Touted as ‘A Science Fiction Fantasy’, The Wild Blue Yonder is considered a sort of companion piece to Herzog’s 1971 film ‘Fata Morgana’, an unusual documentary about mirages, described as science fiction by Herzog himself. Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Child’s Play, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) stars as the on-screen narrator of this innovative vision of the future. He’s an alien, or at least he thinks he is, telling the tale of his extra-terrestrial race and their failed attempt at the colonization of planet Earth. Now his own home planet, referred to as ‘The Wild Blue Yonder’, has been chosen by the human race as the best possible candidate for colonization. Over four light years away, located in the galaxy of Andromeda, its unusual frozen atmosphere may not be the most hospitable environment, but will serve as a last attempt at re-location after an alien virus threatens the population of Earth.

Herzog has always been hesitant about calling himself a documentary filmmaker. He’s pretty open about the fact that he has staged certain events in his films and is more concerned about storytelling then fact checking. In this case, NASA stock footage has been re-used and re-tooled to serve the purpose of Herzog’s fantastic storytelling, adding a fictional narrative that turns clips of routine space missions into an interstellar space travel adventure. Real-life astronauts become nameless fictional characters on a dangerous one way ticket journey that may end in disaster. As Dourif anxiously paces back and forth in front of a baron and seemignly apocalpytic landscape, he tells the tale of the space mission. “By now, the spaceship was surrounded by deep black space. And knowing that…madness, rebellion and murder might set in our astronauts.” Cut to a scene in which one astronaut is using some sort of device on another astronauts head. “Trying to prevent that, they devised a way to read eachothers minds.” In reality, the footage is a simple routine medical procedure co-opted by Herzog’s own imagination.

Real interviews with real mathematicians and physicists are played straight, using theoretical science as a backdrop for the logistics involved in covering seemingly impossible distances in order to reach Andromeda. Martin Lo is introduced by The Alien as a ‘rogue mathematician’, who’s theories held the answers to the challenges faced by traveling great distances through space. The theory is ‘Chaotic Transport’, in which a series of gravitational tunnels are used to slingshot the ship between planets…or something. As far as I can tell, these are real theories created by these individuals, and used with great creativity in this fictional scenario. The fact that these people agreed to play along with Herzog is a testament their sense of humour. However, the best part of the film is Dourif himself. His quivering, unmistakable voice (made famous as the man behind Chucky in the Child’s Play films) passionately explain this story with a sincerity that is only reinforced by the continuous eye contact he makes with the camera, and ultimately the viewer.

This is a challenging film. The trailer places it along side Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Oddyssey as pure exestential viewing. I remember hearing about walk-outs during screenings of The Wild Blue Yonder. I guess it’s not totally unexpected. The film does border on pretentious, with imagery and music that at points could be looked at as melodramatic. But I think that sort of comes with the territory, as Herzog is generally a dramatic person. The Wild Blue Yonder is an ingenuous mixture of science-fiction, science-fact, and features a performance from Brad Dourif that reminds me of why he completely terrified me as a child.

This review was originally featured at The Documentary Blog.

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