WERNER HERZOG is a world class director who seems to keep his projects revolving around the constant thought of dreams. What could have been, what will happen, what are we thinking, and ultimately who are we? To make a documentary about the Internet, which would seem so rooted in science, and then use it to explore humanity and all our flaws and desires, made for a movie that is both eye-opening and reflective. For Herzog, I would expect nothing less, but the documentary still surprised me in more ways that one.
It's a slow-churning story told in 10 chapters. The familiar voice of Werner himself narrates the action, through interviews and questions that attempt no less than to determine the progress of humanity with the dawn of the technological age; the age in which we are all connected and information is both limitless and ever-growing.
In a small room in a science classroom in California, the very Internet was born in the 1960's, and the first transmitted message "LOG" was cut off midway through. As one man explains, the importance and simplicity of that first message ("lo and behold what man has achieved") is the thesis on which Herzog explores the topics. We see how information grew, how newspapers were first programmed for people to view on their home computers, how emails began to document business needs at almost instantaneous speeds. What a marvel, indeed.
Smartly, Herzog also explores the darker shades of our brilliance: of hate mail and the lawlessness of the online community. From hackers to a family who received spam emails of their daughter's mangled body, nearly decapitated in a car wreck... The tapestries of any invention are countless, but as the documentary begins to explore, no man made invention in history has ever grown at such an exponential rate. A wide-eyed woman with a Stepford Wife's sensibility declares "the Internet is Satan."
In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, Lo And Behold would be a bore of talking heads and the breakdown of important dates and times. Herzog seems to relish the bore, asking his subjects questions that often throw them off ("do you love this robot?"). It's oftentimes quite funny, but when we explore the darker implications just below the surface, it could also be one of the scariest films I have ever viewed. With our reliance on the internet so thoroughly engrossed in our lives, one scientist speculates that potentially billions could die were a large solar flare to wipe out electricity as we know it. Nature give and nature take away, but has humanity moved beyond the point of simple survival without technological help?
With a haunting score that recalls precious Herzog themes, the movie is nonetheless a fascinating and endlessly entertaining journey through modern times, with Herzog's deliciously German accent piercing through the bland images of computers and wires. There seems no better director to tackle this subject matter, and in fact I doubt many other filmmakers could achieve something so remarkable from something so apparently average as the Internet.
I left this movie, looked around, thought about life. There's an existential theme at work which forced me to think about how my life is wholly dependent on machines. They make life easier. I need them for daily support and connectivity. At this point in society, 2016, what is life if not the reliance on technology?
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