Salt and Fire

A Franco-American-German drama; A story about a scientist who blames the head of a large company for ecological disaster in South America, but when a volcano begins to show signs of erupting, they must unite to avoid a disaster. This film has a theme about the conflict between science and business, where humans are being changed by their environment. As early as a quarter of an hour in, it becomes apparent that the film was not made with care. Poor editing, shaky camera tracking, and a poor script with stilted dialogue that falters. Tangential conversations lead nowhere, and characters introduced are left hanging; where there is focus on character exposition, it is ham-fisted. There are recondite descriptions and bumper-sticker philosophising like, "Truth is the only daughter of time." That said, it is an ambitious project, and it has heart in its message. Michael Shannon brings watchability, and the beautiful Bolivian locales help while we ponder the director's message about pollution. As an aside, viewers who are familiar with the director's reputation as a pioneer of New German cinema will assume he got bogged down in his passion project because it is poor by his high standards.

Werner Herzog is known for pushing boundaries in his films. He has gone to the extreme ends of the earth and walked alongside a madman dragging a Spanish galleon over the mountains to create unique cinema. Salt and Fire is in itself a film about extremes: Extreme environmental conditions, and extremists who kidnap scientists who come to study these conditions.

As a man-made ecological disaster unfolds in a South American nation, three scientists from the United Nations embark on a journey to discover the extent and causes of the disaster, only to be kidnapped by armed men and held hostage. What unfolds from here is a swirling tale which flirts with surrealism and science fiction. At times this felt Kafkaesque to me, as the kidnappers refuse to answer the simplest of questions and respond with non-sequiteurs. This flirtation with fantasy had me wondering what was to come... and a visit from aliens seemed the most likely scenario.

Perhaps this feeling of unreality I was experiencing was cognitive dissonance, driven by the appearance of cosmologist Laurence Krauss on screen. This is his first turn as an actor and I suppose he must be on sabbatical from the University of Arizona to be appearing in films where he isn't explaining the universe for us. He does tell us a bit about the major non-human player in the film, the "Salar de Uyuni", a salt lake high in the Andes which is world's largest flat surface. "Satellites use it to calibrate their distance from the ground," he says.

As head of the UN envoy Professor Laura Sommerfeld (Veronica Ferres) and head kidnapper Matt Riley (Micahel Shannon) drive out onto the salt, we learn it is expanding at 800 square miles per year, as the nearby dormant volcano threatens to become active and destroy life on earth as we know it. But it is here the story begins to unfold, and Riley's plans as a kidnapper are revealed. You'll have to see for yourself whether or not aliens turn up.

Herzog films can be challenging, and judging by some other reviews there are people who clearly hated this film. I did not. While the ending is a bit unsatisfying, overall the originality of the story kept me interested. Like most of his films, this is more of an experience than a story; but the story is there. When someone is kidnapped, we expect it to be a life changing experience, and that is exactly what Sommerfeld withstands as the film unfolds; however it is not in a way which we expect.

This is definitely a film for Herzog fans, with his trademark use of astonishing scenery and sparse dialogue coming together to create something we've never seen before. There are some interesting scenes using a single camera, such as one within a moving vehicle panning around from the back seat to the front to reveal the vast emptiness of the salt lake. The contrast between the verdant gardens of the compound where the hostages are held and the sea of desolation is juxtaposed by the types of prisons these two environments represent. And within all this is a visit to the train cemetery where pre-WWII trains used and abandoned by a long extinct mining industry rust and rot, a typically extraordinary location common to Herzog's films.

This is not Herzog's best film, but is certainly enjoyable and vastly more original than the majority of films released in 2016.

I had to wonder what I was watching throughout, consistently waiting for something to happen. Salt and Fire delivers a film which is more like a patchwork quilt. Bits and pieces of ideas designed to be thought provoking but, in a typical arty style, leave you to draw your own conclusions to the meaning. So it allows itself to be watchable, just about, without anything of significance taking place. The only thing I took from the whole thing was that sometimes people who like nice stuff make bad decisions and then have to face their demons.

The acting was stilted throughout. Even Michael Shannon, who I tend to consider at least reasonable, played his part in keeping with everyone else. I still wonder whether it was intentional, perhaps some device designed to make you ask why.

Interesting idea, but it probably deserves a more fitting synopsis. This isn't a thriller and certainly isn't a disaster movie or maybe it is, if the film could play out for another 200,000 years.

I began watching this film because I've always found Garcia Bernal an interesting actor. The beginning of the film was mysterious enough to hold my attention, but as it progressed, I found my interest waning. At about the halfway point I felt I had already invested so much time I couldn't stop watching. Then, as it progressed even further, I realized the only thing continuing to hold my attention was Veronica Ferres. That woman must have the longest legs in the world! Herzog needs to realize that presenting intellectual concepts in dramatic movie format must be dealt with very carefully or it becomes all too easy for the plot to become really boring!

This film tells the story of a team of three scientists who are sent to South America by the United Nations to investigate the extent of environmental damage by a multinational corporation. After arrival, they get kidnapped and imprisoned against their will.

The plot summary makes the story sound like a thriller or a mystery, but it is surely none of these. The leading scientist, Laura, is so calm and assertive that there is little tension. In addition, the relationship between the captor and the kidnapped is so cordial and polite, that it just does not look like a kidnapping. It is more like two friends talking about everything in the world. Then, towards the middle of the film, Laura is abandoned in a remote spot. Again, she is so calm and relaxed about the life threatening situation, that she manages to play a game of Ludo! The story is just unbelievably absurd, and it is plain boring. I can imagine that the film would not have been made, if it was not for the well respected and revered director. If it was not for the amazing scenery, I would have rated it even lower.