Ballade vom kleinen Soldaten

German film-maker Werner Herzog is well-known for his obsession with, well, obsession, finding joy and producing some great documentaries over the years championing the quirkiness of the human spirit. With Ballad of the Little Soldier, the focus is not on the idiosyncratic but on the child soldiers serving in Nicaragua fighting for the native Miskito Indians against the oppressive Sandinistas. Although he may deny it, this is Herzog's most political film to date. With co-director Denis Reichle, who served the Nazi's in the Volkssturm, Herzog's interviews various Miskito inhabitants who have fallen victim of the brutal Sandinistan regime.

At only 45 minutes long, Herzog and Reichle manage to paint a large picture of what life was like for the Miskito's. A woman wails about her family, butchered at the hands of the Socialist Sandinistas, whose government initiative to move the Miskito's into civilised society has led to their villages being sacked and torched, and the mass murder of men, women and children. The persistent nature of Herzog and Reichle's interview techniques do often make things uncomfortable, but it certainly makes for devastating viewing.

Narratively, the film is all over the place. The cinema verite style contradicts the film's title, shifting focus away from the children far too often in favour of the adult soldiers, who march past the camera with similar resigned, weathered expressions. But this is still powerful stuff, with Herzog's narration lending the film a dream-like quality amidst the seriousness of the subject matter, and Reichle's recollection of his time in the Volksstrum as a child making for difficult viewing, especially told in the context of the events that were unfolding in Nicaragua. Although this is far from Herzog's best documentary, he manages to achieve more in 45 minutes than most documentarians could only dream of.

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For 'Ballad of the little soldier',Werner Herzog worked with Denis Reichle who fought against the Russian army.There is a brief description of him talking about what he experienced as a child soldier.The film gains its force through the portrayal of young children who have been employed as soldiers by Miskito Indians who fight against Sandinistas.During the course of talks with these child soldiers,it is revealed that many of them chose to take up arms in order to avenge their family members who were killed by Sandinistas.Watching small children learning to shoot guns,one is reminded of the role weapons play in killing even innocent souls who ought to go to school or play.It has been exactly three decades since documentary film 'Ballad of the little soldier' was made by Werner Herzog in 1984.It is hailed as one of the most important works of cinema about the use of children as soldiers.This film has not at all lost its relevance as there are still numerous wars being waged in different parts of the world where children are involved as little soldiers.

Werner Herzog looks at the young soldiers who make up the Miskito Indian rebel army. The Indians are an abused minority who sided with the Sandinistas in the Nicaragua civil war. However once the Sandinistas won the Indians were once more an abuse minority and had to fight once more for their rights.

The first part of the film deals with the war itself and how the adults are handling it. The second part of the film deals with the 10,11 and 12 year olds who are being recruited into the fight because there simply not enough men to carry on the fight. This is a film that is rather eerie with its reflections to the suicide bombers that have become part of life in some parts of the world. The problem is not new, with Herzog's co director telling the story about fighting in Berlin in the final weeks of the Second World War as a member of the Hitler Youth.

The film is good but not great film with the film running much too long for what it is. While it does show us something most people were not aware of, its also rather static with much of the film made up by people in large groups sitting around looking into the camera while one person speaks. The result is a desire to reach for the remote ( a rare thing for any Herzog film). Worth a look if you stumble on it, but not something worth searching for. 6.5 out of 10

"The Ballad of the Little Soldier" opening song went on too long Miskito Indian way too long' didn't explain their plight and that the tribe fought for both sides

It's odd that I would say that a documentary is badly in need of an editing--and STILL it's an extraordinary film that is well worth seeing. Had the film been trimmed a bit, it would have been amazingly good. It begins with a child soldier singing a song--a song that seems to go on forever. And, when the film ends, he once again sings the same song! This easily could have been trimmed and would have made the film much less long-winded and a lot more likely to keep the attention of the audience. However, what happens in between is VERY compelling. It consists of Werner Herzog and his crew visiting a Contra camp during the bloody Nicaraguan civil war of the 1980s. These folks were anti-communist Miskito Indians--and often ranged from 10-12 years of age! What they only mentioned briefly is that the Miskitos ALSO fought with the communists--making the whole war rather pointless from their point of view. Overall, aside from a need for editing, it's a powerful film--due to the amazingly sad content. Worth seeing and heartbreaking that kids were used like this and continue to be used throughout the world to fight wars that they don't even understand.

Though focusing on a specific time, place, and people, Werner Herzog's narration and translation at various points accentuates (if in fewer words) how the subject matter examined here could just as easily apply elsewhere and otherwise. The story of the Miskito in the mid-1980s is one of a people living on their own, affecting and harming no one, but nevertheless being subjected to a larger entity that demands, takes, and enforces while conferring no tangible benefit by their presence or power. The precise politics of any party, good or ill, are beside the point, as these are events that have played out time and again around the world, even from those who have criticized the same practices in other countries. And that little factoid makes 'Ballad of the little soldier' even more haunting than it already was primed to be, for while a broad portrait is painted, as the very title suggests the ultimate inspiration and primary focus is on child soldiers. Whether employed as tools of oppression, or borne from utmost desperation, there are few crimes against humanity more abhorrent than the child soldier; one is swiftly made to reconsider the ethics of giving kids toy weapons, or the unbridled glorification of militaries. This is surely among the most dreary of all Herzog's films.

With all this said, 'Ballad of the little soldier' is just as expertly assembled as any of its brethren as the filmmaker illuminates the Miskito's lives at this juncture. The opening shot alone is distinctly haunting, shifting then to a series of interviews through an interpreter and otherwise footage highlighting the surrounding environs and the circumstances that have been thrust upon the indigenous people. A little more than half the runtime is more or less devoted to a panoramic view of how the Miskito had suffered under the Sandinistas, with many sobering personal anecdotes communicating the urgency. That urgency is only amplified in the last portion of the movie that spotlights the child soldiers during their training, and in their own words tells why they supposedly wish to fight. Cap all this off with a few choice words from Herzog's friend and collaborator, Denis Reichle, and the end result is a documentary that even the expectedly exquisite technical craft can't keep from being notably disconcerting.

Herzog's pictures whole-heartedly embrace examinations of the diversity and complexity of the human condition, whatever form it may take, and no few trend toward a more dour reflection thereof. What takeaway image could be more harsh than that obtained from glancing at humanity in one of the corners of the world in which people are doing horrific things to one another; in which tranquility and harmony is shattered; in which innocence is so completely lost that pre-teen children become the objects and tools of that violence? The film that follows from this third-party observation is discomforting on an almost visceral level, such that I find it hard to in any way repeat back some of what is conveyed herein. If there's one thing art has demonstrated over time, however, it's that evocation of such reaction is no mark against quality; for as grim as the content is, 'Ballad of the little soldier' is all the more remarkable for what it stirs in us. Between the access Herzog had to create this, to the method taken in fashioning the movie, and beyond, this is very well made and deserving, and perhaps even crucial as an exemplar of that dire message that we "don't look away" - only, viewer discretion is strongly advised.