This is the best documentary I've ever seen. Has anyone seen anything better?
My top five documentaries:
-one per director-
1. Great Ecstasy of the Wood Sculptor Steiner (Werner Herzog)
2. Salesman (Albert and David Maysles)
3. General Idi Amin (Barbet Schroeder)
4. Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl)
5. Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris)
No, but it is one of the best.
I thought the documentary was excellent, Herzog rawly captured the danger of ski-jumping/ski-flying, some of the shots were breathtaking and heart-stopping.
I liked how he juxtaposed the normal, rustic life of Steiner with Steiner's death-defying "hobby" without emphasizing and exploiting Steiner's Olympic achievement and previous sky-jumping achievements (which had already been accomplished before the documentary was filmed).
He presented Steiner as an average person with an above-average passtime whom not only wanted to push beyond the limits, but was being manipulated and forced by various Championships to push beyond the limits without any safety precautions, which risked his life.
In some competitions, you could tell Steiner was delighted to fly, even though he knew he would undoubtedly land roughly and possibly injure himself, but at other meets, his fear was visible, and he was visibly angry at being trapped and forced to jump beyond ramps where the landing ground was intentionally not set-up for a potential landing ground and not even secured (in order to enhance the spectacle and intensity and thrill of a soaring jump, and to force records to be made, both of which would attract crowds and bring media attention to the competition), which forced him to literally risk his life.
Underrated Herzog documentary, 10/10
Herzog's Grizzly Man is a masterpiece too. And Alain Resnais' Night and Fog maybe the best thing anyone ever made in cinema dealing with the Holocaust. Truffaut even called it the greatest film ever made.
When you kill a man to defend an idea, you're not defending an idea. You're killing a man.
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It's interesting you mention F for Fake because it definitely blurs the lines of what is documentary and what constitutes non fiction. I think it's fantastic, clever and original like only Welles could do but it's gets me thinking when I consider what "genre" it might fall into.
shareI think Little Dieter Needs to Fly by Herzog is the best documentary of all time.
sharebeautiful stuff, like reading an article by krakauer... puts the mystery into why people push their bodies toward seemingly inattainable goals. but some of it is pretty silly, like the uber-sentimental final quotation by herzog about being naked on a rock with steiner but no banks or money??
shareSteiner is one of my favorite documentaries, but I think Land of Silence and Darkness (also by Herzog) is equally amazing.
shareMy favourite doc is Fog of War, I think anythin Errol Morris or Herzog has ever done must be worth your time.
I loved this film too, some others I have seen that I would say were about as great if not better:
- The Fog of War (morris)
- Thin Blue Line (morris)
- The White Diamond (Herzog)
- Grizzly Man (Herzog)
- The Staircase (Lestrade)
- Paradise Lost & Paradise Lost 2 (Berlinger) and the forthcoming Pardose Lost 3!
and a fun little jem...
- The King of kong by Seth Gordon.
Enjoy!