Werner Herzog’s unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power. Does the German aestheticize the horrors of war? Damn right he does — and it’s a stinging rebuke to the sanitized images allowed on the TV news.
Massive towers of flame and billowing black smoke transform the desert into a surreal, expressionist nightmare-world; Kuwaitis turn shocked, saddened eyes to the camera, without recrimination; fire fighters appear to be involved in bizarre, primeval rituals as they go silently about their seemingly ineffectual work. Herzog’s own hushed, awestruck voice intones the poetic narration, while the likes of Wagner, Mahler, Verdi and Pärt are enlisted to furnish an epic, elegiac musical backdrop.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
An evocation of hell on earth… with an epic, elegiac musical backdrop.
Time Out
Herzog is a fearless, meticulous director who approaches his subject in a timeless manner, turning this disaster into a great theme, a story for all time.
Jeffery M Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
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Werner Herzog
Germany
1992
No Dialogue
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Credits
Screenwriter
Werner Herzog
Cinematography
Paul Berriff
Editor
Rainer Standke
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.