pengobox What struck me about Into The Abyss was that it wasn't so much a true-crime documentary, but more a thoughtful exploration into one crime and its subsequent consequences. I know that Herzog documentaries aren't always the most objective, but while I was watching Into The Abyss, I didn't get the impression that there was a particular theme or message being pushed at me. At some point, Herzog mentions that he is averse to capital punishment, but this opinion does not dominate the documentary.One interesting thing that Herzog did was that he presented the interviews in a particular way. One of the very first interviews is of death row inmate, Matthew Perry, and Herzog then delves deeper by questioning law enforcement, relatives of the deceased, friends of the perpetrators, etc. We immediately learn that Perry is sentenced to die in 8 days, though it is not until the very end that he has died via lethal injection as scheduled. This creates an effective yet not jarring or overly distracting shock for the audience. Someone that they had just witnessed living and talking has died. It is strange and sometimes uncomfortable to process, and I think Herzog had this in mind when he finally put together the film.As a documentary, Into The Abyss was intriguing, engaging, and emotional. It was full of very human interviews; people wept and sighed and stuttered, adding to the realism and the rawness overall. This is not what I would call a "beautiful" film, but it is a film that is thoughtful and well-made. I didn't enjoy this as much as Cave of Forgotten Dreams, but then again, that can be attributed to the difficult subject matter of Into The Abyss. However, after finishing the movie, I wasn't left with any deeper insight or revelations than when I started. This film is undoubtedly well-made and carefully shot, but not as introspective as some of Herzog's other documentary films. I felt the movie skimmed the surface of what Herzog could have potentially addressed: the criminal justice system, capital punishment, the nature of grief and death, etc, yet in the end Into The Abyss seemed kind of bare. I wish Herzog could have just explored the topic(s) touched in Into The Abyss a bit more; nevertheless, I am looking forward to more of his works.

Nirgaul I came to this film from a somewhat unique perspective. A close friend is a lifelong devoted social worker, a champion for the poor and the less fortunate. She is now in her twilight years, no retirement in sight. Too many babies to look after and few competent parents. Her job is special, because she sees newborns in compromised circumstances daily. Dealing with the chaos is just a part of life for these soldiers on the front line. Watching this film, I realized that this isn't just a debate about capital punishment. It's a film about the vicious mechanism we face - with poor, unfit adults aggressively bearing offspring, damned as their ancestors, and destined to bring only misery into the world. We see a father of one of the convicted men, in a truly heartbreaking dialogue, discuss what it was like to celebrate Thanksgiving in shackles with his two sons, also incarcerated. His third son of four, Jason Burkett, faces a life sentence. With his stubborn, resolute jaw and his plight, Jason has attracted a messenger from the outside world, an advocate. She is a childlike romantic, given to unrequited love and notions of noble prisoners unjustly held captive. Deep down, we see flitters of mischief as though she is willing to do anything for Burkett and his cause, even if it means smuggling his seed outside of prison walls and proliferating his genetic instruction. When asked how many children he would like to have, Burkett's eyes widen into fevered starshells, full of biological desire. It only takes a moment to realize this isn't entirely love, but rogue impulses. Desire and passion and a primordial charter from his adrenals to keep replicating. There is a strange, lethal innocence to Michael Perry, like a child in a more sadistic garden of eden. You can tell that only some small part of him grasps the actual consequence of his actions. That he would likely go to his early grave still in denial, a cultural fetus. Even without the confines of prison, his developmental process has long ago stopped.To me, this film makes a stronger case for controlling the population prior to conception than it does against capital punishment.

Michael_Elliott Into the Abyss (2011) **** (out of 4) Another wonderful documentary from Werner Herzog. This one here has the famed director traveling to Texas where he meets two men convicted of a triple murder. One of the inmates was given a life sentence but the other has been sentenced to die in eight days after meeting the director. Also interviews are the victim's families as well as the families of the two men. INTO THE ABYSS was called by many to be a "anti-death penalty" film but I'd have to strongly disagree with that. Herzog is too great of a filmmaker to pick sides on the matter even though he admits that he is against it. The victim's families are allowed to speak on the matter and not for a single second did I think Herzog was trying to make the viewer see just one side of the picture. Plenty of details are given about the actual crime, which was about as senseless of a crime as you can get. We're introduced to the two killers and there wasn't a single second where I felt sorry for them. Herzog paints the picture that both men came from a worthless town and had worthless parents but that doesn't take away the fact that they brutally killed three people for no reason. I think what's so important and great about this film is that Herzog simply tells the story of what happens and lets the viewer make up their own mind about what should happen to them. The documentary also features an interview with a preacher who leads these men to their death and there's also an interview with a man who formally worked at the "Death House" and would strap the inmates down. INTO THE ABYSS is a pretty depressing look at people who messed up their lives for one reason or another. It's also depressing because we see how the victim's families are left without their loved ones. It's not exactly the easiest film to watch but Herzog handles the subject matter with such class that you can't help but see why he's so great at what he does.

jzappa It's easy to view documentaries as less yielding of creative potential or stylistic freedom since principally it's a matter of holding a lens up to a story that's writing itself, casting itself and no sets have to be built. Werner Herzog has never been limited by this concern.Many documentaries made nowadays are a series of talking heads and graphics montages. Maybe a filmmaker with a sense of humor will throw some ironically relevant music under the info-dumps. And documentary has also become virtually synonymous with issue and message films. Very few seem to find the same spiritual center as a fiction piece. Herzog does.Into the Abyss is about a horrific, random and senseless crime spree that culminates in one of the myriad executions carried out by the state of Texas every year. But it's not a commentary on capital punishment or the society that produced such brainless, directionless criminals. It does something much more brave and original.The movie goes on, the story is told, Herzog interviews his subjects, crime scene videotape details the nightmarish aftermath of atrocity having invaded the most peaceful and complacent of homes, we drive down depressing roads in the modern cultural wasteland of the place where the tragic saga has played out. And yet throughout, there is a tone and inflection imbued with grace, understatement and objectivity. We will experience all too real human pain, sometimes without warning, but we almost don't know what hit us until we've traversed well into the given moment.There is something so simple, so docile, in the face of whatever brutality or doom or emotional quakes, making Herzog's film transcend the identity of a social issue piece or a sensationalistic expose to become an elliptical, humane contemplation of violence, life and loss. Considering Herzog's uncannily unique subjects and treatment in fiction and in documentary for decades---past films have involved entire casts being under hypnosis during shooting or being entirely comprised of dwarfs, or stories about men held captive in dungeons for lifetimes until adulthood---Into the Abyss may seem small potatoes by comparison.But Herzog has often said he doesn't choose projects, that they instead choose him. If that's the case, then his approach as a documentary filmmaker, with works such as this or Grizzly Man or The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, is frankly uncanny, to stand still when he realizes the profundity of a story and simply allow it to wash over him and consume him. How many filmmakers have the wisdom and confidence to master such a process?