Gift Guide 2016: Holiday Grab Bag
Herzog: The Collection
$119.99, www.shoutfactory.com
Reviewed by Marc Savlov, Fri., Dec. 16, 2016
Quoth Herzog, the modern master of both documentary and narrative Sturm und Drang, "Life on our planet has been a constant series of cataclysmic events, and we are more suitable for extinction than a trilobite or a reptile. So we will vanish. There's no doubt in my heart." Hold that thought, grizzly man, boutique/pop-culture label Shout! Factory has other ideas. Their 1,501-minute box set includes the first-ever Blu-ray editions of no less than 16 ur-'zog films ranging from Seventies Dada microcosm Even Dwarfs Started Small to Gulf War hellscape "Lessons of Darkness" and beyond. Herzog's quintet of movies made with mad genius Klaus Kinski, accompanied by the intensely personal doc My Best Fiend, are here in all their dark and dreamlike glory, and certainly 1997's Vietnam war apologue-doc Little Dieter Needs to Fly has never looked so hellishly alive. Also included are audio commentaries in both English and German (some ported over from Anchor Bay's 2004 Herzog/Kinski set), the requisite trailers, and the Grand Guignol "Making of Nosferatu," which in toto make this the single finest collection of filmmaking by one of the most eclectic living directors ever released. If you've been biding your time waiting to purchase that 70-inch behemoth of a television, Herzog: The Collection is all the reason you need.
