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Friday, December 16, 2011

THE TEN BEST FILMS OF 2011     10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Into The Abyss          2



Michael Perry on death row in Texas in 2010, just days before his execution in July of that year, in Werner Herzog's documentary "Into The Abyss". 
IFC Films 
  

by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Frid
ay, December 16, 2011

Werner Herzog
, director
1 hour 46 minutes
Rated R for mature thematic material and some disturbing images
(IFC Films)
November 2011

"Just because I'm talking to you it doesn't mean that I like you."

Werner Herzog's other great documentary film this year also made my ten best list.  "Into The Abyss" is the superior work only because it is so poetic and ironic, and so moving.

Two men committed crimes in Texas.  One is older and angry, the other younger and wise.  Both are serving time, and one will die.  Mr. Herzog so masterfully balances those the audience expects to root for with those it expects to revile and blurs the line between both, making all entirely and palpably human.  The director marks time and inquiry so keenly and engages us at all times in the dilemmas of human beings and their joys and tragedies. 

"Into The Abyss" specifically takes on the death penalty and its pitfalls.  Mr. Herzog argues that the state shouldn't ever take life, no matter how heinous a crime one of its citizens has committed.  The director tests himself, and us, as we glimpse the aftermath of a horrifying murder and juxtapose it with the lives touched, shattered and altered forever by that murder.  "Into The Abyss" is an unfathomable journey into the human heart and those who have power over life and death.  It's the year's most remarkable and insightful documentary.

Full written review here

NEXT: NUMBER 1

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