If you're like me, you probably took an art appreciation class in college and were taught that... well... there really isn't much to appreciate about cave art other than it's interesting that humans made some early attempts at painting. Wrong. Herzog's latest film not only dazzles, it upends many of our preconceptions about paleolithic art and the depth of culture early humans had. A second tantalizing aspect of the film is the artistic lens Herzog creates, born of German Romanticism, to view the art. We are plunged not only into the world of objectivity, but we explore the inner subjective world of ourselves some 35,000 years ago. The scientists he interviews, like himself, are unafraid to leave the dry facts behind and venture into the unknown where play and imagination serve to light the way before us.
Watching the film one becomes aware of the many animals (lions, rhinos, horses) that roamed the area. In geological time it was not that long ago. Yet outside of the cave the forests are barren. Not one critter even creep by. The unstated backstory is actually of the mass extinction playing out on earth.
The film ends with a view of nuclear power plants, some 20 miles away "as the crow flies," filling the area (which was once think with glaciers) with steam. Crocodiles are now imported. We are left gazing at the albino mutant crocodile, wondering if Herzog has attempted to show us our own misplaced soul caught in an artificial world of our own making.
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