I actually wouldn't have minded if there was no narration at all. It's not that I disapprove of Herzog's techniques, as long as he's up front about the fiction aspect, it's fine, but the images are striking (and melodramatic) enough without the put-upon morality tale.

Minimal documentation. Instead Herzog shoots his subject flawlessly. Yet again he combines beautiful images with music to produce a visual treasure.

Fills in the voids of lack of purpose of Fata Morgana. Lessons of Darkness feels so much more pointed, purposeful, and poignant. The shots are just stunning and the music is perfect. Herzog's way of placing elements of fiction within his documentaries is one of the reasons I love him as a director, and here he pulls it off as well as he ever has.

A breathtaking anti-war statement. It lies to the audience about what is actually happening, but I don't mind that because the end product is all the more fascinating and beautiful as a result. Its view of the world is from an alien perspective (part of the reason it gets away with its deceptions) as it looks at seas of oil alight comprising some truly stunning images. The workers relighting the oil is meant to show man%u2019s destructive nature and thus highlight the tendency towards war.

The first hyperreal war's Old Testament aftermath.

Visually staggering. Narration is used only fittingly. Striking apparition of film.

A must-watch for fans of documentaries.

#910

Beautifully shot, more than rattling, and with a good dose of the Herzog quirkiness/depth quotient.

Most beautiful portrayal of the ugliness of war I've seen.

Beautiful and otherworldly. Herzog manages to make these desolate, apocalyptic landscapes seem ethereal and transcendent with his long, gliding camera movements and use of music. The human interludes offer a nice contrast to these scenes, providing gravitas to the film and enhancing its Biblical overtones: beauty and horror, intertwined.

The closing voice-over and shots are perfect.

I kind of expected to be bored. I knew that this film had minimal commentary and plot. But yet again Herzog works his magic, and makes the film transcend its own subject matter. He makes it into a visual poem. There's a bit of the apocalypse, a bit of industrialization, and a bit of modern warfare, all thrown together into the image of burning oilfields. The film's simplicity somehow carries more depth with it than it would have if Herzog had been more explicit with his intentions.

Utterly mesmerizing. Herzog proves again why he is our most important filmmaker... it's almost 20 years later, and I was floored by the footage. The sparseness of Herzog's commentary was perfect, as was the music. This is really a film everyone should see ... it's lost none of its power.

Unbelievable images. My mind couldn't even wrap around some of the things depicted. Great music as well.

"the oil is treacherous"

Wow, the aerial shots of the oil spouts burning are enough for me to recommend this film. I really liked all of the biblical eschatology and Herzog's narration too. My main complaints are that the few genuinely humane moments scattered throughout make the aeriel scenes feel very detached and the film feels cobbled together in some places. Any criticism by other reviewers is perfectly valid. But I give it a high score on the basis of personal preference alone.

Most of it is beautiful shots of burning oil wells and desolate battlefields filmed from a helicopter, accompanied by bombastic orchestral music, and scattered about are a few genuinely horrifying accounts given by interviewees. It's a well-meaning and rather effective documentary, although those same methods that worked for La Soufriere kind of bugged me in this context. Taking visually pleasing shots of a war-torn land seems a bit cynical to me, a bit out of place.

I love the concept. Herzog looks at reality from a unique, poetic perspective. I'd like to see more filmmakers explore possibilities like this.

Visually stunning! But I have serious restrictions about the way that Herzog conducts his documentaries.

Unique and spellbinding.

# 864

Better visuals than any sci-fi move, but I wish Herzog had spent more time on some of the sequences. Some felt rushed and with just a tad bit more time spent on eacn sequence (The film is only around fifty minutes, it's not like he couldn't afford to be a little indulgent) I think the film could have even more of an impact.

A visually striking film; if you are interested in the topic, some shots will leave you breathless (the 'Perturbances' [or 'Protuberanzen'] segment is my favorite). As for me, it felt like a guided tour through hell; even though slow paced and with practically nothing going on, it's hard to look away - though sometimes you might wish you could, for apearently no reason at all. Herzog scores again.

Hardly a documentary, more like Herzog's twist on a real life event. I guess you can say that for many of his documentaries, but it's most true here.

A slowly moving sci-fi semi-documentary with some striking imagery and beautiful music.

Herzog has done the fictionalized narration over documentary footage thing several times in his career, from The Unprecendented Defence to Wild Blue Yonder. But I think this is the best application of it. It's used very sparingly, and when it is used, it speaks of a higher truth than the simple facts would suggest. And really, it's the astonishing images he captures that speak for themselves. A beautiful vision of Hell on Earth.

Although its a bit repetitive, it's never tedious; the beautiful footage is hypnotic and the attached narrative is perfect for this vision of the madness of war.

Some of the chapters were really short and rushed, but the photography was absolutely beautiful.

A poem on hell. The lyrical joining of awe-inspiring images, soaring music, and skeletal narration. I loved having this film as my tour guide, but the "madness" described at the end is dishonest for Herzog to use. It worked for the mood of the film (or if you look at it as a naive sci-fi documentary), but there was actually a very sane explanation why the men had torches that I had to look up afterwards. Also -1 pt for taking Pascal's name in vain.

An interesting montage of a certain kind of "hell on earth". Very nice imagery of burning oil fields. But, I felt defensive about what Herzog seemed to be insinuating with the film. I didn't appreciate the lies he infused in it for the sake of heightening emotional response. The misleading, narrow perspective reminded me of Michael Moore's films. In total he earns points for imagery but loses points on everything else. Perhaps if I was less of a skeptic, the film would have worked better for me.

"Mama, I don't ever want to learn how to talk."

Herzog paints an otherworldly portrait, an apocalyptic tone poem.

Herzog with unreal footage of the sheer alien landscape of war-torn and oil-spewing Kuwait. A science-fiction styled landscape and narrative against something from our own planet.

Stunning visuals, very good musical accompaniment and sparse but meaningful Herzog interjections.

Incredible, but I agree with Shmendrek that the film does feel a bit lopsided. Either stick with the human element or just keep it to the aerial shots. The end scenes with the re-lighting of the geysers was very disturbing for me and I recommend this to anyone looking for a different approach to a documentary. Simply haunting.