Into the Abyss

Werner Herzog’s documentary film Into the Abyss (in selected cities in the U.S. from this day, in Europe on March 23, 2012) shows human beings as monsters and monsters as human beings. It deals with God (we all know the subtext: »Thou shalt not kill«), with the manifold aspects of violence, and with death penalty or the question of »live and let die«. It’s possible Herzog had Nietzsche’s aphorism 146 from Jenseits von Gut und Böse in his mind before or while filming in Texas: »Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.« That is: »He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.«

Lorrie Moore. »Werner Herzog on Death Row.« The New York Review of Books, Nov. 10, 2011, https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2011/11/10/werner-herzog-death-row/.

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