Balada de um Pequeno Soldado

"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.

Ballad of a Little Soldier (1984)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Werner Herzog documentary takes a look at the children soldiers caught up in the Miskito Indian battle in Nicaragua. The first part of the film takes a look at the adults doing their thing but it grows rather boring pretty quickly. The interviews by Herzog are honest and straight forward but nothing really picks up the drama actually going on with the kids.

Dark Glow of the Mountain, The (1984)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Interesting documentary from Werner Herzog follows world famous mountain climbers Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander as they scale both of the Gasherbrum mountains, which are 8,000 meters each. The documentary really doesn't focus on the difficulty of the climb but instead the psychology of what it takes to be willing to do something as dangerous as this. Herzog asks some hard questions about their mental state and if they have a death wish and their answers are kind of unique.

No One Will Play With Me (1976)

*** (out of 4)

Werner Herzog directed short about a young boy who plays alone in his classroom because no on there wants to play with him. One day a girl goes back to his house to see his pet raven and then we learn why he is the way he is. This is a rather bleak and depressing little film and Herzog perfectly captures the mood of the "secret", which I won't reveal here.

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

... In other words, Ballad of the Little Soldier from Werner Herzog - in collaboration with photojournalist Denis Richie - is kind of impossible to give a real 'rating' to. This serves really as a document of human rights abuse - in large part with child soldiers (that is, at about the 25 minute mark) - than a typical documentary. If you've seen some of Herzog's other docs (think Fata Morgana or Herdsman of the Sun) there's none of the self conscious style one finds in his non fiction (no one looks in a stylized meditative pose at the camera). his recent Death Row docs if anything are much closer in showing the devastation of thev human spirit - point, talk, and shoot.

What you get in Little Soldier is: 'This is what's happening in Honduras, people are being killed by the Sandinistas, people are being herded up into refugee camps that will not last a month, families are torn asunder, and indigenous India children are being trained to kill in turn'. We're given a lot of narration here from Herzog, and it's necessary: this is like a Frontline piece that is trying to get in a lot of information in a short amount of time. I only wish this were longer as at 45 minute there's really only so much time, though I wonder if some of their access was limited (at one point they show the start of a battle, with adult troops off a river-boat, and as much danger Herzog could get I sensed there was only so much war documentarian in this case).

What stays with you while watching it and once it's over are the faces of these children, shown plainly, occasionally singing on camera - this may be the closest to something that isn't 'just happening' as it's going on, but here I took away that we see there is still humanity in these children, they can still sing songs and respond to joy - and then being trained to fire guns and missiles. The narration is blunt and to the point, and only near the end does Richie put his perspective on it all. It's horrific too to think how this is really the norm in many countries to this day; one thinks of those in African areas especially, or Boko Haram.

An adult soldier comments at one point the children were braver than the adults to fight against Communism... like they'd know better! Ballad of the Little Soldier may be one of the deadliest/ serious films the Bavarian director made, and it packs a gut punch for how it just looks on at this people ripped apart by the Sandinistas and the war machine that rose up in Central America in the 80's. There's fire here.