Encounters at the End of the World

Name: Encounters at the End of the World
Genre: Documentary
Released: June 11, 2008
Duration: 99 min
Rating: 80

2008

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Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Ratings

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7.6

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7.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Ratings

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Encounters At The End Of The World

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Movie Details & Credits

Discovery Films | Release Date: June 11, 2008 | G

Summary: Werner Herzog confirms his standing as poet laureate of men in extreme situations with Encounters at the End of the World. In this visually stunning exploration, Herzog travels to the Antarctic community of McMurdo Station, headquarters of the National Science Foundation and home to eleven hundred people during the austral summer (Oct-Feb).Werner Herzog confirms his standing as poet laureate of men in extreme situations with Encounters at the End of the World. In this visually stunning exploration, Herzog travels to the Antarctic community of McMurdo Station, headquarters of the National Science Foundation and home to eleven hundred people during the austral summer (Oct-Feb). Over the course of his journey, Herzog examines human nature and Mother nature, juxtaposing breathtaking locations with the profound, surreal, and sometimes absurd experiences of the marine biologists, physicists, plumbers, and truck drivers who choose to form a society as far away from society as one can get. (THINKFilm)… Expand

Director: Werner Herzog

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: G

Runtime: 99 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Peter Rainer

A supremely cranky and lyrical feat. Read full review

100

J.R. Jones

Werner Herzog is a stranger in a strange land as soon as he gets out of bed in the morning: in this travelogue of Antarctica, his perverse curiosity and zest for the harshest extremes of nature transform what might have been a standard TV special into an idiosyncratic expression of wonder. Read full review

Rick Groen

All this is as fascinating as it is humbling, even when Herzog ventures a little too far down eccentricity's back alley. Read full review

Desson Thomson

It's as much fun to anticipate what he's (Herzog) going to say as it is to appreciate the snowy landscapes, belching volcanoes and mustachioed seals before his lens. And what could have been a conventional travelogue becomes a sort of ruminative odyssey of the mind. Read full review

V.A. Musetto

Encounters may lack the power of, say, the Herzog doc "Grizzly Man," because it has no bigger-than-life character at its nexus, but it does confirm the filmmaker as an iconoclastic master. Read full review

Michael Rechtshaffen

Retains considerable entertainment value on the strength of Herzog's never-dull, very personal narrating style. Read full review

Elizabeth Weitzman

Creating a hypnotically digressive travelogue, Herzog wanders from soul to soul, asking deceptively mild questions to potent effect. Read full review

