The typical Werner Herzog movie involves a man in environment that is closely observed going off the deep end. Usually, the "going off" is "going crazy." Women go crazy, too, but not in Herzog films.

Watching the striking black-and-white images (shot by Thomas Mauch) of Herzog's first feature-length movie "Signs of Life" ("# Lebenszeichen ," 1968), I was not at all surprised that the protagonist a WWII German paratrooper on Crete named Stroszek (Peter Brogle). "Stroszek" is a name that Herzog would use again (for a movie in which Bruno S. flips out in alien Wisconsin). The Stroszek in "Signs of Life" is actually more like "Woyzeck," in being a soldier driven made by the boring routines of garrison life.

After being wounded in a partisan attack on Crete, Stroszek is sent to the Dodecanese island of Kos to recuperate There are 60 Germans holding the island (or ready to hold the island). Three, including Stroszek and the Greek woman Nora (Athina Zacharopoulou)-- whom he was allowed to marry after she took care of him on Crete --, stay in a medieval (Venetian-built) fort commanding the harbor. (There are only fishing boats, no Germany navy presence.)

There is a goat who does not provide enough milk for coffee of the three soldier. The other two are the rough, working-class Meinhard (Wolfgang Reichmann) and the refined Becker (Wolfgang von Ungern-Sternberg) who spends him time deciphering the fragments of ancient Greek writing on stones the Venetians used in building the fort. They also recycled bits of sculpture, including a pair of feet jutting out photogenically.

The tedium of the garrison-keepers is broken briefly by the arrival of a gypsy king (Julio Pinheiro), but they decide not to let him stay in a secured military area (the fort they garrison).

Even for a Herzog movie there are a lot of shots of the environment (the fort, the town, the sea, and, eventually a valley filled with small windmills). Having had my own private Michelangelo Antonioni retrospective a year ago, I have to wonder if Herzog had seen Antonioni's "L'eclisse" in which the characters do not appear in the last ten or so minutes.

In the last third (approximately) of "Signs of Life," Stroszek recedes to being a tiny figure in long shots, having taken over the fort alone and threatening to blow up the arms cache on it (and setting off fireworks, the making of which was one of the ways to pass the time that he and Nora and Meinhard had undertaken.

There is the usual odd Herzog humor. I especially enjoyed the doctor (Heinz Usener) who had not treated Stroszek but is asked to provide a prognosis -- without even having the evidence to make a diagnosis. The gypsy king and Nora and Becker are charming. Meinhard would fit well in a Fassbinder movie. The German captain (Wolfgang Stumpf) is not caricatured (or stupid).

Herzog commentary tracks are always informative and entertaining. For "Signs of Life" he is sort of interviewed by Norman Hill. The most entertaining moment is when Hill makes the mistake of suggesting that Stroszek going crazy in "Signs of Life" has some parallel in Peter Bogdanovich's first movie that was made at the same time, "Targets." I swear that one can hear Herzog shudder before saying that he thinks "Targets" is "a very stupid film" and is pained that anyone would think to link them.

The DVD also has a theatrical trailer. The sun of Greek islands (and, indeed, the whole Mediterranean basin) has a long history of attracting Germans (and others from cold and cloudy northern Europe). Without the humid tropical rot of Amazonia (Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo) or West Africa (Cobra Verde) or Laos (Rescue Dawn), the warmer lands prove not to be a paradise for Stroszek. The relentless sun drives him crazy, or being in the military with nothing to do.... or playing the lead role in a Herzog movie!

The way Strozek goes crazy is entertaining, sort of in the "King of Hearts" realm, which is to say far more sympathetic than the "Grizzly Man." And for dry terrain, but with far less attention to the locals, there is Herzog's "Where the Green Ants Dream" (this has an especially good Herzog commentary track BTW).

In a way "Signs of Life" is like the death of the Lila Kedrova character in undercutting the allure of Grecian islands. Herzog and Mauch (who also shot Even Dwarfs Started Small, Aguirre, Wrath of God, How much Wood would a Woodchuck chuck, Stroszek, Fitzcarraldo for Herzog) do not make Kos look sinister, but don't make it seem alluring. On the other hand, like Mikos Theodrakis's music for "Zorba, the Greek," Stavros Xarhakos's for "Signs of Life" is alluring.

(BTW, the cover photo to the contrary notwithstanding, Peter Brogle did not look demonic even at rest the way Klaus Kinski would in later Herzog movies.)


© 2008, Stephen O. Murray

Other Herzog films about which I've epined (in chronological order of their making):

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (Every Man for Himself and God Against All)
Heart of Glass
Fitzcarraldo
Cobra Verde
Lessons of Darkness
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Invincible
Wheel of Time
Incident at Loch Ness
Rescue Dawn

This review is a contribution to the Isinga Memorial writeoff about black-and-white movies. Please add your own!




Recommended:
Yes

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