Werner Herzog, "The Wild Blue Yonder" (2006)

With Werner Herzog, the film connoisseur has every reason to expect a surprise. Whether or not each of his individual works is an unqualified success, the viewer can count on being taken somewhere that (s)he hasn't been before. His fictional dramas all have an element of undeniable truth to them, while his documentaries often verge on the fantastic. And like Ehrenful's "gestalt", they are always greater than the sum of their parts. For instance, Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005) was not merely a documentation of a man living with the bears in Alaska. Nor was it simply about the folly of a Rousseau-inspired approach to nature. Just the same, its meaning extends beyond the vanity of a single individual. These are all components that form the experience of watching the film, but they don't independently contain the essence of Grizzly Man. An executive producer in Hollywood would likely reject any five-minute pitch that you could construct about a Herzog project. This is an artist of almost unyielding genius.

All of this explains why I really had no idea what I would discover watching Herzog's The Wild Blue Yonder (2006). The director describes it as a "science fiction fantasy". What exactly does that mean? Good luck with that categorization. Here there's no cheesily costumed aliens nor pointy-eared heroes. But there is high concept physics, mathematics, and wonder. Prepare to be taken to some truly mind-bending spaces with imagery that is at once out-of-this-world and yet strangely familiar.

The project began when Herzog learned that there was a NASA control center near his house in Southern California. He was priveleged to be given a tour of the facilities. During his visit he was told about a neglected warehouse in which is stored all types of documentation of the numerous space flights that the United States has undertaken. He was allowed access, and he found footage of the Galileo mission that was launched in 1989. Somehow he was granted permission to use this 16 mm material film stock in Wild Blue Yonder. The next step was putting together a musical score- something herzog is notorious for being %100 absorbed by. He assembled a group of musicians including avante garde composer Ernst Reijseger, singer Mola Sylla, and a five-voiced Sardinian choir. These folks had never worked together before, but the improvised results of two days of sessions are quite striking. The soundtrack is fittingly otherworldly.

While he was putting together the score he was shown digital camera footage of an Antarctic diving expedition. Experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser (the industrialist's grandson) had shot the images. Herzog immediately decided to work it into the film. In order to string the disparate elements (all shot in different formats) together, the filmmaker constructed the story of a mission of visitation by aliens from the Andromeda star system. This was a risky device, and will strike the viewer as either silly, pretentious or amusing- depending upon your affinity with the actor Brad Dourif, who portrays the lone survivor from Andromeda. Dourif delivers a narrative monologue of his people's (?) travels, all amidst a dilapidated Northern California ghost town setting. This is all done with a generous dose of ironic humor. It is certain to put some people off of the film. As if all this wasn't enough, Herzog adds interviews he conducted with mathmeticians and physicists concerned with the ideas of cosmology.

Beyond the disparate segments of this work, there is a less-than-subtle commentary about the folly of believing in intergalactic travel. It is clear that Herzog does not believe such a thing possible, although he does give time to some wacky eccentrics who aren't willing to let go of the fantasy. Herzog definitely has affection for the dreamers among us. But along with this appreciation, there is also a Cassandra call regarding the damage humanity has visited upon the earth. Given his skepticism about the chances of an escape to unspoiled territory, it naturally follows that he would like to see our modern society make some abrupt changes in direction. Perhaps we have breached our external limits, and we can only take our next steps by turning inward. Chalk another one up for ecstatic truth.