‘Lo and Behold’ reflects Herzog’s worldview
When I saw that Werner Herzog's new documentary "Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World," was playing On Demand, I had to watch it. And then I had to review it, which I did for Spokane Public Radio:
Over the past half century, the world has experienced the works created by scores of interesting filmmakers. No contemporary filmmaker, though, has produced more intriguing work than the German-born Werner Herzog.
From his very first efforts – 1970’s bizarre feature “Even Dwarfs Started Small,” for example – to his most recent release, the documentary “Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World,” Herzog has shown a unique combination of innate curiosity and Teutonic fatalism. It’s as if he wants to understand how life works while harboring a deep-seated realization that it’s all just a horrible mistake.
Take this quote from his superb 2005 documentary, “Grizzly Man,” a film that tells the sad story of Timothy Treadwell, a would-be nature documentarian who was killed and eaten by the very bears he professed to love: “I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder.”
Sorry, but I just can’t do justice to Herzog’s distinctive voice, his words delivered, as always, at a delicate but deliberate pace. That voice is heard all through “Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World,” as Herzog attempts to examine the single most important development of our modern era: the Internet.
What’s curious about the film is what Herzog ISN’T attempting to do, which would be to give his audience a comprehensive, historical understanding of what the Internet is and how it was developed. Much of that information, of course, can be found here and there in the 10 separate chapters that Herzog uses to frame his storyline.
One of the chapters records the very first Internet message, “Lo” – shortened from LOG IN – which is where the film gets its title. One confronts people who suffer from Internet addiction and others who suffer from the attendant wireless radiation signals. One chapter indeed does show the mainframe computer where the first message was sent, while another shows us the damage that Internet trolls so often do by revealing the sad experience of a family that became a target of ridicule after graphic photos of their dead daughter were posted on the Web.
And in between, we have legions of talking heads – scientists, journalists, entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk – who engage in the reveries – the states of dreamy meditation or fanciful musings – that Herzog leads them to with questions such as, “Does the Internet dream of itself?”
Even so, Herzog is more interested in how the Internet is used, what wonders it can bring about and – maybe more important to his own sensibilities – what horrors it might lead to. If, as more than one interviewee states, the world has grown dependent on the Internet, what do we do – and what may be irretrievably lost – if, say, a solar flare knocks out all our electronics?
One thing Herzog tells us: In the case of such an event, Wikipedia has a plan to print as much information as possible on paper.
My hope would be that someone makes sure that at least one copy of all Herzog’s films would be saved, too.