C+ | Werner Herzog interviews hackers, roboticists, and the pioneers who created the Internet. Directed by Werner Herzog Initial Review by Jon Kissel |
The iconic, unique, jack-of-all-trades Werner Herzog sets his sights on a topic as large as the Internet in Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World. If that seems like far too big a bite for any documentary to chew, then Herzog is right in line with the characters and real figures he likes to make movies about. Films like Fitzcarraldo, my personal Herzog favorite, find its protagonist dragging a steamship up steep jungle hills, all so he can corner the rubber market and, through a series of further wild-eyed steps, bring opera to South America. My favorite of his documentaries, Grizzly Man, is about an animal rights zealot convinced that his love for bears is shared by the bears themselves, until one eats him and his girlfriend. Herzog himself is the hubristic one in Lo and Behold, not for thinking he can master nature through sheer force of will like so many of his protagonists and subjects, but in thinking that he can wrap his arms around a subject so huge. It’s a move that makes for a film that barely surpasses the level of an unnecessary primer for technology that most people use every day, but big foolish steps are perfectly in keeping with Herzog’s career.
Divided into ten chapters, it’s no accident that Herzog only spends one of the ten on the unalloyed goods of the Internet. Herzog’s pessimism towards human-run systems shines through. Crowd-sourced protein-folding and the economic flattening of free education pale in comparison to addiction to Warcraft and electromagnetic sensitivity. Based on the specific scenes and interview snippets that he chooses to include, it would be easy for someone to assume that this film was made by a 75 year old man. Why choose to focus on the Warcraft addict instead of the happy couples whose relationships started in Azeroth (that’s where Warcraft takes place, nerds)? Lo and Behold provides a strong lesson in perspective and nonfiction editing. The subject is so huge that thoroughness becomes impossible, and therefore the specific slant of the filmmaker becomes apparent by what he chooses to leave in.
If I’m skeptical of Herzog’s stance, and I am, it’s not like he’s unskilled of communicating what that stance is. Herzog’s work distilled to a single word, based on the small percentage that I’ve seen, is hubris. It’s the nerds who birthed the Internet whose hubris he’s interrogating, but theirs is a benign and optimistic version. If a problem with the present Internet is the viciousness brought on by anonymity, that’s because those founders all knew each other and couldn’t envision a world of egg avatars using their networks to sling racial slurs at strangers or taunt grieving parents. That short-sightedness leads into a world so completely run by the Internet and its logistical buddy, just-in-time supply chains, that one of those when-not-if natural disasters like a particularly potent solar flare could instantly wipe humanity back hundreds of years. In that glorious future where the electromagnetic-sensitive finally get some relief, no one’s going to know how to take care of themselves anymore thanks to all the dulling of critical thinking that the Internet has also engendered.
What keeps Lo and Behold from being a barely-compelling rant against modernity is Herzog himself, the charmer. I love the sound of his voice, from the way he pronounces diapers (di-a-pers) to his deep fondness for the coin whirlpool when he visits the radio telescope. There’s mostly sarcasm when he laments not being able to talk about the ‘malevolent dwarf druid’ with the recovering video game addict, but there’s some disappointment, too. Cinematically, Herzog always manages to find an image more potent that his poetic waxings, and here, the winner is either the delicacy of the Japanese robot pouring a glass of juice or the simple pan from burned out factory buildings in Pittsburgh to the gleaming robotics factory immediately next door, like something out of Sim City.
Lo and Behold is fatally flawed in how much it tries to take on, but for me, Herzog’s likable in anything he does. Some level of drilling down was required here. His movies at least inspire enjoyment, and often times, love. This one is towards the enjoyment end of the spectrum. If that’s not quite praise, it’s not derision, either. C+
If I’m skeptical of Herzog’s stance, and I am, it’s not like he’s unskilled of communicating what that stance is. Herzog’s work distilled to a single word, based on the small percentage that I’ve seen, is hubris. It’s the nerds who birthed the Internet whose hubris he’s interrogating, but theirs is a benign and optimistic version. If a problem with the present Internet is the viciousness brought on by anonymity, that’s because those founders all knew each other and couldn’t envision a world of egg avatars using their networks to sling racial slurs at strangers or taunt grieving parents. That short-sightedness leads into a world so completely run by the Internet and its logistical buddy, just-in-time supply chains, that one of those when-not-if natural disasters like a particularly potent solar flare could instantly wipe humanity back hundreds of years. In that glorious future where the electromagnetic-sensitive finally get some relief, no one’s going to know how to take care of themselves anymore thanks to all the dulling of critical thinking that the Internet has also engendered.
What keeps Lo and Behold from being a barely-compelling rant against modernity is Herzog himself, the charmer. I love the sound of his voice, from the way he pronounces diapers (di-a-pers) to his deep fondness for the coin whirlpool when he visits the radio telescope. There’s mostly sarcasm when he laments not being able to talk about the ‘malevolent dwarf druid’ with the recovering video game addict, but there’s some disappointment, too. Cinematically, Herzog always manages to find an image more potent that his poetic waxings, and here, the winner is either the delicacy of the Japanese robot pouring a glass of juice or the simple pan from burned out factory buildings in Pittsburgh to the gleaming robotics factory immediately next door, like something out of Sim City.
Lo and Behold is fatally flawed in how much it tries to take on, but for me, Herzog’s likable in anything he does. Some level of drilling down was required here. His movies at least inspire enjoyment, and often times, love. This one is towards the enjoyment end of the spectrum. If that’s not quite praise, it’s not derision, either. C+
RSS Feed