I respect Werner Herzog, the director of this movie. I have seen a few of his other movies, and for the most part I like them. In this documentary he tackles a sort of strange subject: Antarctica.
We follow Herzog through the continent of ice as he meets the people who call it home, even if temporarily. Roughly 1000 people are there at any given time. We follow the history of trying to conquer the harsh extremes of the place from when they first landed there 100 years ago through now. Even though today we can handle it much better with technology our bodies are still the same as they were 100 years ago. It is obviously a very dangerous place, temperatures at times 70 below, or more, pure white out conditions, a very scary scenario.
The people there are very diverse and interesting. The shots are gorgeous, from volcanoes with open magma lakes sitting in them to the ocean frozen 8 feet thick you see how the place is not some stagnant frozen waste land but an organic being just like any other part of earth. Herzog briefly goes on a tangent about insanity down there, specifically among penguins who go the wrong way, away from the ocean, thus committing suicide by being forced into the elements. I wish he would have explored that more. Can you imagine a place where if you fall down and die your body will remain like that....forever? It wont rot.
My only problem with it, and Ive noticed this in other Herzog documentaries is that he seems to have a contempt against people or things that is entirely unfounded. Or he passes judgement on people for no reason. That aside it is a beautiful film, and an interesting and alternative look at the icy mystery of Antarctica. 8/10 stars.
Director/Narrator: Werner Herzog
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