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Encounters at the End of the WorldA Review of Werner Herzog’s Documentary About AntarcticaThis thought-provoking film delves into the nature, technology, and humanity thriving in a small community at the end of the world.
Filmmaker Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, 2005), accompanied only by one cameraman, traveled to the remote U.S.-run McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica to make this documentary during the five-month austral summer when it remains light outside 24 hours a day. Here at headquarters of the National Science Foundation where about 1,000 men and women live and work, Herzog depicts the life-and-death challenges facing today’s scientific explorers of the unknown. NatureHerzog wrote, directed, and narrated Encounters at the End of the World, which was scored with haunting choral arrangements, underwater seal calls, and original music by Henry Kaiser and David Lindley. The film’s images, music, and ideas (Can animals go crazy? Why do humans wear masks to hide from others? Is humanity doomed to extinction?) seem more like elements of an essay or cinematic poetry than a traditional documentary with a beginning, middle, and ending. The hardships of living in sub-zero temperatures and a dangerous environment overshadow everything that occurs at McMurdo Research Station. The “encounters” mentioned in the film’s title may refer to encounters with dangerous environmental conditions, encounters with species of life (both known and unknown), encounters Herzog has with other people living at the station, and encounters with humankind’s ultimate destiny (as predicted by a scientist in the film). TechnologyHigh-tech, state-of the art equipment allows the scientists to blast holes through the ice, record volcanic activity, analyze data, explore the ocean floor, and perform other tasks in this frigid environment, yet their living conditions seem quite primitive without many modern conveniences. Even low-tech equipment has its place at McMurdo Research Station. During mandatory survival school for all residents, students must walk in groups holding onto a long rope with white buckets over their heads to simulate snowstorm conditions. HumanityThis hidden society attracts the brightest scientific minds and the loneliest hearts. Antarctica provides its own natural selection where professional dreamers must toughen up to stay or admit defeat and go back home. Crew members dive into the ocean’s depths by day and sit around watching old black-and-white doomsday movies by night. Their reasons for coming to the Station vary – to escape, to seek knowledge, to help mankind, to gain personal glory. Through his narration, Herzog says that he made Encounters at the End of the World to answer his own questions. Indeed the film explores his questions concerning nature, technology, and humanity, providing insight into some areas, but raising new issues in others. He concludes by giving viewers plenty of disturbing ideas to think about as they experience nature’s own eerie music and luminous sea creatures in an underwater light show reminiscent of a fireworks display finale.
To learn more about nature documentaries, read Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea DVD Review.
The copyright of the article Encounters at the End of the World in Science & Nature Documentaries is owned by Leslie Halpern. Permission to republish Encounters at the End of the World in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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