We are by now quite commonly aware of the various statistics illustrating our remoteness from our nearest supposedly 'habitable' planet, that even Alpha Centauri, a very close neighbour, is some 3 light years off and many hundreds of years travelling at conventional means (that would be our fastest rocket propulsion in a vacuum, and a slingshot trajectory). But there was something about Herzog's description of this fact, spoken directly into the camera by a suitably intense Brad Dourif (though this is Brad's forte), that hit home, that filled me with that sense of wonder, that was also also tinged with dread. Perhaps it was the context, Herzog's narrative about alien travellers having many generations ago escaped their distant and dying world to eventually arrive here on Earth, attempt to colonise and then witness generations later, humanity's own attempts to escape the dying Earth and seek out a barely habitable world across space.
There is a primary loneliness in this concept, especially so in the human's arrival at that very same long-abandoned world, deciding to cope as best as they can with the liquid-helium atmosphere. Nothing like earth but then nothing else like Earth was anywhere discovered.
This feast of philosophical posers is coloured with actual Nasa on-board shuttle footage, that, although initially falls short of complementing the science-fantasies of the narration, does eventually blend successfully. And by the time this is settled the viewer is already drawn in. The thoughts and visions being presented us, the zero-g astronauts and ice-divers floating to the semi-atonal wailing in Ernst Reijseger's soundtrack, have put us in a place of submission and meditation rare for cinema. It would be interesting to know whether Herzog created this story line around the Nasa footage or the inverse. For by the end of the film, everything is convincing.
A very unusual cine-poem that will stand up to repeat viewing. For i know each time i will come away with the feeling i have been infused with some ethereal wisdom.
g
