Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life (2011)

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972663/

For anyone that enjoyed Herzog’s last documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams, the title of his latest venture will come as no surprise. Abyss is a word Herzog relishes in using and it is a good word to associate with his plethora of work which habitually explores the mysterious abyss, both physical and metaphorical. Into the Abyss is part of Herzog’s Death Row project and focuses on Michael Perry who, at the time of filming, is to be executed in eight days’ time for the murder of three people. The other perpetrator of the heinous crime is Jason Burkett who is 10 years into a 40 year sentence. The two young men were trying to steal a sports car when the owner Sandra Stotler and her son, Adam, and his friend, Jeremy Richardson, got in the way and were brutally killed, their bodies left in easy to find places, the crime and the execution all taking place in Texas, USA.
Herzog starts from the beginning, using archival police footage he shows the crime scene in graphic detail, lingering on the blood stains and even the partially depicted body of one of the victims. It is shocking and deeply disturbing footage. A local lieutenant informs us of what happened and how the culprits were apprehended and then we meet the criminals in their prison environment that they now exist in. Herzog interviews the family of the victims and also family of the criminals as well as people who assist in the protocol for the execution.
The subject matter is fascinating but as with all Herzog films it is the characters we meet along the way that make the film truly memorable as well as the unique interview style that Herzog has. At the beginning of the film Herzog speaks to the prison chaplain about God and criminals, the chaplain passionately begins to describe the beautiful creatures that God has created, to which Herzog requests “please describe an encounter with a squirrel” to which the chaplain obliges. It is hilarious and Herzog’s questions are honest and brilliant. Upon first meeting Michael Perry Herzog states “destiny has dealt you a bad deck of cards, which doesn’t exonerate you and which does not mean I have to like you”.
While it may not have the explicitly surreal imagery of reptiles that his recent endeavours have featured, Herzog succeeds in teasing out anecdotes about monkey attacks and alligators in the Everglades. He meets some fascinating people with strange stories to tell. The daughter of the victim Sandra speaks of how in six years she lost nearly all her family to strange accidents, diseases and of course murder, certainly one unlucky lady. A man who came into contact with Jason Burkett on several occasions tells Herzog how he was stabbed with a 14 inch Philips screwdriver and didn’t even go to hospital as he had to be at work in 30 minutes. Herzog allows these characters time to tell their stories and this adds another dimension to an already fascinating documentary.
The filmmaker is allowed into the death house to film the cell and the room where the execution takes place and his camera lingers on the gurney and the straps where the criminal is placed before being injected. This footage is truly chilling and the empty room says so much, it is powerful stuff. Herzog also meets a guy who used to work in the death house before having a breakdown after unstrapping his 125^th prisoner from the gurney, who was also a woman, Carla Faye Tucker. He speaks of dealing with last requests and also his changing attitude towards the death sentence.
The film cleverly gives an impartial view towards the issue of death row, showing the perspective of the family of the victims and the closure she received from seeing Michael Perry executed, but also shows many other perspectives. Perry comes across as a remorseful guy who you actually end up feeling sorry for, especially when you realise that Burkett did not receive the death penalty as his convicted felon father pleaded clemency. This for me highlighted some of the injustices and flaws in the US system especially as Burkett is now married with a child on the way while Perry has been given the lethal dose.
Into the Abyss is much more subtly surreal than some of Herzog’s other films but due to the subject matter this is fitting. For such a provocative subject matter Herzog deals with it tastefully and impartially, allowing the audience to make up its own mind but adding his own personality occasionally. I do wish there had been a little more focus on the two criminals and perhaps more of an exploration into what they did and why they did it and also how they feel about it today but I can see why this was not really explored. As the title suggests this film is about death but it is also very much about life and the choices we make. Herzog shows us a society that is full of different forms of violence and questions how acceptable these different forms are and how human beings become involved in these. This is another fascinating documentary from one of the best documentary filmmakers producing films today.

