Caught a 5.30 show at the Brattle of the Werner Herzog film, WILD BLUE YONDER. It's something I might've better appreciated under the influence of some mind altering chemistry, heavy on panoramic nature and documentary visuals, light on storytelling. Crayzay Brad "Wormtongue" Dourif plays the role of an extragalactic visitor to Earth, part of the third wave of a mass immigration from his water-covered homeworld in the Andromeda Galaxy. Their planet was facing a global ice age and could no longer support their species, so they built spaceships and headed out in all directions in search of new homes. Upon arriving on Earth, Brad and friends envisioned making a huge impact on the technology and civilization of the planet. However, after hundreds of generations in space travel, their knowledge and intellect had become diluted, and in the end, the best they could do was try to fit in and survive on a planet that was facing environmental crises of its own.
I really like that idea. That alien visitors, stereotypically envisioned to be superior to humanity in all ways (except maybe for being vulnerable to water... or germs... or a certain frequency of somethin somethin... or perhaps the emotion we call "love"), should arrive on earth, only to be revealed as average joes and janes, with nothing more to offer than plans for a really great shopping mall.
The movie feels like a bedtime story that dad conjures up on the fly for a kid who likes space travel and underwater creatures.
The film uses what plays like interviews and animation from episodes of PBS's NOVA, as well as footage from Shuttle Galileo mission STS-34 and an undersea diving expedition beneath a pack of arctic or antarctic ice to support Brad Dourif's narration of his journey to Earth and humanity's own search for a new planet to call home.
Can't recommend this to everyone. If my description and comments so far sound entertaining enough, grab your pipe and look up this film. =) If you're a NASA/shuttle-phile, you'll dig the STS-34 day-in-the-life stuff. If you like Discovery Channel undersea specials, you'll dig the below-the-ice segments (the creepy and beautiful underseascape, along with its natives, does play as very otherworldly, I must say).
Hrmmm... I wonder if this is actually just a documentary about Brad Dourif...? I mean, it's no mistake he plays the sci-fi/fantasy crazies, this would certainly help explain why. =)
Keep on keepin on~
Overheard in Harvard Square on my way to the Brattle:
It's worse than Jdate! My parents are setting me up with people!
---a girl on cellphone in front of ABP
...and I went out with him a few times, it wasn't that bad. His mom was friends with my mom...
---a girl on cellphone in front of Uno's
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