O Grande Êxtase do Entalhador Steiner

This starts out looking like a more or less standard TV documentary about a ski-jumper. Over time, however, it somehow gets stranger and stranger, until the ending, that somehow, incomprehensibly, left me totally out of breath.

The film works on so many levels: It's a fascinating portrayal of the celebrated ski-jumper Steiner, but it's also an amazing look at the plain aesthetics of ski-jumping, with extreme slow-motion pictures showing the jumpers' fears and ecstasy at a very profound level. In addition, there is also something in this film that's simply very hard or impossible to define, something about man itself, something about longing and - perhaps the most advanced of human emotions - pity.

How much of this portrayal that actually reflects Steiner's personality, and how much of it that reflects Herzog's, is hard to tell. But that's the only catch. Those looking for Herzog classics should not think that this movie can be missed because it's a 45-minute TV documentary. Apart from pictures of some nasty ski-jumping falls, it's not really disturbing to the extent that put me slightly off when watching for example Aguirre and Even Dwarfs Started Small - so it could from my point of view overall be the best of the many Herzog movies I've seen so far.

After the madness of Aguirre the Wrath of God, Werner Herzog turned his attention to the greatest ski flier of his day Walter Steiner. Herzog follows Steiner as he get ready for and competes in an international competition. The film is less about the man, I know very little more now that I've seen the film, than it is about what he can do, and that is fly very far on skis. Steiner is so good that he starts farther down on the ramp than the competition and still blows everyone else out of the water.

While the film is very good, and at time exceedingly beautiful, it is ultimately a film made by a fan in celebration of his hero. Its really quite amusing to see the seemingly unflappable Herzog reduced to being a rather human sports nut. Herzog is in love with his subject and what he can do and it shows, thankfully in a positive way.

Despite being a very rough film in many ways it still captivates in its rawness. There is something about the imagery and Steiners achievement that makes it all worth watching.

Werner Herzog's The Great Ecstacy of Woodcarver Steiner is a glimpse of a man who is quite amazing at his gift of ski-jumping- he's the world record holder at the time of filming (and a record he actually tops over himself more than once)- and how he's all the more impressive because of his humble attitude towards the activity. He's a woodcarver as his other profession, but has it as his primary obsession to fly, to get whisked away someplace that is of his design but not entirely of his control. And he's affected by the pressure of his own skills, skills he acknowledges but doesn't flaunt; like some comic-book hero, he has to deal with the responsibilities he has at his disposal, of not going down for his audience (who might want to see that happen), or for himself, and at the same time staying true to his gifts. He's often by his own, seen through Herzog's long lens contemplating or trying to stay on his own two feet well enough when not ski-jumping. But he knows that he can't be brought down, as his touching story about his pet raven as a kid, who got pecked away by other birds, and in order to stop it, as an act of compassion, he shot it down. At the end of the day, however, the thrill of flight is all that counts, high scores be damned.

Herzog takes this man's obsession, albeit with modest feelings about his own worth as a mega-star in Switzerland, and transforms it into a beautiful spectacle of simple facts- of the moment by moment updates of Steiner's conditions or what has to be done to the slope or what rules have to be changed to accommodate Steiner alongside the other contenders- with some of the most beautiful shots in any Herzog film. It's not anything alien to see someone in a typical sports documentary to see the athlete in slow-motion speed, but somehow Herzog transforms the familiar into something akin to the theme, of Steiner's own thrill and 'ecstacy' as what the audience feels as well. It's very interesting as well to see Steiner in slow-motion when he skids, when he or another ski-jumper gets injured (and almost everyone seen ski-jumping in the film, and there aren't many shown other than Steiner, get injured in tumbles in rough ways), as it's something one usually wouldn't see in the glorious montages of sports figures. I also really enjoyed seeing Herzog combine voice-over taken after the event, with Steiner slightly rambling on, over the footage of his jumps.

Just seeing a ski-jumper in and of itself is a fascinating sight, as one curls up and has to anticipate what's to come in mere mili-seconds. And Herzog adds his visual poetry of motion with some usual-yet-compelling behind the scenes footage to make it an exceptional work. Steiner isn't a simple hero, but one who's got complexities even Herzog can only see so much into, as he's an otherwise everyman who goes to fantastic lengths for greatness, yet is very aware of the fragility of such power in a sport so reliant on deadly competition and spectator unrest. Very well done.

It is necessary a great filmmaker to transform a simple sport in something interesting and fascinating.This 45 minutes documentary show us that it is possible!. HERZOG acts as a witness leaving STEINER do the entire work becoming a bird and talking freely about his fears. One the most amazing moments is when STEINER tell us a certain story that happened when he was a child,pure poetry in complete resonance with the film as a whole. In other moments ,the camera captures in a thrilling way all the danger involved in ski-jumping. STEINER made a small appearance in other HERZOG'S masterpiece, KASPAR HAUSER. Where is STEINER now?. I have read in internet that he lives in a small village in Sweden and works as a Gardener.

A very moving portrait of a simple Swiss woodcarver who becomes the world's best ski jumper. The man's life, his motivation, his fears, his hopes: all beautifully relayed in this early masterpiece by Werner Herzog. Here we find a great tribute to Swiss honesty and depth. I know Swiss people who think and feel like Walter Steiner. And then there's that unforgettable story in which Walter Steiner compares himself with a bird he had saved and raised in his youth, a bird he ultimately had to kill to save it from pain and the cruelty of its companions. Only Herzog can give us meditations of that kind. What is Walter Steiner doing these days?