"Why is it that a sophisticated animal like a chimpanzee does not utilize inferior creatures? He could straddle a goat and ride off into the sunset," asks "Encounters at the End of the World" director Werner Herzog, who also directed "Grizzly Man" and "Fitzcarraldo."
His latest documentary, "Encounters at the End of the World," journeys to Antarctica, a startling choice as the continent is devoid of native primates and artiodactyls, in search of the answer.
Herzog delights in viscerally shocking his audience, sometimes using photos showing a disemboweled bear or footage of tribal piercings. Yet throughout the piece, he also shocks with beauty.
Divers glide around massive chandeliers of ice, backlit by the arctic sun while navigating under the Ross Sea's frozen ceiling in the film's opening scenes. Gregorian chants suffuse many of these natural scenes with a sense of awe, while folk tracks signal the encroachment of civilization.
As a military transport carries the director and his crew from New Zealand to McMurdo Station, the largest permanent settlement in Antarctica, Herzog explains how his peculiar curiosity about nature ensures "Encounters" won't be just "another film about penguins."
McMurdo Station, which sounds suspiciously like McMurder in Herzog's deliberate Capote-via-Munich narrative voice, serves as a springboard for the film. Director and crew depart from the station to crisscross the continent and visit scientists in the field.
Along the way Herzog asks or implies many poignant questions. Is there such a thing as insanity among penguins? And why do we embrace "tree huggers and whale huggers in their weirdness" while ignoring the equal devastation of human culture?
The film is often driven by a childlike curiosity, which at times is paired with childlike impatience and often gives way to cynical frustrations.
While visiting researchers, Herzog is fascinated by the surreal, Pink Floyd-esque language of seals and the possibility that microscopic creatures could display an artistic intelligence.
But when stuck in McMurdo, he sometimes falls back to chastising the dirty construction-site atmosphere or sneering at its "abominations such as an aerobic studio and yoga classes."
These observations avoid becoming tedious only when Herzog dons his anthropologist's cap, finding human interest stories that range from the philosophizing fork lift driver to the plumber of royal Aztec decent.
His initial question begins to reveal itself as Herzog's world view crystallizes ¾ through his eyes, humans are just another of the universe's wondrous phenomena, no more or no less startling than volcanoes, neutrinos or Weddell seals.
"Encounters" recasts Antarctica, turning it from a barren wasteland to a veritable playground for the scientist or "professional dreamer."
"When we are gone, what will happen in thousands of years in the future? Will there be alien archeologists trying to find out what we were doing at the South Pole?" Herzog inquired with cherubic delight.
Don't miss this award-winning film and be left wondering along with them; of course, you won't be either way.
"Encounters at the End of the World" premieres at the Hippodrome on Sept. 5 at 6:30 p.m.