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User Reviews

appliedlingfan

Jun 2, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Herzog had a myriad of questions about the nature of living things such as why ants are able to farm lower lifeforms for sustenance, but highly advanced primates do not run off into the sunset on the backs of donkeys.The relatively absurd imagery set a tone for the documentary as an exploration of the ridiculous, and established humorous undertones for the production as a whole. They were questions that seemed irrelevant in the context of what it largely considered to be a desolate arctic desert, but instead were instrumentally guiding principles in what became an undeniably beautiful exploration on the unity and diversity within not just the people of McMurdo, our homebase of the documentary, but of humanity and natural life as a whole. His questions later focus on the inhabitants of the land and how they found themselves at the end of the Earth. Over a series of interviews, we are treated to some refreshingly honest depictions of individuals who, more often than not, express some notion of having “fallen off the edge” of the world and from conventional society. The collection of all these individuals’ experiences evolved further what was at its core a documentary bursting with otherworldly scenery, sounds, and stories. The interaction between human narratives and nature guided what became a contribution to a discourse much older than the documentary itself. This discourse being the positive and negative impact we have on our surroundings, the fate of us, and the regulatory force that nature acts as in response to our actions. Every interview was beautifully and empathetically conducted, and all those that were chosen to participate in the film shared stories that left me either laughing, thoughtful, somber, or just generally intrigued about these enigmatic strangers we were getting to meet. Herzog’s Opera Directing background was massively peacocking (in a good way, I was very into it) throughout the visionary and auditory masterpiece that was ‘Encounters at the End of the World.’ The music direction and on-sight audio recordings provided an element of presence and feeling of being there. Herzog insured that anything he had experienced was something we would also experience. For better or for worse we were along for the entire sensorial experience. Herzog had to hear awful, discordant sounds of construction? We too get dedicated minutes to experience it as well. On the flip side,when he shared with us Antarctica’s version of “Pink Floyd,” we could almost feel the ice against our cheeks while watching the scientists listen alongside us. The musical and sound directions were immaculate to say the least. I found myself lost in it. Now, to say the most would be to additionally applaud Herzog on his narration throughout. We so often are used to the welcoming and damn near dulcet tones of a Sir David Attenborough, or Benedict Cumberbatch, but rarely are we treated to an unabashedly sassy narrator who expresses sarcasm and wit and a sardonic humor that matches the general sentiments of all the inhabitants of the icy terrain. With regard to developing the tone of the documentary, the narration was really a highlight for me. In this alien world that feels so separate from what is conventional for the audience (a world that might as well have been manufactured to kill us in every way imaginable) there is a remarkable humor in the residents that is both unexpected and somehow completely natural. Just as well, there’s nothing worse than a narrator that doesn’t know when to quit and a director that doesn’t respect the power of silence. Herzog is neither of those things. The world he creates for us is powerful and (I say this as an atheist) near to god, but somehow without contradiction a reflection of what makes us so human. We have humor, joy, art, despair, trauma, and beauty within us even at the end of the world. The contradictions are familiar and as old as mankind, and they demand the audience to wax on all the philosophy of it. Just as Herzog and those who explore the land contain in them both humor and pain, so does the land they inhabit have a wealth of dangers and an air of mystery that demands solving. It is the interweaving of this human desire to endure for the sake of exploration and discovery but to maintain levity and joy despite danger that anchors this documentary. All this being said, there was never a question as to whether the human interviews upstaged the film of what inhuman life lay above and below the ice. The reverence to natural life was unmistakable, and the lack of emphasis on the documentarian's reactions to everything culminated to create a world of art that blended humanity into nature in a way that put nature on a pedestal and blent humanity into a “facet of” rather than in contrast to that nature. Overall, If you’re anything like me, you’ll experience an unforgettable rainbow of emotion and be left with a new lens on society in the aftermath.… Expand

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SydO

Aug 2, 2008

Truly and exceptional documentary. Herzog steps beyond the "penguin" side of Antarctica to show the truly mysterious and other worldly goings on of the continent and it's imported inhabitants. His dry humor never lets the film get to caught up in itself. It really is a delight to see.

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ramseyperez

May 30, 2020

One would have to travel to the end of the world to find a movie this good. In Encounters at the End of the World, Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica in this documentary to answer some of his most pressing questions about nature that range from, “why do people chase the bad guy?” to “why doOne would have to travel to the end of the world to find a movie this good. In Encounters at the End of the World, Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica in this documentary to answer some of his most pressing questions about nature that range from, “why do people chase the bad guy?” to “why do ants have slaves?”. It’s a puzzling premise, but in his journey for knowledge everyone can come out finding a new truth or a new way to look about the world.
Mainly set at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, Herzog interviews different residents and scientists to help him reach an answer to the questions asked at the beginning of the movie. The various people give both a sense of the culture surrounding the most uninhabitable region of the world and what there is to do out there. These people also give some information on how it is possible to sustain this culture and maintain people living there. Between these scenes, Herzog will show some beautiful images of the arctic landscape and the ocean beneath it.
Herzog was able to find some interesting locals to interview, and everyone had something to say that we should take note of. The bus drivers had lived previously as a banker, only to find out that money isn’t everything. Their stories make you wonder: “Should I leave and search for what I really want to do?”, because it seems to be the answer among many of these interviewees. From the forklift driver to young man Jirsa who feel that the people of Antarctica are kindred spirits. These explorers being almost quite literally at the end of the World is something that the movie points out as quite natural. It is also the stories that are attached to these people that inspires people to think that maybe “I should have more adventures in my life.” In Antarctica, there are people who’ve discovered new species, people who’ve hitchhiked across countries, you even got a descendant of a royal Aztec.
Aside from the interviewees, there is the interviewer/narrator/director himself, Werner Herzog. His interesting inquiries established from the beginning that Herzog has a mindset of his own. The difference from a romanticized version of people in harmony among “fluffy penguins” and the mining town that he calls the Mcmurdo base is just an example of the creativity that he adds to the film. He also often throws in his own cheeky comments that give the narration a little dash of comedy. The “abominations” of yoga classes and aerobic studios give the narration a little sass that contrasts the serious tone that he carries throughout the film. I wish the man would narrate more because apparently a monotone German accent can add this mystifying element to any subject. With a personality like his, I don’t know how much of the appeal of the conversations shown I should attribute to him or to the local.
The other-worldliness of Antarctica itself is something that needed no help being conveyed by either Herzog or the locals. The continent is a beauty unto itself and lordie does it deliver. You can’t help but get lost into the bubbles forming up against the ice ceiling and the marine life that is down there. Herzog opens the movie with the images that inspired him to go to Antarctica which has a stalagmite in the ocean being studied by a diver. The multitude of creatures that were completely new to me just adds to the difference in the world I am used to and the separate one that is Antarctica. To off-set the jaw-dropping ice cliffs and mountain ranges Herzog includes seals and penguins. If it weren’t for the 180 done from blizzards to seals, I think the seals would have set the cuteness to overload. With new and familiarity, Herzog really does a good job advertising all that the south pole offers.
To back up the visuals there is a composition that transports you to the divine if the images alone did not get you there already. The church-like choirs harmonizing makes one believe that at the very least, Antarctica is something bigger than yourself, if you don’t believe that this is a godly gift to the world. There is also the old-timey music fitted with bagpipes and the most grainy footage that is used when talking about Shackleton’s expedition. Finally, the movie closes off to the seal sounds that seem to come out of a science fiction movie. Like you really can’t prepare for the similarity between a seal cry and some synthesizer notes. Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World really does offer an image of what another world looks like as you get to the end of ours. The attitude of the people there inspires us all to go on our own voyages to appreciate the nature that we are a part of. If you need a reason to find the explorer in you, then look to this movie to bring it out of you.… Expand

