Werner Herzog

  • I saw Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn last night -- based on Dieter Dengler's (played by Christian Bale) escape from a Laotian prison camp -- and thought it was a pretty good war prison break film. Jeremy Davies plays Eugene DeBruin, a Charlie Manson-like co-POW who threatens to interfere with the plan. While reading about the movie online afterward, I learned that his character was based on a real person who stayed behind to help a sick fellow prisoner, and was never heard from again. His brother runs Rescue Dawn: The Truth, a website that criticizes DeBruin's portrayal. It made me feel a little guilty about enjoying the film. (2) #
    12/18/2007
  • Wired on Werner Herzog's 53rd film in 44 years, The Wild Blue Yonder, an odd-sounding sci-fi film using NASA footage for space explorers and documentary footage of Antarctic jellyfish for aliens on an exotic planet.
    “The film ends our illusions about intergalactic travel,” Herzog says bluntly. “We will not do it. We cannot manage it. It’s just too far.”
    Also check out the recent New Yorker profile on him, which describes the fustration of his first studio-funded American crew with his capricious directorial style. (17) #
    7/7/2006
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