Review of Woyzeck (1979) by Hunter D — 22 Feb 2010

WOYZECK is Werner Herzog's adaptation of Georg Büchner's (unfinished) play, and Herzog's third collaboration with Klaus Kinski following his remake of NOSFERATU. Kinski delivers an intense performance as expected, and the movie looks great.

Unfortunately it's a movie that has a lot going on beneath the surface, specifically the surface of the title character, but the stuff that's going on seemed impenetrable to me. Woyzeck's instability seems to be brought on by numerous factors surrounding him (eating experiments, the army, his philandering mistress, his fever, etc.

) but I never really figured why I should care. The movie is mercifully short at 80 minutes, but even then it seems to go on forever, as watching it was a tedious experience, especially when Kinski was absent from the screen, but even then the movie was more baffling than interesting.

I'm not ruling out the possibility that there's something I missed here, but I just wasn't engaged by this movie at all. I can't tell if it was me, or if the movie was just an uninspired adaptation.

The only Herzog/Kinski movie left for me to watch is COBRA VERDE, and I hope it's not as boring as this.