | Self - Multiple World Record Holder |
'Werner Herzog' takes his camera to Antarctica where we meet the odd men and women who have dedicated their lives to furthering the cause of science in treacherous conditions. A scientist studies neutrinos, which are everywhere, yet elusive; he likens them to spirits. A researcher's nighttime performance art includes contorting her body into a luggage bag. A survival guide teaches his students to survive white-out conditions by wearing cartoon-face buckets over their heads. Animal researchers milk mother seals as part of their study. Volcanologists offer advice on what to do when a volcano erupts. A pipefitter shows us the anomaly in his hands that he says are a sign he descended from Atzec royalty. A former Colorado banker drives what he has christened Ivan the Terra Bus. An underwater diver shows his colleagues DVDs of apocalyptic sci-fi films like Them! (1954). And -- though Herzog declares he's not "making another film about penguins" -- we meet a penguin researcher who answers ... Written by J. Spurlin
Encounters at the End of the World is a quirky and interesting film, definitely a departure from your average dry science documentary or eye-candy nature film, though it has elements of both.
It focuses predominantly on the odd collection of people drawn to live in an Antarctic research station, and to a slightly lesser degree on the oddness of the region itself, and the bizarre bits of scientific trivia that can be found there. Then there the bonus meanderings about the ultimate doom of humanity and whether we originally emerged from the sea onto land to escape the "horror" of marine ecosystems.
Many of its parts are fascinating, but for me, it didn't quite come together as a whole. It drifted in a lot of different directions, but seemed overall to be lacking in focus a bit. There were also a couple of elements that disturbed me a little - one was the inconsistency of talking about how humanity is destroying itself one moment, and then bashing "tree huggers and whale huggers" the next. I guess it's OK to notice that we're damaging the world, but not to try and do something about it? The other was that in some cases he seemed to be going out of his way to depict the people he interviewed in embarrassing ways, with things like leaving the camera lingering on them after the interview appeared to be finished, as they stood nervously, apparently trying to figure out if it was over or not.
But on the whole I would recommend it -- the flaws are offset by some impressive visuals (especially the underwater footage), dry humour, interesting ideas to ponder, and a really great soundtrack by Henry Kaiser and David Lindley, which work very well with the oddness of the content.