Customer Reviews

The Great Ecstasy of the Sculptor Steiner/How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck/La Soufriere)

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"Great Ecstasy" is one of Herzog's greatest works--every frame of this little masterpiece shimmers with brilliance. The Popol Vuh soundtrack perfectly compliments slow-motion footage of ski-flyers plunging and crashing to the earth in ways that seem almost balletic. Walter Steiner himself is such a complex figure--articulate, sensitive, self-depreciating, haunted. It's remarkable how his fear of his own inhuman talents forms a part of his own courage. Herzog's own gangly presence comes off as almost comic, the way he looms ponderously on the edges of many scenes. In forty-five minutes, this gem perfectly encapsulates what makes Werner Herzog such a unique and necessary presence in cinema. "La Soufriere" is one of Herzog's more notorious projects, and it is quite brilliant. One could argue that it's a trifle slim and underbaked--it just doesn't feel complete in the way of "Great Ecstasy", and the use of archive photographs in the middle section seems a bit "conventional" by Herzog's standards. But it is a powerful film, and the scenes with some of the inhabitants of this "doomed" island are deeply moving. "How Much Wood" is the least of these three--it's a lot of fun, but a bit overlong and repetitive and lacking a strong central figure such as a Walter Steiner. But an interesting exploration into an overlooked sub-culture nevertheless. All in all, this package rounds up one of the greatest short documentaries ever made, along with two very worthy items in Herzog's catalog.

Great Ecstasy: This is not the most visually poetic of the three documentaries (La Soufriere is by far the most visually poetic) but it is an interesting character study of the enigmatic superstar of ski flying, Walter Steiner. Steiner is the best at what he does, in fact he's so good that he often sails so far down the slope that he lands dangerously near the bottom of the hill (and crashes very near the bottom at least once). Visually this just looks like your typical winter olympic footage c. 1974. Herzog does make liberal use of slow motion and an evocative Popul Vu soundtrack but this is not the majesterial cinematography that we are used to seeing in Herzog's features nor in his other documentaries like White Diamond and Little Dieter Needs to Fly. So visually this is just so so, the real point of interest here is in Steiner himself (not in the only slightly exalting footage of those ski jumps). Like many athletes who have reached the top of their game Steiner seems to exist in a zone all his own (and near the end of the documentary we hear a Steiner poem that makes it seem as though he would like to venture even farther away from humanity than he already has) . We hear him discuss his woodworking and he explains how he perceives in the wood before him energies that want or need to be released from the matter that confines them (and it seems that Steiner is really talking about his own relation to matter here and his need to be released from it). If you perceive a barely veiled deathwish here this is only corrobarated by a story about a pet crow that the young Steiner cared for and had to ultimatley shoot when the other crows turned on it. This dark loner's tone introduced into the documentary sits uneasily with the ecstatic images of flight though it does explain why he may be so good at what he does. Despite those dark tones that Herzog seems interested in exploring Steiner does not seem like a person who broods over what he says or does or has much self-awareness at all and this is maybe the key to Steiner's charm. This documentary will exert an especially strong appeal to lovers of sport's eccentric loners but ultimately the documentary really is too slight, the character sketch not complete enough.

How Much Wood: I grew up in the country in Ohio in the mid seventies so I related to the country folk culture here but ultimately the Amish were much more interesting to look at than the auctioneers. There was very little poetry in this documentary and really very little to keep your attention. My own interest was merely nostalgic. I didn't detect any particular anti- capitalist sentiments here or anything in the way of social comment. It seemed more like a celebration of folk culture.

La Soufriere: This is the real gem of the bunch. Even though the volcano never erupts the evacuation of this island allows Herzog to film an abandoned town and there is plenty of poetry in Herzog's tour. His camera must have been mounted on the top of a car or truck but we feel like we are gliding through this ghost town on wings. It doesn't sound like much but this documentary has a visual power the other two don't. Its as if the waiting for the volcano to explode is a symbol for mans uncertain fate and though this documentary is the quietest of the three it also seems to, paradoxically, say the most. Herzog has a way of filming nature and using just the right music to accompany his images. When he does this its like he is practicing an art form (part nature photography, part mystic quest) that only he has mastered.

Great Ecstasy has a quirky sporty youthful charm (albeit with a few dark notes sounding to explain the need for ecstatic release); How Much Wood has a mid-seventies country folk charm; but La Soufriere has that near-mystic visual intensity and grandeur ( accented by the immanent tragedy which makes every building and every mountain scape seem like its holding its breath) that is Herzog's trademark.

Herzog is a great traveler-adventurer (a kind of throwback to those eccentric nineteenth-century travelers). He can also, at times, be a kind of over-the-top showman (in features and in his documentaries) but here everything is subdued and the images are allowed to speak for themselves.

This DVD presents three Werner Herzog short films from the 1970's. The first and most impressive is "The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner", which is a fascinating and breathtaking look at the exploits of a ski flier. This is part sports documentary (with Herzog as the commentator and fan) and part voyage of discovery as Herzog takes us into the imagination and motivations of the otherwise down to earth Steiner. Steiner is a classic Herzog character, a marginalised loner who lives in a strange fantasy world which consists of wooden carvings and soaring into the clouds, that he is an actual real living man gives the film a strange fictional lucidity. The second film "How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck" is a curiously stagnant affair and was shot whilst Herzog was in the US working on "Stroszek", Herzog labours his critique of capitalism to the point at which boredom sets in, which is quite an achievement for a film which lasts about 30 minutes. Although he makes some impressive comments about what he terms the language of late capitalism, the repetition makes the film look almost structuralist. The final short work is "La Soufriere" and is a wonderful little piece which shows Herzog's recklessness at its best as he films an active Volcano about to explode, that it doesn't explode is something of a shame (though Herzog would have perished), but even Herzog's commentary has a sense of disappointment. The shots of empty and deserted streets are genuinely eerie. Overall this is an interesting package, little thought has gone into the selection, just a random process, but just to have access to these rare works is good enough.