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NewlandA.

Jun 28, 2008

The most interesting part of the film is the collection of odd ducks that populate the South Pole. I could have used more of them and less of the penguins. Good but a bit long.

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JayH.

Nov 14, 2008

6.5/10. Frequently fascination, occasionally slow moving and boring. It is a very informative documentary with some arresting images and it is well researched. Good narration.

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HyperS

Dec 1, 2008

A documentary of sorts has two goals in my view: 1) Either entertain the audience. 2) Or spark a sense of curiosity and imagination in the audience and educate them along the way. This film failed to do both. The film was about Antarctica, but you could have renamed it to "Alaska" or A documentary of sorts has two goals in my view: 1) Either entertain the audience. 2) Or spark a sense of curiosity and imagination in the audience and educate them along the way. This film failed to do both. The film was about Antarctica, but you could have renamed it to "Alaska" or "Canada" or even "Colorado" and no one would have known the difference. Heck take a camera into a random apartment complex and interview the tenants and you'd probably get a more entertaining film. The film focused more on the more-often-than-not lackluster researchers on the continent instead of showing the audience the aura of Antarctica. Where are the exotic creatures? Inspiring underwater sequences [all but one in the film]? What no cool ice glacier canyons or anything? We got a few seconds of some Penguins [snore], a couple of starfish [snore], one clam [snore], and one jellyfish [snore]. Oh, but we got to watch them sexually assault a family of seals! I'm a fan of documentaries, but this one has no theme... no point... just random bits glued together and the pace was too slow just waiting... hoping... for anything to peek one's curiosity. I became so bored I began envisioning the narrator as Arnold Schwarzenegger just to pass the time. Save the time and just flip on the Discovery channel and watch Planet Earth or something. In 5 minutes you'll get more than this film has to offer in 1hr 40 mins.… Expand

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UndeadSamurai01

Sep 6, 2010

I watched this documentary and was appalled that a filmmaker could take a subject matter this interesting into an terrible film. It made very little sense and had no real point, despite the filmmakers repeated ham-fisted attempts to relate it to some overarching philosophy. His 'dry sense ofI watched this documentary and was appalled that a filmmaker could take a subject matter this interesting into an terrible film. It made very little sense and had no real point, despite the filmmakers repeated ham-fisted attempts to relate it to some overarching philosophy. His 'dry sense of humor' as some put it, consisted mainly of him asking scientists insipid questions about gay penguins wasting both their time and mine as a viewer.

I was even more surprised to see that it had received so many awards and positive reviews.

The one redeeming feature of this documentary is that it contains some incredible footage, and interviews with some great people which even this hack couldn't entirely destroy.

When it comes right down to it I would actually recommend this film to people. If you manage to ignore the stupid interviewer and the poor shot selection there is some useful insight into a rarely seen side - not of Antarctica, but of the people who work there.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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