The Age of Commercialism

Fantastic!

Absolutely brilliant

The acting in this movie is really good.

I'd better to say I might be biased.I'm not "Hey,this is killer!"person. And here,Herzog met MIchael,28 yrs old kid,just lost his father 2 weeks before, and facing imminent execution.Some people found his laugh ,like "Sick"or "Psychopath".No,It was,Human's defense system. Even cats purr when he/she is dying. I've read one of recent executed inmate was so Hyper the morning he will be executed.(RIP..) People sometime laugh,depends of individual, when he/she knows his/her heart will stop by some chemical injected. It's not they're Psychopath,but just showing the are human. (Translated review I wrote for Amazon.jp years ago,and added new info)

Into the Abyss looks at people on Death Row. This time there's not very much of the 'ecstatic truth' that Herzog is often chasing in the wilds or jungles or in remote continents. This is about Michael Perry, facing death for a triple homicide, and others interviewed in the case, some also on death row, some not.There are no exacting 'sides' taken - though Herzog clearly states he's against the death penalty, which is important to note. And yet this is far from a polemic, and is something meant to be for all interested audiences, whether you believe the death penalty is a good idea or not for such cases or others.It's an incisive, disturbing and, by the nature of Herzog's conversational approach (not so much an "Interview" in a strict sense, he also says this) startling and revelatory in the little (and big details, and it's look into this ugly case, which showcases how dumb youth can really spoil a lot of things for people. But, paramountly, how the process of waiting for and about to be executed affects the person about to die, those closest to him, and the victim's families. It's precisely and unforgettably haunting because of how much Herzog looks at people who have looked into the abyss, and whether or not the abyss has looked back at them.

It's easy to view documentaries as less yielding of creative potential or stylistic freedom since principally it's a matter of holding a lens up to a story that's writing itself, casting itself and no sets have to be built. Werner Herzog has never been limited by this concern.Many documentaries made nowadays are a series of talking heads and graphics montages. Maybe a filmmaker with a sense of humor will throw some ironically relevant music under the info-dumps. And documentary has also become virtually synonymous with issue and message films. Very few seem to find the same spiritual center as a fiction piece. Herzog does.Into the Abyss is about a horrific, random and senseless crime spree that culminates in one of the myriad executions carried out by the state of Texas every year. But it's not a commentary on capital punishment or the society that produced such brainless, directionless criminals. It does something much more brave and original.The movie goes on, the story is told, Herzog interviews his subjects, crime scene videotape details the nightmarish aftermath of atrocity having invaded the most peaceful and complacent of homes, we drive down depressing roads in the modern cultural wasteland of the place where the tragic saga has played out. And yet throughout, there is a tone and inflection imbued with grace, understatement and objectivity. We will experience all too real human pain, sometimes without warning, but we almost don't know what hit us until we've traversed well into the given moment.There is something so simple, so docile, in the face of whatever brutality or doom or emotional quakes, making Herzog's film transcend the identity of a social issue piece or a sensationalistic expose to become an elliptical, humane contemplation of violence, life and loss. Considering Herzog's uncannily unique subjects and treatment in fiction and in documentary for decades---past films have involved entire casts being under hypnosis during shooting or being entirely comprised of dwarfs, or stories about men held captive in dungeons for lifetimes until adulthood---Into the Abyss may seem small potatoes by comparison.But Herzog has often said he doesn't choose projects, that they instead choose him. If that's the case, then his approach as a documentary filmmaker, with works such as this or Grizzly Man or The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, is frankly uncanny, to stand still when he realizes the profundity of a story and simply allow it to wash over him and consume him. How many filmmakers have the wisdom and confidence to master such a process?

Directed by one of my favorite masters of all time, Werner Herzog, Into the Abyss is a documentary which uses a crime and the impending execution of one of its perpetrators to try and answer the question why do people and the government kill? The movie begins with a long dialogue between the director and a priest whose duty is to administer last rites to the prisoners. It becomes clear during the very first sequence that the director is intensely anti-capital punishment. Then this moves towards the crime which was the killing of three people for a particular car and how the case was made against the killers. Herzog, with his sympathetic and German accented tone, expertly interviews the killers, one of whom was executed eight days after talking to him. There are echoes of In Cold Blood in this but they don't really resonate with you. The movie is well intentioned and manages to stir you for a few times. However, it lacks any real punch. There are no great revelations and I thought that the structure of the story telling was a bit convoluted at times as if the editor had f***ed up a bit. There are better documentaries and movies on this subject and two notable mentions have to be the life of David Gale and the Thin Blue Line. This is good cinema but doesn't hold a candle to those great and life changing works of art. For me personally, this is Herzog's weakest effort. But as a documentary it is above average. 3 out of 5