User reviews

I had to wonder what I was watching throughout, consistently waiting for something to happen. Salt and Fire delivers a film which is more like a patchwork quilt. Bits and pieces of ideas designed to be thought provoking but, in a typical arty style, leave you to draw your own conclusions to the meaning. So it allows itself to be watchable, just about, without anything of significance taking place. The only thing I took from the whole thing was that sometimes people who like nice stuff make bad decisions and then have to face their demons.

The acting was stilted throughout. Even Michael Shannon, who I tend to consider at least reasonable, played his part in keeping with everyone else. I still wonder whether it was intentional, perhaps some device designed to make you ask why.

Interesting idea, but it probably deserves a more fitting synopsis. This isn't a thriller and certainly isn't a disaster movie or maybe it is, if the film could play out for another 200,000 years.

I began watching this film because I've always found Garcia Bernal an interesting actor. The beginning of the film was mysterious enough to hold my attention, but as it progressed, I found my interest waning. At about the halfway point I felt I had already invested so much time I couldn't stop watching. Then, as it progressed even further, I realized the only thing continuing to hold my attention was Veronica Ferres. That woman must have the longest legs in the world! Herzog needs to realize that presenting intellectual concepts in dramatic movie format must be dealt with very carefully or it becomes all too easy for the plot to become really boring!

Salt and Fire (2016)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Three scientists are on their way to give a report to the United Nations when they are taken hostage. Laura (Veronica Ferres) is the main focus as one of the kidnappers (Michael Shannon) wants to make sure she realizes what a greedy company can do to people and their environment.

Werner Herzog is one of the most fascinating filmmakers to ever grace film buffs yet there's no question that something went horribly wrong with this picture. Herzog has a brilliant mind and probably a mind that is a lot more intelligent than the majority of the people who watch his films yet for the life of me I don't know what he was trying to do with this picture. He wrote the screenplay so I'm sure he was trying to get some sort of message across about ruining the world that we live in but it comes as a pretty epic fail.

SALT AND FIRE is a very weird film and a very bad one at times. Again, I'm sure Herzog had something in mind but sadly it just didn't come to life on the screen and the end result is a rather boring and flat film. It starts off as a hostage/thriller type of picture yet there's never any suspense and for the life of me I can't even see where the director even attempted to build any. I'm really not sure what the entire point of this opening kidnapping was if you weren't going for some sort of suspense.

Things don't get much better once the lead scientist and her taker begin to form a strange relationship. Again, what the point of this was is rather confusing because it just doesn't play out in the picture. We then get another set up with the woman out in a salt field with two blind children. I think these sequences are the most interesting in the film and I'm sure something great could have been done with this alone but it just wasn't to be. Even these scenes are full of bad moments where there's just no pay off or anything of real interest.

Both Ferres and Shannon are good in their roles but there's just so much any great actor can do with mediocre parts. The film does features a rather nice and unique music score and I'd argue that the cinematography was very good as well. The film was shot in Boliva and we've got some terrific visuals to look at but sadly just about everything else is flat. SALT AND FIRE is a real misfire from a legendary director who usually delivers much better.

Saw this last night at TIFF. it was hard to sit for the whole movie.. Acting was just terrible, it was like these people had never acted before, or maybe this was there first time acting in English.

As for the plot...Its a simple one with the story that is stretched for too long. At times you are wondering what does the last 10 min has to do with the overall story...This is what you get when the director writes the scripts, and produces the movie...it becomes a college project... and the music, at times you wonder what was he thinking..even the volume of the music was not same across the movie..

Its a 2 star, just for some of the cinematography... save yourself your time and stay away. A lot of people left right after the credit started, which is rare at TIFF.

This is my first time rating a film on IMDb although I am a frequent user of the sight and enjoy it thoroughly.

I felt compelled to write this quick review as I can't believe actors like Mike Shannon and Gael Garcia Bernal took the roles in this terrible film. Adding to the fact Werner Herzog wrote, Produced and Directed this film lent some hope to its credibility, yet, it was by far, IMO, One of, if not THE, worst film he ever did.

