☆ ☆ ☆
Invincible
(2001) – W. Herzog
Somehow I missed this fiction film from Werner
Herzog (along with Scream of Stone, it seems), even as I caught up on many of
his documentaries from the same period.
Of course, my expectations were high, but this turned out to be more
conventional than much of Herzog’s output.
But I wanted to think otherwise. Indeed, at the start, in a small1930’s
Polish village, you could almost feel that you are in the same fictional space
in which Herzog set The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) -- and nonprofessional
actor (and full-time strongman) Jouko Ahola is not unlike a gentler less
pessimistic Bruno S. If he was trying to
cash in by going mainstream, Herzog didn’t try very hard. Tim Roth and Udo Kier
(known for weirdness) may be the only recognizable actors amongst a cast of
amateurs and people with real skills (playing the piano or lifting heavy
weights). But even as Herzog tackles
very weighty issues (ahem), such as the rise of the Nazi’s and the plight of
the Jews, he seems to have misplaced his ability to raise his material to
another level. True, he throws in undulating
jellyfish and hordes of red crabs (the latter in a dream sequence), but these
overt touches only tend to demonstrate what is lacking from the film as a
whole. Nevertheless, from any other
director, this would be a solid (if longish) retelling of the true story of the
New Samson, a Jew who dazzled Berlin as the strongest man in the world and
warned of the terrible Holocaust to come.
Of course, Herzog’s version might not entirely match up with the facts,
but I’m okay with that.
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