Into the Inferno

It's like watching a Bond villain scout locations for his evil lair.

It feels like Herzog started out trying to make an updated "Fata Morgana" - from creation myth to creation of myth - but kept getting sidetracked by the various locales he explored. The segments are interesting on their own, but for someone who's usually so fond on enforcing his own ideas on whatever he films, "Inferno" feels oddly passive.

Now this is prime Herzog material. The duality of volcanoes makes them a great subject to explore, and the beliefs that spring up about them are quite interesting as well. He even managed to film within North Korea! The cinematography really shines, with endlessly watchable close-ups of exploding lava.

Another awesome vision of nature's scope and power, pondering and digressive as is this filmmaker's wont. Werner Herzog, in his neverending quest to explore the relationship between earth and man, is not only cinema's principal ecologist, but also among the great spiritualists.

As with 'La Soufrière', Herzog is here not so much interested in the scientific details of the structure and function of volcanos, but rather the forces generated from the intersection of volcanoes with humans; it's a sociology of volcanoes. I appreciate that Herzog is pals with Oppenheimer and that the latter's books is the basis for the film, but Oppeneheimer does not do much for me on screen. It's Herzog's eyes, ears and mouth that do all the meaningful cinematic work. Clive, wear a hat!!!

Meanders a lot, too much. The volcano footage is only about 10-15 minutes. The rest feels disjointed and not always interesting. The North Korea segment didn't really have a place here. That's my biggest problem with this film: it's like Herzog just filmed whatever he thought was interesting, without clear focus. I was expecting a documentary about volcanoes. Should have been renamed 'Herzog visits some volcanoes and mostly talks with the local people about it. And then he gets distracted.'

As much about the goofy weirdos who pop up in all corners of the earth as anything else. My favorite was the whacked-out Berkeley hippie who talked about fossil fragments like they were his favorite Grateful Dead live cuts. Needless to say, the volcano footage is extraordinary.

Like all of Uncle Werner's work,it's interesting at least. Diverges a bit with the trip to North Korea,and more about different cultures and their local volcanoes than I expected. some great footage though.

Revisits the subject of volcanos from the director's great "La Sufriere", this time looking at several active volcanos around the world in the company of a volcanologist, but that's just for starters. Tangentially inquisitive as always, Herzog also uses his trip as an excuse to observe curious native religions, paleoanthropologists at work, and even the isolationist society of Kim Jong-Un's North Korea. It's him doing what he does best, so it's expectedly fascinating.

Some amazing film footage here, especially the Krafft's, but there's a more conventional feel to this one. The different cultural ties to volcanoes are really interesting, especially Mt. Paektu in North Korea, but I felt Herzog could have delved a bit deeper into the individual psyches of people who have to live so precariously. This is more of a systemic look at the belief systems that revolve around volcanoes, and it often goes off on distracting tangents when put into historical context.

Vulcanic excursion with Werner Herzog. Didn't erupt, but finds it's spirit in the dust.

It's a fascinating documentary that keeps losing focus. The North Korea part is amazing but should have been a documentary all of it's own (knowing Herzog's penchant for returning to his previous subjects, let's all hope so). Nevertheless it is visually stunning and never less than captivating.

The best documentary I've ever watched? I'm still not sure what to make of it. We go from inside North Korea to a cannibal-jungle tribe to the remnants of an Asian village where an American named John Frum convinced the people he was a reincarnation of Jesus. And somehow it's connected with soul-satisfying drone shots of volcanoes. Plus Herzog narrates. It's beautiful.

Above all else, Herzog's interest is in humanity. Here the adventure is to explore how nature informs culture; how volcanoes give rise to religious thinking, communal worship, and a desire to understand one's place in the world.

Good and interesting, with some amazing images. I can't blame the director for taking the opportunity to take a look inside North Korea; also, the documentary is worth watching for the footage from the Ethiopian desert alone.

Viewed November 14, 2016. Into the Inferno shows us that Herzog still has the capacity to surprise. He's made his way to North Korea, and his rumination on this country is jawdropping. The country gives him plenty of great visual fodder, but the implications of what he finds - the non-stop propaganda, the obvious lying, the brainwashing - are much deeper. It makes you reconsider the nature of documentary filmmaking, of Herzog's ecstatic truth.

Familiar Herzog territory, focusing on people with dangerous jobs/interests and tribes/communities who are impacted by natural phenomena. The volcano footage is spectacular, and Herzog touches upon the numerous symbolic meanings of volcanoes from multiple perspectives and some of the tangents are interesting, especially the segment in North Korea. Like most recent Herzog documentaries, the narration is a bit too self consciously 'Herzogian', but we shouldn't take his singularity for granted.

A nice little anthropological study with interesting tangents that are tangents nonetheless.

It seems a bit random and quirky and directionless until the final third which all makes sense and shines in unique subtle glory.

More from what you expect of Herzog - highlighting, enabling and diving into the various eccentricities of the human subjects, the timely utilisation of classical music, the attachment of a credible industry resource (Oppenheimer) & a multi-continental exploration into the subject matter. On that note, I felt like the DPRK sequence got a little side-tracked, as if Herzog couldn't help but leverage the whole volcano thing to justify being a fly on the wall within the rogue state.

Usually Herzog connects his tangents with ease, seemed clunky here. Definitely some moments and shots of quality, for once more focus would of been more effective.

A bit disconnected but some interesting segments.

Moving between Vanuatu, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iceland and North Korea, the interests behind this documentary are less volcanological than ethnographic, including the anthropology of scientists themselves. It is always interesting, and good use is made of footage of magma, explosions, pyroclastic flows and so on, adding yet another fine chapter to Herzog's vast exploration of the diversity of man's relationship to his milieu.

Nowhere is it evident that this is made for Netflix instead of the cinema. Next to an interesting docu about volcanoes, with some great images about the destructive power of them, Herzog also goes on some tangents about an archaeological expedition in Ethopia searching for fossil of the first human beings, a very interesting, insightful and rare look into the North-Korean society and about cargo cults in Melanesia, which shows how a religion comes into the existence.

Came for the volcanos, stayed for the interesting people

It's much better when there are volcanoes on screen but the rest of it's pretty good too.

Loved it! Great images, nice human stories and some good philosophy about impermanence and duality. Maybe the parts on North Korea and Ethiopia were a bit distant from the main line, but worth it anyway.

Another brilliant documentary from Herzog. Is he the most ecological director of our time?

Volcanoes are only background to the story about inaccessible places and people living there.

Still an enjoyable and wonderfully interesting documentary, but not one of my favourites from Herzog. As much as I love his tangents, the ones in this just go on a bit too long and leaves this film feeling messy and unfocused. I also don't think Oppenheimer is enough of a personality to "lead" a documentary. This film contains some of the most striking images I have ever seen put to screen and those last 25 minutes are absolutely crazy (I now worship John Frum)