Death Row (2012)

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843894/

This documentary series is a companion piece to Werner Herzog’s 2011 film Into the Abyss and is part of his death row project. The series is in four parts, each part focusing on one person on death row and each section paints a portrait of the human behind the crime, the crime itself and the justice system. Herzog divulges the fact he is opposed to the death penalty immediately, he ‘respectfully disagrees’ with it, but this does not mean what he has created is a biased piece of filmmaking. He is a master documentarian and never lets his personal opinions dominate the piece. As with Into the Abyss Herzog allows the people and their stories to play out for themselves so that the audience can make up their own mind about what is right and what is wrong.
The first portrait is that of James Barnes who is on death row in Florida. We hear about the horrific crime from a detective and this is juxtaposed with the vulnerable man we see Herzog interviewing, the complexities of the situation are immediately apparent and summed up by Herzog “a monstrous crime but he doesn’t seem like a monster”. As we learn more details we see beautiful landscape shots of water and birds, the latter a recurring motif throughout the series as we see images of flocks of birds flying in the sky, evoking the inmates dreams and desires. We see the gruesome photos of one of the crimes Barnes committed, which he admits to, the murder referred to as burning bed due to the nature of how he tried to destroy evidence. A detective discusses the generic profile of a serial killer, an arsonist who likes to harm animals, it seems clichéd but Barnes fits the bill. This first instalment portrays a man on death row who admits the crimes he has committed and yet the abuse he may have suffered from his father and his redemptive nature allow us to feel for him.
The second portrait is set in Texas and takes a look at Hank Skinner who has been on death row for 17 years. We hear how he was within 20 minutes of being killed and how he was “looking at death”, but his lawyer managed to get it withdrawn at the last minute. We hear about the death house team and the transportation to the death house, Skinner himself having a wicked sense of humour but profoundly noting that the ‘death team’ are the serial killers. The film crew take the same trip, filming beautiful landscapes in wide angle as the vehicle moves. We hear from a journalist the details of the triple murder Skinner supposedly committed, he states to this day that he is innocent. Skinner is a mesmerising character, one who references Herzog’s film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) and a Twilight Zone episode. This second instalment introduces a very different perspective on death row, one where a perhaps innocent man has suffered for 17 years, with dates of execution set and then withdrawn. The point is not that he may be innocent but is more a comment on the system in place, is it right even if he did commit the crime?
Joseph Garcia and George Rivas are the focus of the third portrait. Also in Texas, they are two of the infamous Texas 7 who were part of an elaborate prison break which resulted in the death of a police officer. We hear of a previous event that Garcia was involved in which landed him in prison to start with, an event that could have happened to any of us, a fight about a girl that got out of control. The fascinating thing about all these stories is the fact that we hear from unreliable narrators, never truly knowing what really happened, just having to come to our own conclusions from the information presented to us, just like a jury would. We also hear about the military precision planning that Rivas did in order to prevent anyone from being hurt during the break out, only to find out it was him who shot the policeman. These men are multifaceted, and it is that element of the human being that seems to intrigue Herzog.
It is not only men on death row though, Linda Carty is the subject of the fourth part and her story is perhaps the most confusing and difficult to come to a conclusion about, a fitting end to the series. She claims her innocence and that she worked for the DEA, whereas others tell a story of a manipulative woman who was desperate for a child. We hear how she had practically no defence at her trial, and that if her lawyer had spoken to a key witness she would not have been on death row, regardless of whether she was guilty or not. The state failed to give her a proper trial and the system failed. All the subjects have no date set for their executions as of the beginning of 2012.
Whatever your beliefs about the death penalty, this series will give you plenty to consider and different levels to explore, each case so dramatically different. For those that have seen Into the Abyss, this series is very much the same formula, with almost identical exploratory shots of the death gurney and static mid shots of the ‘monsters’ on death row as Herzog chats to them off camera. This would appear to be a criticism, but it is not. Each story is so different from the last that the films never feel repetitive, even if the introduction is the same for each, and watched together as one long film, as I did, just enhances the depth and complexities of the contentious subject matter that Herzog is exploring.
As with his previous films, Herzog’s narration is perfection. He states he “doesn’t have to like” the criminal immediately to their face, and probes family members, encouraging one to elaborate on a dream where she was visited by god; Herzog says “please explain, that’s what I want to hear”. There are typically Herzogian moments with plenty of animals and as inmate Hank Skinner has a tendency to go off on a tangent, Herzog’s narration interrupts one of these tangents with that fact and summarises for us what Skinner is rambling about. The filmmaker reveals that he found one of his subject matter, Joseph Garcia, whilst interviewing Michael Perry for Abyss, and from that comment we can see the story behind this series, Herzog stumbled upon a wealth of fascinating people and stories, each one all the more haunting for being real life. Herzog clearly doesn’t get tired of this realm and if you were fascinated by Abyss or the subject matter of death row presented here then you certainly won’t get tired of this monstrously delightful series.