Into the Abyss

I'm still not entirely sure how to write about Into the Abyss, except to say that it's about so much more than the death penalty. Herzog has outright said that he opposes capital punishment, but Into the Abyss doesn't try to be political. He doesn't put the death penalty in a vacuum; the film details the triple homicide committed by the two prisoners Jason Burkett and Michael Perry from the actual crime scene all the way through the execution of Michael Perry. Into the Abyss is more about the consequences of crime and murder than simply an examination of the death penalty.

Herzog looks at all sides of the murder, from the victim's families to the prisoner's acquaintances to the poverty and crime in the area they grew up in, to the chaplain and officer that are involved in the execution ritual. He attempts to explain but not necessarily excuse why anyone would commit murder, and that leads to the most moving parts of the film, where he interviews Jason Burkett's father, who is also in jail and has been for most of Jason's life. I can't do justice to his scenes in print except to say that it left me in tears.

At least one critic has mentioned that the title of the film could be the title for a lot of Herzog films, and while that's definitely true, I think it does fit best here. The abyss isn't even necessarily death, but the grief of the victims' families, the regret from a father that wasn't there, the trap of poverty and delinquency, the weight of working in a place where you know the person you are looking at is going to die. Herzog's last documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, has gotten more attention, but I truly believe that Into the Abyss is the more meaningful film.

Shameful #6 - Fitzcarraldo

Fitzcarraldo (1982, Herzog)

Fitzcarraldo is the story of a man in Peru with a dream. Brian Sweeny Fitzgerald aka Fitzcarraldo, is a entrepeneur who loves opera. His dream is to open an opera house in the jungle, but he's currently bankrupt from a failed attempt to build a railroad across the Andes. The other businessmen scoff at him, teasing him about how he;ll go bankrupt next, but he borrows money from his girlfriend, a brothel owner, to buy land to start a rubber business. He gets the land cheaply beause it's almost impossible to get to, but he braves the journey up the river anyway.

Klaus Kinski plays the titular Fitzcarraldo,and it's a really startling performance. I, like everyone, was used to the raving, crazy Kinski that we all hear about (allegedly natives offered to kill him on Herzog's behalf while shooting), but he's so soft and just plain likeable here. He makes it so easy to relate to this guy; he's so in love with opera, so optimistic, so driven that you really want him to succeed, even when he's forcing people to drag a steamboat up a mountain.

Oh, did I forget that part? Yeah, they drag a steamboat up and down a small mountain. And by "they" I mean "Herzog and the crew". Herzog believed that if they used special effects, it wouldn't look real, so he actually did it, and it's just as impressive as it sounds.

Anyway, this is the second in an unofficial trilogy of a sort of 'man vs. jungle' theme, the first being Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Fitz has to brave treacherous waters, and, like Aguirre, he and his crew must deal with sickness, mutiny, and threats of native attack, all of which threaten his chances of achieving his dreams. Unlike Aguirre, however, Fitz succeeds in a way at the end; he introduces opera to the natives (he plays it while going up the river) and, at the end, to the rest of the town, and so while he still isn't rich, he gets a sweet ending. It's weird for me to say that a two and a half hour movie about going up a river to start a rubber business is "cute', but there's definitely an "awww" factor by the time you get to the end.