Review of Woyzeck (1979) by Joseph S — 18 Jan 2009

The story here is very thin. If youve seen the cover you know where it's going. But the dialogue is what really impressed me about this, Herzog isn't known for his great soliloquies, but this was a play before it made it's way to the screen, and it's theatricality remains intact. Kinski gives a great performance as an abused arm private, convinced to eat peas for an entire year by a mad dr., taunted and insulted by his superiors, which lead him to murder his wife. Whether he's just mad or was driven so by those around him, is hard to say, the film makes a case for the abuse of society, but there's those scenes where he's alone and hiding in bushes frightened the "silence" will get him, that are confusing.

Kinski is not a handsome man, and Herzog has his face here foregrounded as insanity incarnate, as usual, but despite it's thin plot its unexpectadly rich and comic.

A short run time, helps keep the pace up, the usual Herzog long landscape shots are absent; in a breath of fresh air. A better than average character study.