I am a fan of his documentaries, but, barring Fitzcarraldo, he has no business making feature length films. The acting was God awful. The dialog was meaningless with no plot intent in sight. The film dragged from the opening scene to the very last scene. Even with Shannon's talent, his dialog portrayed him as dull and confused. Not the intense, Broad range performance's you expect from him. The film makes an attempt at being profound but fails dismally. I left the screening scratching my head wondering, "What the heck was this film about"?....Then, it occurred to me. It was about 98 minutes too long!

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time.

It was marketed as an eco-thriller with some big names involved; Michael Shannon and Werner Herzog being the two. That's where the good things behind the movie stop. It had some of the worst dialogue and acting I've ever witnessed, forced and painful.

The story was almost non-existent as it was mostly just shots of the salt flats to try and detract away from the literal lack of basic movie elements. Werner Herzog should be ashamed and probably stick to documentary filmmaking.

I booed at the end of the screening, Werner was there in the front row and I hope he heard me.

My suggestion: STAY AWAY from this film, it is a painful viewing experience.

Seen at TIFF 2016.

Werner Herzog is known for pushing boundaries in his films. He has gone to the extreme ends of the earth and walked alongside a madman dragging a Spanish galleon over the mountains to create unique cinema. Salt and Fire is in itself a film about extremes: Extreme environmental conditions, and extremists who kidnap scientists who come to study these conditions.

As a man-made ecological disaster unfolds in a South American nation, three scientists from the United Nations embark on a journey to discover the extent and causes of the disaster, only to be kidnapped by armed men and held hostage. What unfolds from here is a swirling tale which flirts with surrealism and science fiction. At times this felt Kafkaesque to me, as the kidnappers refuse to answer the simplest of questions and respond with non-sequiteurs. This flirtation with fantasy had me wondering what was to come... and a visit from aliens seemed the most likely scenario.

Perhaps this feeling of unreality I was experiencing was cognitive dissonance, driven by the appearance of cosmologist Laurence Krauss on screen. This is his first turn as an actor and I suppose he must be on sabbatical from the University of Arizona to be appearing in films where he isn't explaining the universe for us. He does tell us a bit about the major non-human player in the film, the "Salar de Uyuni", a salt lake high in the Andes which is world's largest flat surface. "Satellites use it to calibrate their distance from the ground," he says.

As head of the UN envoy Professor Laura Sommerfeld (Veronica Ferres) and head kidnapper Matt Riley (Micahel Shannon) drive out onto the salt, we learn it is expanding at 800 square miles per year, as the nearby dormant volcano threatens to become active and destroy life on earth as we know it. But it is here the story begins to unfold, and Riley's plans as a kidnapper are revealed. You'll have to see for yourself whether or not aliens turn up.

Herzog films can be challenging, and judging by some other reviews there are people who clearly hated this film. I did not. While the ending is a bit unsatisfying, overall the originality of the story kept me interested. Like most of his films, this is more of an experience than a story; but the story is there. When someone is kidnapped, we expect it to be a life changing experience, and that is exactly what Sommerfeld withstands as the film unfolds; however it is not in a way which we expect.

This is definitely a film for Herzog fans, with his trademark use of astonishing scenery and sparse dialogue coming together to create something we've never seen before. There are some interesting scenes using a single camera, such as one within a moving vehicle panning around from the back seat to the front to reveal the vast emptiness of the salt lake. The contrast between the verdant gardens of the compound where the hostages are held and the sea of desolation is juxtaposed by the types of prisons these two environments represent. And within all this is a visit to the train cemetery where pre-WWII trains used and abandoned by a long extinct mining industry rust and rot, a typically extraordinary location common to Herzog's films.

This is not Herzog's best film, but is certainly enjoyable and vastly more original than the majority of films released in 2016.

From the very beginning I kept thinking, are they expecting me to take this seriously? The dialog was just SO bad, and the delivery SO stilted, the camera angles SO affected, it's almost like someone set out to make a bad movie on purpose. I suppose there was a plot... something about scientists coming to a south American country to investigate an environmental disaster and getting abducted at the airport by scary gun- toting thugs wearing ski masks. From there it appeared to be going into some kind of psychological battle between the head captor and the calm and cool tall blond female head scientist. But I just couldn't bring myself to care, and I only made it 30 minutes or so into it before I realized it wasn't going to get better, and shut it off.

