Lessons of Darkness
Director: Werner Herzog
Year Released: 1992
Rating: 3.5
Jaw-dropping 'science fiction' film crafted by Herzog from footage he made of the Kuwaiti oil fires which made the surrounding areas - covered in smoke, soot, oil and flame - look like something from another planet. Although I'm not exactly a purist and don't feel like every movie needs to exist on the big screen, there's a part of me that thinks that this has to be experienced (like Fata Morgana) in a movie theater to actually 'be seen.' As a statement about the tendency of man to recklessly ruin his own environment, it says far more than any allegory, essay or speech - a case for cinema's triumph over the written word.