I've always been a great admirer of Herzog's oeuvre. Traveling is one of my main pursuits in life, and whenever I see a Herzog movie or documentary, I feel as if I am embarking on a journey. Walter Steiner, the subject of the first documentary is a ski flyer. Herzog attempts to unearth what it is that makes this athelete a phenom in his field. We get a glimpse into both the subject's fascination with the dynamics of explosive energy (in his sculptures) and the source of childhood grief in the form of a pet bird losing it's feathers and the ability of flight. The slow motion photography is beautifully filmed here, and the texture and lighting of some television-screen sequences previsualizes Godfrey Reggio's work by ten to thirty years.

The second documentary is a brief look at Amish life as the setting for a contest for the best auctioneer. Their staccato mind-numbingly fast auction talk makes a re-appearance in Herzog's film Stroszek. One feels desensitize after a few minutes of being inundated with verbiage. In Stroszeck, the jarring rhythm works better to produce a sense of alienation. I look at Woodchuck as an initial fact-gathering footage for Stroszeck.

The third film is about a post-evacuated town where a volcano's imminent eruption is predicted. Herzog interviews homeless men who have chosen to stay behind. The landscapes of both mother nature and the human interior are discovered on film, a trademark of Herzog's style. Again, admirers of Ron Fricke and Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (and Chronos) will see the godfather of them all at work here.

Herzog is a true treasure of contemporary culture and an articulation of the adventurous human spirit.

If any doubt existed as to not consider Werner Herzog as the most fearless, reckless and unpredictable in all of the directors of his generation, this film would be in itself the most conclusive evidence. In 1976 scientists predicted the total destruction of the island of Guadalupe which would be destroyed by the eruption of the La Soufriere Volcano. In the middle of the evacuation, 3 men decide to turn back and stay on the island. Herzog along with a small film crew film the last images of the ghostly island and obtain the testimony of this trio that awaits the end surrounded by a pack of abandoned dogs.

From every angle you look, this documentary has a multiple value, not only scientific, but visceral and challenging.

Nothing in the world, you can not miss this unusual and unique in its kind documentary.

Rewarding miles away!

A timeless film. No doubt.

Director Werner Herzog has made a dazzling array of films, feature as well as documentary (although he dislikes that distinction). As he has said in interviews, his films are more story than theme driven. But if there is an overriding theme that comes through in his films, I think it's transcendence: the possibility of overcoming facticity through efforts that may strike less courageous bystanders as foolish or bizarre. Transcendence doesn't necessarily mean victory. In "Stroszek," for example, the three protagonists ultimately are defeated. In his recent "Grizzly Man," the protagonist is also defeated. But the point is that all of them are defeated on their own terms.

The three "documentaries" that make up this collection are all exercises in transcendence. "The Great Ecstasy of the Sculptor Steiner" (1975), perhaps the most beautiful short film Herzog has made, profiles a ski-jumper who transcends his own fears and in the process transcends gravity. "How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck?" (1977), a curious film that's largely a recording of an auctioneering contest, suggests that even in commercial dealings there can be a kind of song that transcends the everyday. "La Soufriere" (1977), another visually beautiful film, explores transcendence of death fear and conventional standards of caution as Herzog and his associates visit a Caribbean island evacuated because of its supposed impending destruction by an erupting volcano. The volcano doesn't erupt, a fact which Herzog wryly admits makes the film less dramatic than it might've been, but also suggests that our fears of death and decay are disproportionate to the reality.

What a gift Herzog is!

You have here, in my opinion, two of the best Herzog movies: "How Much Wood could a Woodchuck Chuck" and "La Soufriere". Both reveal the greatness of the man as a director and as a human, in opposite ways. In "Woodchuck", Herzog pretty much stands out of the way of an incredible event/moment in time, and documents it for the most part in the least obtrusive way possible. You may be surprised that over the course of 40 minutes your interest in an auctioneering contest will most likely not waver. "La Soufriere" is Herzog at his most Herzog, from the concept, to his explanations of his motivations, his narration...no other person could have made a single segment of this movie, your perception of every second is shaped by your understanding of Herzog as a person. What would another person's motivations have been in the situation (if anyone else would even undertake the endeavor)? What would they have chosen to describe about the events and the background of the situation? What would they say about the movie itself, during the movie (again, if they would even say anything)? Would you find yourself incapable of doubting the director's sincerity (as I believe any honest viewer will find as well)? Really excellent work, holds up to repeat viewings, you'll remember all three films for some time to come.

This collection of three shorts is one of my favorite Herzog DVDs. The volcano story is as eery as Aguirre, the ski jumper story a visceral feast. But I was particularly stunned by the middle piece, about an animal auction. Other Amazon commenters found it too long, but I was absolutely mezmerized by the film's exploration of speech in various forms. This is the real point of the short film and should make it appeal to everyone who is into experimental music or who has an affinity to Germanic languages. The film first shows European immigrants speaking in a strange accent, before showing auctioneers do their job in high-pitch, high-speed style. Each speaking style borders on song, so if you can sit back, relax and listen (without necessarily understanding), you will love it. If you're a composer, you might want to keep your pencil sharpened.

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