Attempting to be too many things at once, it is ultimately not a satisfying story about humanity, nor does it truly capture the mysterious natural world of Antarctica.
Comment
07/30/08
Encounters At the End of the World (2007)
93
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:100
Fresh:93
Rotten:7
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: Encounters at the End of the World offers a poignant study of the human psyche amid haunting landscapes.
Theatrical Release:Jun 11, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $723,966
Synopsis: Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn) confirms his standing as poet laureate of men in extreme situations with Encounters at the End of the World. In this visually stunning exploration, Herzog... [More]
Director: Werner Herzog
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Reviews for Encounters At the End of the World
Herzog’s fascination with the human mind is trumped only by his fear and loathing of the powerful forces of nature that continually crush it
07/29/08
As fans of his work know, Herzog has always had more than a smidge of charlatan in him. But rather than act as if he doesn’t, Herzog embraces this aspect of his personality in his films.
07/29/08
[Director Werner Herzog] gets an almost perverse pleasure out of staring into abysses...
07/25/08
The underwater sequences are breathtaking and ethereal.
07/24/08
Antarctica, it turns out, is the perfect setting for Herzog to find the themes that have fascinated him: The mercilessness of nature, and the foolhardiness of humans who would challenge nature.
07/24/08
In the documentary Encounters at the End of the World, there’s a twist that swiftly counters Herzog’s instincts: Mankind’s industrial supremacy has not excluded the South Pole.
07/24/08
There are many moments in the film where [Herzog's] essential liveliness breaks the wall of fatalism that he seems obliged to construct.
07/19/08
Herzog, contemporary cinema's most consistently lyrical examiner of the (in)human condition, returns to the documentary form in yet another wonderfully improbable locale: Antarctica, the literal bottom of the world.
07/18/08
This is Werner Herzog at his best -- a cynic with a big heart, and a nasty wit.
07/12/08
The sky is relentlessly blue, the sun bright even in the thick of night. In this odd and unforgettable place, Herzog has made his own poetry.
07/11/08
[Herzog is] a filmmaker ideally suited to recognize and celebrate...deep irony.
07/11/08
Gosh, Werner Herzog, would you like a little movie to go with your 99-minute, rambling lecture on Antarctica?
07/11/08
Seeing the movie becomes a method of understanding, of putting into perspective, our place and limited privilege on Earth.
07/11/08
A mesmerizing new documentary that contains some of the most stunning, unlikely and unforgettable moments that Herzog has ever given us and by definition, that means that they are some of the most stunning, unlikely and unforgettable moments ever seen.
07/11/08
A poem of oddness and beauty. Herzog is like no other filmmaker, and to return to him is to be welcomed into a world vastly larger and more peculiar than the one around us. The underwater photography alone would make a film, but there is so much more.
07/11/08
Top Critic... an engaging and generous profile of the fascinating folks who have chosen to live at the end of the world.
07/10/08
The film is most absorbing when Herzog stays out of the way.
07/10/08
A contrarian spiritual journey as provocative as it is hypnotic, Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World literally treks to planet's end.
07/10/08
Top CriticWerner Herzog is a magnet for obsessives, and his lovely new film, Encounters at the End of the World, takes you places an ordinary filmmaker might've gone to yet missed completely.
07/10/08
Top CriticLatest News for Encounters At the End of the World
February 16, 2009:
Werner Herzog Looks Back 
Werner Herzog has a reputation for populating his documentaries with larger-than-life personalities, but according to the director, it's never planned that way -- the stories he... More...
July 06, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
July 01, 2008:
Edinburgh 2008: What to Watch
We share twenty of the best films screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, currently running in the Scottish city. More...
March 13, 2008:
Werner Herzog Taking Audiences on Antarctic Adventures
Throughout his career, Werner Herzog has shown a fascination with protagonists in impossible situations. For his latest film, he took his cameras to what might be the most... More...
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