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THE WILD BLUE YONDER
Written & Directed by: Werner Herzog.
Produced by: André Singer.
Director of Photography: Henry Kaiser, Tanja Koop, Klaus Scheurich, & the astronauts of STS-34.
Edited by: Joe Bini.
Music by: Ernst Reijseger.
Released by: IFC.
Language: English.
Country of Origin: UK//France/Germany. 81 min. Not Rated.
With: Brad Dourif.

Although a beautiful meditation on nature and humanity, it’s hard to describe Werner Herzog’s new film as anything but an experimental fictional documentary. It’s primarily comprised of second-hand material appropriated into new storylines, and is experimental because, well, I can’t think of another film that’s even somewhat similar.

All the documentary footage is threaded together by monologues from the alien (Brad Dourif, overacting). As he explains it, “We aliens all suck.” That’s why when his planet began to die (the cause is left unexplained), his civilization spread across the universe to seek habitable chunks of mass. Only three ships made their way to Earth. Their attempts to assert themselves as colonizers failed – mostly because their plan was to build the ideal space colony, a self-contained complex with gyms, government offices, bars, and shopping malls. (Earth already had these.)

Interviews with real theorists and mathematicians Roger Diehl, Ted Sweetser, and Martin Lo (in archival footage) reveal that Earth was also deteriorating for unspecified reasons. The STS-34 space mission was sent to find potential locations for the human race to survive and the one suitable planet that was found happened to be the dying planet Wild Blue Yonder, the alien's home planet. (The footage of that undertaking is truly of that spacecraft, but its actual goal was to launch the un-manned Galileo space probe to orbit Jupiter.)

From the first moment where the alien introduces himself to the camera, plausibility is left at the door. The footage that appears alongside his voiceover acts as evidential support to the bizarre events throughout the film, adding a startling layer of realism. It also adds a kind of Discovery Channel beauty. The atmospheric sequences of astronauts in space set to Ernst Reijseger’s subtle, drawn-out score are remarkable. Scientists diving in waters under a frozen surface (repurposed as astronauts exploring the liquid helium atmosphere of Wild Blue Yonder) comprise the film’s latter part and will undoubtedly transport you into a new perspective, no matter how improbable the plot may be.

But it’s hard to remain stimulated by Herzog’s beautiful imagery when scenes of divers swimming and astronauts floating last for 15 minute intervals, which are often wordless and interminable. (I almost fell asleep – and I’m a fan of Andy Warhol’s plotless and seemingly unending films, so there you have it.) There’s no doubt that this is a rare and imaginative film, but not for everyone. Zachary Jones
October 25, 2006