SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Ploydsge just watch it!

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

De-illusionist I'd better to say I might be biased.I'm not "Hey,this is killer!"person. And here,Herzog met MIchael,28 yrs old kid,just lost his father 2 weeks before, and facing imminent execution.Some people found his laugh ,like "Sick"or "Psychopath".No,It was,Human's defense system. Even cats purr when he/she is dying. I've read one of recent executed inmate was so Hyper the morning he will be executed.(RIP..) People sometime laugh,depends of individual, when he/she knows his/her heart will stop by some chemical injected. It's not they're Psychopath,but just showing the are human. (Translated review I wrote for Amazon.jp years ago,and added new info)

fireworkslvr-53952 Overall, I thought this movie showed an interesting perspective. I think there was too much sympathy given to the criminals, however. My main reason for giving this 5 stars is because it was only dedicated to two of the victims when in fact there were three. Please, someone tell me - is there a reason for this???

Peter Downey I have always liked Werner Herzog fictional films, but I have yet to warm to his documentaries. The reason why is that Herzog is heavy handed with his own personal convictions, and this heavy handiness is immediately apparent in Into the Abyss. Herzog opens the documentary as an interview with the convict, Michael Perry, on death row. He explains to Michael that he doesn't like him and that this doesn't matter because even people who are horrible individuals do not deserve to die. This ruins a lot of the film as it sets in our mind, already, that we are not going to like the central figure. What really annoyed me about this, is that his crimes and attitude towards his crimes were enough to make me dislike Michael. Herzog is patronising his audience here, Michael is sociopath and it is artificially charming and instead of showing us this (which he tried to) he tell us straight out.Herzog is also terrible at interviewing, if an interviewee doesn't give the "right answer" Herzog will prod them until they cater to his film's tone. This brings two interviews to a complete halt; the interview with the father of one of the convicts and the interview with the mother of one of the victims. It also makes the film smack of bias, and this film will not make people who agree with Death Penalty change their opinions, but instead re-enforce it. And this is made worse Herzog tries to be objective in a couple of scenes, even getting far past the facts and trying to capture the emotional attitude of everyone involved.Herzog however does allow to film to fall to pieces. The crimes in the film are very well documented, even giving a palatable feeling to the events. This ties into Herzog's eye for detail and research; picking the most aesthetically pleasing place to show where the cigarette butt fell, moving the camera into the thickets to create a sense of panic and then filming still the shots of the areas where people died.The film also shows that Werner Herzog is possibly an empathetic person, even though he is not good at expressing this at times. For example, the town where the two convicts are from is shown to be suffocatingly poor and isolated from modernity. It makes the sense of loss seem that more wanton, and underlines the idea that one of the two convicts is a product of his environment. While the other seems that more fated to be a criminal no matter where he goes.Into the Abyss is hard film to judge, the reason being is that what it does, it does incredibly, and comes across as bad, feels incredibly bad. The topic of the Death Penalty is probed and prodded but I was left feeling no different about the topic by the end, nor did I feel I could recommend this film to people to try and convert them to my opinion on the topic. And isn't that the two main reasons of any documentary to illuminate a topic or to make people take a more objective stance on something?

supatube When a documentary has its own opinion it tends to fight with ones natural ability to think for oneself. And no other documentary film maker does this better than Werner Hertzog. Forcing you to listen to his opinion - and why should I care what Hertzogs opinion is? So is the film terrible? Not necessarily, its well made, all the plot points are there, it comes to an end but all the while infuriating me by telling me from the beginning 'this is how you should feel about the death penalty'. Naturally I take up defense but this is not necessarily how i feel about the topic at hand, I am just naturally inclined to stand up to force. And he tried to force me to agree with him. Agree or not, I cant respect this film, as it did not respect me as a free thinker. It tried to downplay a criminals actions and their role in retribution. It tried to make me feel something for people I couldn't. It tried to make a point in the most arrogant fashion. It even had glimpses of superiority, as the film maker is so much smarter than the subjects he is filming. Give me a break. I should have learnt my lesson from that bear documentary, that wasn't bad at all except for the part where he couldn't let us listen to the tape of the man being mauled by a bear (he felt it would be unethical) but filming himself listen to it and tell us how bad it is was just fine...? Why not just leave it out all together? Because that was the thrilling moment of the doccie. the hook. Ethical? Now, its not that i wanted to hear it but watching Hertzog reacting to the tape was a total removal from the story of the man who wanted to live with the bears. It was Hertzog's time to shine. The arrogance of this 'elitist' is astounding but people seem to be eating it up as if it were a sundae. Maybe some folk don't want to figure out how they actually feel about things, force feeding is just the right option, unfortunately I cant listen to a dictator.