Being afraid of the dark is one thing, yet being afraid of the light is far worse. A United Nations delegation composed of three scientists, Laura, Krauss and Fabio (Gael Garcia Bernal), visits the Uyuni salt flats of Bolivian in order to help draw attention to an environmental tragedy taking place. However, as soon as the delegation lands its members are kidnapped by a militia controlled by businessman Matt Riley (Michael Shannon). As in paintings where the images change depending on the angle from which they are viewed, what Riley wants with the scientists gradually comes into focus in a thrilling and ingenious way.

The film's location practically steals the show; an immense salt flat with a looming super volcano. Fortunately the setting is not the only aspect of the film that is thrilling. Capable acting and directing, and an intriguing environmental theme, combine with other elements to make Salt and Fire a compelling picture. I love the intellectual candy including great quotes from Alexander the Great and Ecclesiastes. Sometimes, however, it is a little too awkward and slow moving. More oomph/depth is needed at critical points. Gael Garcia Bernal is wonderful and funny, but he has just a minor part. There is a fantastic twist at the ending. Seen at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

It's an abomination to feature "reviews" by philistines who clearly have no more familiarity with films of distinction than mountain boars have with haute cuisine, which, of course, is wasted on them. They are like the ignorant savages who threw shade on Picasso because his revolutionary deconstruction of faces and figures violated their slavish and unimaginative devotion to representational art. Their obtuseness in the face of an artist like Herzog would not be lessened by my or anyone's efforts to enlighten them here. They are no doubt sealed in their benighted pits of uncomprehending intellectual quicksand for the remainder of their sad, ludicrous lives on earth. Instead of proudly demonstrating their unabashed ignorance here, they would be better advised to slink off to populate over-ripe venues like Rotten Tomatos.

You might enjoy this movie if you like to see molasses flowing down a glacier. You might enjoy this movie if you like pretentious dialog delivered with a strange, foreign rhythm and ponderous translation. You might enjoy this movie if you like a 'save the Earth' message carved into a baseball bat, that is then used to knock you repeatedly over the head. You might enjoy this movie if you like to see endless, boring terrain shots.

You might enjoy this movie if you are a cinema masochist looking to severely torture yourself.

If you don't adhere to any of the above mentioned criteria, I would strongly suggest passing on this one. Toward the end, I was holding a box cutter to my throat...

This film tells the story of a team of three scientists who are sent to South America by the United Nations to investigate the extent of environmental damage by a multinational corporation. After arrival, they get kidnapped and imprisoned against their will.

The plot summary makes the story sound like a thriller or a mystery, but it is surely none of these. The leading scientist, Laura, is so calm and assertive that there is little tension. In addition, the relationship between the captor and the kidnapped is so cordial and polite, that it just does not look like a kidnapping. It is more like two friends talking about everything in the world. Then, towards the middle of the film, Laura is abandoned in a remote spot. Again, she is so calm and relaxed about the life threatening situation, that she manages to play a game of Ludo! The story is just unbelievably absurd, and it is plain boring. I can imagine that the film would not have been made, if it was not for the well respected and revered director. If it was not for the amazing scenery, I would have rated it even lower.

I'm surfing Netflix trying to find something good to watch. I run across this movie and lo and behold, Netflix has it rated 5 stars! I check this site, and the first review has it 7 stars and says it's an 'eco thriller'! So, I figure it must be worth a watch. WRONG! This may be the most boring, awful movie I've ever seen! I fought off sleep 4 times hoping that there would be something; anything that could make the movie worthwhile. But alas, nothing! I have no idea what was going on or why? Why were the scientists kidnapped? What's the consortium? What's with the two blind kids? Nothing, and I mean nothing makes sense? Trust me when I say this movie is awful. Don't waste your time. And please; to anyone who rated this mess higher than a 1, please stop. Anything higher than a 1 is a disservice to other readers.

