Yes. Herzog’s documentaries are usually not really about what they’re about.
What struck me was how the scientists felt we are in the middle of the fifth extinction and yet they go on with their research – I mean, if it is all over, why bother?
Funny because I just watched Fata Morgana tonight with the commentary on and Werner talks about not liking adventurers. Even though his traveled across Africa to make this film and was even held hostage while there. He claims not to understand irony, but I think in Encounters he holds a mirror up to the culture of adventurers that inhabit Antarctica. If that’s not irony I don’t know what is…
It’s just another one of Herzog’s ‘nature will kill us all’ type documentaries with an existentialist tinge. we are a speck on this plant etc. that sort of thing.
It’s good, but yeah, entirely expected. Some wonderful shots though, and i like the idea of viewing Antarctica as the ‘final frontier’. imagine actually living there?
Well, it has a nice metaphorical symmetry—the end of the world at the end of the world.
Sean Walker Hutton
It seems the film is more about the essence of humanity. Whether it is the future of humanity, the past of humanity, or what it means to be human. Anyone in agreement?