Dentro l'inferno

I enjoyed the volcano parts. The right turns into cultural ideologies made no sense. Pick a topic already.

Werner Herzog proves again he is a monster of a documentarian. Into the Inferno is filled with stunning imagery and sounds that truly left me awestruck. The substance of the film itself was not quite what I was expecting, but it turned out that that was a good thing. This film goes places you would never really think of, and sheds light on many different cultural connections to volcanoes around the world. It more about people, societies, and culture than it is about science and geology, although there is some of that too. If you are at all interested in volcanoes and how people react and interact with them around the world, this film will pleasantly surprise you.

Werner Herzog is a captivating man who has grand pursuits and a varied set of interests. He has made many films since his breakout hit, "Aguirre, the Wrath of God," in 1972, and all of them have either been exceptionally interesting, complex, fantastical, or illuminating in nature. Herzog makes both fiction and non-fiction films that deal with issues as diverse as colonialism, the savageness of the wilderness, ecological disasters, opera, and ski flying. With his newest film for Netflix, Herzog once again shows us that fascination is an oft neglected but empowering feeling that can be applied to numerous aspects of life. He starts us off with the topic of volcanoes, but he becomes much more fascinated with humankind at large, evidenced by his own reticence to even get close to a volcano.

Herzog reels us in with the help of Clive Oppenheimer, a Cambridge University volcanologist that he had previously worked with in the documentary, "Encounters at the End of the World," which was a film about Antarctica. Oppenheimer is a playfully compelling, if timid, guide into the world of volcanoes. He and Herzog travel the world and study volcanoes in Indonesia, Iceland, North Korea, and Ethiopia. At each of these junctures, the cultural importance of the volcano is made the fixture of the film, rather than focusing on hard science. The peoples of these regions all seem to be in awe of volcanoes, and either have a deep fear or respect for what it's capable of. In Ethiopia, a nearby volcano is the key to finding fossils of Paleolithic hominids, the rarest of human fossils. In North Korea the region's fierce patriotism is linked with its local volcano where the leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il once stood, proudly displaying to their nation that they were strong and resilient in the face of outside vitriol.

Though some of these excursions seem to undercut the fact that this is a film about volcanoes, this film never bores its audience. Between the panoramic shots of tropical foliage and the drone sequences that pan across villages and volcanoes alike, this is a feast for the eyes. There's a great contrast between the beauty of these regions and the oft-confusing shots of the magma that these ruptures expound with horrifying regularity. The inner regions of volcanoes look both like fire and water, and the magma often looks pitifully tame when it moves slowly down a mountainside, though it is actually a most dangerous force that will destroy all in its path. Herzog talks a bit about a couple who were volcanic photographers and were eventually killed by a fast moving cloud of volcanic ash (at 100 mph). While this tidbit is unprompted, it proves to be yet another interesting facet of these quaking mountaintops. Herzog finds many ways to look at these geographic forces, which can be seen as either benevolent or destructive in power.

Whilst this film does contain some outstanding images of volcanoes, eruptions and lava, these parts are few and far between. I was hoping for an exploration of the power and activity of volcanoes around the world, but was only given a glimpse of a few sites, with very little in terms of information about how volcanic action actually arises. This doc focuses more on worldwide spiritual views around volcanoes, with some superficial information about the effects of eruptions on our planet.

Into the Inferno (2016)

*** (out of 4)

Werner Herzog narrates and directs this documentary, which takes a look at various volcanoes throughout the world.

I should probably start off by saying Herzog is one of my favorite filmmakers and he might be my favorite documentary filmmaker. INTO THE INFERNO was a rather interesting idea but I'm not quite sure how well the end product turned out. If you're expecting a straight documentary from the maverick filmmaker then I'm going to guess that you're unfamiliar with his work. He's created some true masterpieces but none of them play like you'd expect them to.

That's certainly true for this picture, which makes you believe that it's about volcanoes but you soon realize that the director is up to his bag of tricks and delivers more but I'll get into that in a bit. As far as the volcano stuff goes, it's extremely interesting to say the least. We're pretty much given a tour of the globe as we see various volcanoes as well as get to learn about their history and get to hear some stories about previous explosions. All of this stuff is brilliantly captured as the cinematography is downright terrific and the visual images of the lave are so beautiful that I could have easily watched them for hours.

With that said, the film is also about various thoughts on life and other issues. I freely admit that I didn't think this segment of the film worked and sadly there's a lot of this stuff and I think it really brought the film down. The sequences in North Korea are a prime example as we get to hear stories of how the people there are basically hostages to their leader. What does this stuff have to do with volcanoes? All of it really seems like it should have been left for a different documentary but, as I said, Herzog likes to mix things up but I just don't think it was a success here.