Written (screenplay) and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Michael Shannon and Gael Garcia-Bernal I thought this had all the hallmarks of a great film. However never judge a book or indeed a DVD by its cover. Set somewhere we are not really bothered with we meet international scientists who are on their way to investigate an eco disaster that is man made. On arrival they are sort of kidnapped by a group of black clad and all powerful types led by Shannon.

Then Veronica Ferres playing Dr Sommerfield gets taken off to some huge salt flats (actually in Bolivia) where she is abandoned with two blind twins whom she is supposed to look after. I am not sure if this is supposed to signify something deep and quite frankly by this stage of the ordeal I was beyond caring. Along the way there is lots of 'I am shouting therefore I am acting' type scenes, tons of meaningless and, would be, profound soliloquising which is only heightened in annoyance by the most puerile 'ethnic music' being dribbled over the top.

Also everyone seems to act irrationally and the whole thing is just a mess. This is a classic of the sum does not equal its parts variety of film. I tried very hard to find some positives from this and I even though about eco messaging etc. In the end if the planet relies on these egocentric thugs to survive then its best off to be left waiting for the sun to burn out. Only watch if you are forced to and then put up a spirited resistance - recommended to be ignored by everyone.

The performance of the two high calibre actors, that were obviously propping up this film, was atrocious, as were the performances of the other three, the kids out acted them all! The dialogue was weak and scattered and the plot was non-existent, or did I miss something blindingly obvious? What was W. Herzog thinking?

The first hour of this movie is pretty bad, story/ acting, pointless flashback. but the last half hour is spectacular. worth watching for the end. maybe skip to it.

Its not uncommon for some movies to have a dull start but redeem themselves at some later point. Watching Salt and Fire was a lesson in keeping expectations low with the understanding that bad starts can get even worse as a film progresses. The movie was generally disrespectful of any regard for the viewer's time and was painstaking in both its progression and revelation of the plot. It was nothing more than a brief bout of insomnia that kept me watching. OK, I'll be honest; I was also curious as to whether the entire movie was as dull as start. The acting was poor; detrimentally so to the career actors and no less damaging to the aspiring ones. Perhaps the worst of the lot was the character played by Krauss. It felt almost as if Laurence's agent begged for him to somehow have a role in some movie, any movie. The role, the character, totally mind-boggling, ultimately nonsensical but undoubtedly befitting the man himself. You need to be both patient and curious to watch this. You need to not have regrets over 98 minutes of your life being lost as this was a choice you made. How, or more importantly, why, such films are made are questions which linger in my head. The budget could have been better spent making public service advertisements.

From the mind of Werner Herzog comes this beautifully shot and surprising movie. Three scientists researching a volcano are taken hostage by Matt Riley (played by Michael Shannon) and Krauss (played by ASU professor and theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss).

What unfolds is a film that only Herzog could deliver, with his unusual cadence of dialogue coupled with a strong cast, this movie not only challenges you to look beyond the obvious but also delivers some very wry comedic lines. The salt flat in Bolivia where this was was filmed is every bit as breathtaking as the rest of the film. The ending is quite handily stolen by Krauss who demonstrates his trademark humour and playfulness quite well in an unexpected format.

It is often cryptic and full of metaphors and references that are hardly intelligeable but I kept watching it and still remember it much more than many films that are more agreeable to watch, because it stands out of the mainstream,

...that is certainly not thrilling. Set against the amazing and beautiful backdrop of the Bolivian salt flats a kidnapped scientist plays board games while forced to camp with children going blind because their adopted father(who bought a consortium and kidnapped a group of scientists) wants said scientist to see the human suffering involved in irrigation or something? Toss in some abstract art. Weird synopsis for sure but I suffered through this heaping pile of so that hopefully I can save someone else from doing the same.

I'm sure the person who wrote this considers themselves to an intellectual...they should in no way be allowed access to writing materials again.

Acting...well they managed to read the drivel written for dialogue(1 point).

Cinematography...while not enough to save this loser, it is hard not to be impressed by the setting of this movie(1 point).

Director...made a poor choice considering making this film.

Overall...incredibly slow paced with a horrible story line, non existent plot and wooden acting.

Free on Netflix and way over priced.