Herzog calls it 'ecstatic truth', and it is an artistic device, if you will. He wrote a whole manifesto on the concept, it is worth checking out. I personally love him for this - don't see him as a documentarian, looking for facts, but a composer who bends reality to serve a larger narrative. This is how I understand Herzog's storytelling method.
Seen in this light, various creation myths in many ways hold more meaning than our modern notion of the Big Bang. There is little drama in the Big Bang, no narrative, and thus it becomes a cold, dead concept we are unable to grasp with our feelings and senses. A giant had a fight and died, thus creating mountains? That makes total sense to me, if you see what I mean. Herzog doesn't deny the Big Bang, and neither do I, meaning is merely to be found beyond the looking glass.
000111001101 t1_isy0hyc wrote
Reply to comment by jesusismagic in Lessons of Darkness (1995) - In 1991, retreating Iraqi armies set fire to hundreds of oil wells in Kuwait, creating a hell on earth. Werner Herzog explores this nightmare world, and the people who existed within it. [00:54:12] by _volkerball_
Herzog calls it 'ecstatic truth', and it is an artistic device, if you will. He wrote a whole manifesto on the concept, it is worth checking out. I personally love him for this - don't see him as a documentarian, looking for facts, but a composer who bends reality to serve a larger narrative. This is how I understand Herzog's storytelling method.
Seen in this light, various creation myths in many ways hold more meaning than our modern notion of the Big Bang. There is little drama in the Big Bang, no narrative, and thus it becomes a cold, dead concept we are unable to grasp with our feelings and senses. A giant had a fight and died, thus creating mountains? That makes total sense to me, if you see what I mean. Herzog doesn't deny the Big Bang, and neither do I, meaning is merely to be found beyond the looking glass.