Review of Encounters at the End of the World (2007) by Raul B — 17 Jul 2008

What I loved about this film was the beautiful paradox at the core of it--the humorous and beautiful moments in the face of impending doom for the human race. It is similar to the paradox of the beautiful, fascinating, magnificent bears of Grizzly Man who are also thoughtless murderers.

Seeing the efforts of the scientists in Antarctica , who know all too well the battle between man vs. nature is one that nature will, in the very long run, ultimately win, fills you both with sadness and admiration, and makes you question your own sense of place in the human race and the universe at large.

My only criticism is that I found myself thinking there were moments in the film I would have edited out, or that went on a bit too long--though you could say that is a Herzog trend (though overused here, in my opinion).

There is one scene I remember where we follow a scientist down an ice cave, without knowing what the scientist is doing there, or what he's searching for, and suddenly, after a while of this, the scientist comes to a rest and that's the end of that.

Given that there were many other shots and sequences showing the strangeness/beauty under the ice, what was the need? Another moment was when the awesome guy who's ready to take off on an adventure at a moment's notice shows the contents of his backpack: Werner tells us in narration how some of the contents are so surprising as he continues unpacking--but why not just let the guy show us the contents and let us be surprised rather than telling us ahead of time that we should be surprised? These little comments aside, it was a beautiful film filled with curious people, places and things, a film that fuels our own curiosity about our world and makes us feel humble about our place in it.