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| View Larger Image | Encounters at the End of the World | DVDStarring: David Ainley, Samuel S. Bowser, Regina Eisert, Kevin Emery, Ryan Andrew Evans
Directed By: Werner Herzog
Also With: Werner Herzog (Writer), Andrea Meditch (Producer), Dave Harding (Producer), Erik Nelson (Producer), Henry Kaiser (Producer), Julian Hobbs (Producer), Phil Fairclough (Producer)
| List Price: | $19.98 | | Price: | $16.99 | | You Save: | $2.99 (15%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | DVD | | Rating: |  | | Run Time: | 99 minutes | | Format: | Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Studio: | Image Entertainment | | Number of Discs: | 2 | | Aspect Ratio: | 1.78:1 | | Release Date: | November 18, 2008 | | Sales Rank: | 2,928nd |
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FEATURES | - In the most hostile, barren, alien environment on the planet - you meet the most interesting people. Welcome to Antarctica - like you've never experienced it. You've seen the extraordinary marine life, the retreating glaciers and, of course, the penguins, but leave it to award-winning, iconoclastic filmmaker Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn) to be the first to explore the South P
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Welcome to antarctica - like youve never experienced it. Youve seen the extraordinary marine life the retreating glaciers and of course the penguins but leave it to award winning iconoclastic filmmaker werner herzog to be the first to explore the south poles most fascinating inhabitants..Humans. Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 11/18/2008 Run time: 101 minutes Rating: G |
Amazon.com
Just about anywhere Werner Herzog goes becomes an interesting place, in part because the director shapes it with his distinctively sardonic eye. In Encounters at the End of the World, the 'Zog heads off to Antarctica, finding there a population of unusual people, hallucinatory underwater life, and penguins. He doesn't appear on camera, but the unmistakably Teutonic Herzog voice is very much with us all the time, a baleful tour guide for this blank destination. In the human outposts of Antarctica, Herzog finds the kind of people you might expect would gravitate to the edge of existence--the curious, the oddball, the wanderers who've run out of other places to explore. He finds some deadpan hilarity, especially in filming a communication drill involving people practicing blizzard conditions (they wear buckets over their heads while roped together). The underwater photography (a realm previously explored in Herzog's The Wild Blue Yonder) is by Henry Kaiser, and it meshes perfectly with the director's interest in alien eye-scapes. And when Herzog finally does find penguins, his imagination goes to the idea that some penguins go insane, scurrying off into their own suicidal directions. This isn't as arresting a film as Grizzly Man, but it is an entertaining travelogue spiked with quirky observations. --Robert Horton |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 29 reviews)
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Beautiful Film by Dr. P L Barsanti (New Jersey)  5 Stars
November 07, 2009
I enjoyed watching all the beautiful shots captured in this captivating documentary. It's an excellent film about Antarctica. If you want to see more scientific research and exploration of Antarctica I also recommend watching the film Ice People.
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Rambling but entertaining documentary from Herzog by One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)  4 Stars
October 28, 2009
The Bottom Line:
This is by no means Herzog's best film--it jumps around a lot and sometimes focuses on characters who really aren't terribly interesting--but along with a great score it has enough entertaining moments, inspired photography, and memorable scenes to make it worth watching.
3/4
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Herzog at the End of the World by ohiobavaria  2 Stars
September 20, 2009
With this documentary Herzog's movies cover now every continent.
As in many of his last works he uses eerie music to make his point and some might consider this as a repetetive scheme. The scenes of diving underneath the ice are pretty but similar was shown in his 'The Wild Blue Yonder'. The music of the seals are beautiful though and the first hand reports about the effects of global warming are indeed very interesting. Personally I thought the helicopter ride over antarctica in the additional scenes actually the highlight of this movie.
The description of the arctic outpost sounds at times elitist,
the interview about gay penguins with a biologist is a sad farce,
the poor penguin running to his death gets mocked by Herzog's crew,
the necessary snow storm training makes people look like fools and
the story of a movie not about penguins doesn't really come to an fitting end.
I discussed this movie later and we all agreed that this documentary shows many of its topics really negative.
There seems to be an aversion to this place which the director passes on to his viewers, so could you possibly like it or any documentary about?
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As much about the people as it is about the continent by Jolly Green Giant 4 Stars
August 06, 2009
This film is as much about the people who reside and work in Antarctica as it is about the work they are doing there. A bus driver, a mechanic, and others with stated and unstated occupations are featured doing art in their room, playing guitar, watching a black and white sci-fi film, and standing outside of a piece of construction equipment. The philosopher standing outside of his construction vehicle was very moving, it was almost as if he was getting choked up describing Antarctica and philosophy. He was my favorite character in the film.
Several scientists are also followed in their work, including a couple of volcanologists, a cell biologist, a penguin scientist (Dr. David Ainley), a particle astrophysicist (Dr. Peter Gorhan), and more including divers. Their work is interesting but several awkward moments are allowed to film, but that is the filmmakers style, not indicative of bad editing.
The sheer beauty of Antarctica does not come across as well as in other films I have seen, but I did find this one to be the most realistic films of life in Antarctica. The filmmaker stated he was not going to Antarctica to "make another penguin film".
The underwater scenes are quite fascinating and beautiful. They were the primary reason I sought out this film and they are the best parts. Russian Orthodox music is infused with the glorious underwater sea life, creating a memorable moment in film that you may never forget.
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not as good as March of the Penguins by e_j_buster  3 Stars
July 20, 2009
This is a movie about a group of scientists who travel to Antarctica to terrorize seals. They claim that they are doing this for the sake of science, but I don't believe it.
For kicks, the scientists go looking for mother seals who are nursing their babies. When they spot a mother seal who is nursing her baby, they sneak up on the seals from behind. And in a surprise attack, they place a Hefty bag over the head of the mother seal and they extract a "milk sample". If the mother seal resists or struggles in any way, she is clubbed mercilessly by the scientists.
The scientists rationalize their behavior by claiming that it's not a big deal for the seals. According to these scientists, the seals don't mind being attacked in this manner.
Since there are no laws in Antarctica, this type of activity is completely legal.
There is a strong anti-Bible message in this film. Both the Big Bang Theory and the theory of evolution are spoken of as if they are facts rather than unproven anti-Bible theories.
One scientist states that humans evolved on land rather than in the sea because our ancestors (who lived in the sea) wanted to escape the horrors of living in the sea, so they evolved into land mammals. (Hopefully someday an artist/scientist will draw a picture of the first sea creature that flopped out of the sea and onto dry land, and eventually evolved into a human being. Since we are mammals, it would probably look something like a dolphin.)
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