After a lifetime of training his lens on other fictional and real subjects, Werner Herzog is now the subject of a documentary. His fascinating career is filled with stories that could be the basis for multiple movies, making condensation into one feature a particularly difficult task for filmmaker Thomas von Steinaecker. Utilizing exclusive interviews with many famous actors and Herzog himself, von Steinaecker paints a well-balanced and engaging portrait of the auteur, albeit with fairly large brushstrokes.
Herzog has spent his career defiantly marching to the beat of his own drum, switching between narrative and documentary features behind the lens while also occasionally venturing in front in projects such as The Mandalorian and Jack Reacher. He’s also an author, with multiple books to his credit including a new autobiography published this fall. His German-accented English is iconic and instantly recognizable, as put to great use in the narration of his many documentaries as well as occasional voiceover work in animated shows. In short, Herzog is a cottage industry all his own, frequently making his involvement in any project more important than the project itself.
While Herzog has never filmed a documentary about himself, he came fairly close in My Best Fiend (1999), recounting his lengthy and acrimonious relationship with actor Klaus Kinski, the star of his best-regarded narrative films. Those films are given the biggest share of screen time in Radical Dreamer, particularly Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972) and Fitzcarraldo (1982). Von Steinaecker also takes time to show the footage shot with the original pre-Kinski cast of Fitzcarraldo, Mick Jagger and Jason Robards. While those films and the Kinski drama clearly deserve a portion of this project, there’s not really any new information for viewers familiar with the original works, making the footage solely for the uninitiated.
Far better is von Steinaecker’s new footage of Herzog, particularly when he revisits his childhood home in Germany and the location for perhaps his most controversial film, Even Dwarves Started Small (1970). It’s a thrill to see Herzog returning to those locations decades later, even when he acts in a typically oddball Herzog fashion by refusing to enter his childhood home, preferring to stand outside and remember it as it is in his memory. Herzog also has some interview footage, although not as much as one might expect.
Instead, von Steinaecker leans on celebrities to give the project added star power as they recount their time working with Herzog. There’s nothing particularly illuminating in their recollections, just typical congratulatory fluff, but it is still a fine reminder of just how many big names Herzog has worked with through the years. Stars interviewed include Christian Bale, Nicole Kidman, and Robert Pattinson, as well as directors Wim Wenders and Chloe Zhao. I would have preferred a bit less celebrity in favor of more Herzog, as he’s clearly a man who can speak for himself, and do so in a highly entertaining fashion.
Oddly, the documentary features that Herzog has primarily focused on over the past three decades are given short shrift, merely glossed over in the latter part of the film. If you’re coming to this primarily as a fan of his documentary work, there’s very little content for you, just fleeting glimpses of a few of the films. Viewers who watch this will come away completely unaware that at this point he’s made far more documentary features than narrative films.
Von Steinaecker tasked himself with an incredibly difficult feat: whittling down a monumental career into one brisk documentary film. While the results aren’t quite as fully realized as I might have hoped, coming off as more Herzog 101 than a master class, I did enjoy the film and encourage neophytes with an interest in his work to seek it out. It’s a long overdue joy to have a film devoted to Herzog, especially when Herzog is still able to participate in its creation.
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer is available for home rental and purchase via all digital retailers starting on December 5th.
