The Wild Blue Yonder

Plot synopsis:
In 1943, Capt. Harold "Cal" Calvert (Wendell Corey) is sent on a course at Smoky Hill, Kansas, to learn to fly a new bomber, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. His instructor is his cousin, Major Tom West (Forrest Tucker), an officer who the other pilots think has shirked his duties by claiming engine trouble on the raid over the Ploesti oil fields. Cal stands up for Tom when a crewman taunts his cousin in front of Helen (Vera Ralston), a nurse that Tom has been seeing.
Cal and the other students learn that the pressurized B-29 can fly higher, faster and farther than any other bomber. On a test flight, when an overconfident Cal pushes a B-29 higher than instructed, a sudden decompression nearly ends in tragedy. One of the crew is sucked out of the aircraft, but is able to use his parachute. Tom is furious and reprimands Cal for endangering the test program, which the Air Force brass is monitoring closely.
Maj. Gen. Wolfe (Walter Brennan) finally declares that the pilots and the B-29s are ready for combat. He leads them to bases in China where they will launch attacks on Japan. Cal's first missions are harrowing, although the B-29s prove to be extremely effective. When the group is transferred to Guam, Tom is reunited with Helen, who is also assigned there. Cal is flying continually on high altitude missions, but Gen. Curtis E. LeMay (William Witney), the new commanding officer, changes tactics to more accurate low altitude raids that will produce more damage.
Helen is slowly falling for the more heroic Cal, and when he and Tom are on a mission together in a mass raid on Tokyo, their B-29 is hit by anti-aircraft fire. With Cal wounded and Tom at the controls, the stricken aircraft barely makes it back to the base. Tom goes back into the fiery wreckage to save a trapped crewman, but is killed when the aircraft explodes. Several weeks later, as the war ends when B-29s drop the most devastating weapon of all, the atom bomb, on cities in Japan, Cal and Helen remain together.

Tags: psychedelic, philosophical, flashback

Review:
Looking at the journey itself and the problems they encountered, a surviving alien recalls the whole thing.It would take a real talent to do it but if you were to take all the elements in the plot here you could easily produce an effects-heavy sci-fi epic that stretches over several films or books.
The use of stock footage and locations that are very non-sci-fi are carried by Dourif's story telling but the problems come when he is absent for longer than a few minutes.
Extended footage of diving below the ice sheet is interesting but it is the same thing over and over so, without a narrator to move us on and keep us interested, I felt that the film got close to boring.
The use of stock footage from NASA in place of special effects and the inescapable tedium of this footage; the implausible concepts from physics which are neither explained nor clearly connected to the vaguely coherent "plot"; the fact that alien space traveler Brad Dourif and his alleged (but never seen) extraterrestrial colleagues do not appear to be in any way different from somewhat neurotic Americans with bad business sense; The stark beauty of the underwater scenes and the immediate disruption of this beauty by the arrival of humanity; the accuracy of the alien narrators comments regarding the impossibility of intergalactic travel and the continuity problems which stem from this jarring set of facts.
This film has two texts: 1 the plot - which is a bit of silliness about aliens coming to earth because their planet is undergoing environmental catastrophes and earthlings going to their planet for the same reason.
The film parodies the Star Trek concept of space travel and the future as a panacea for human problems, and does so on many levels: including patent ridiculousness of the plot; the tedious stock footage which is so painfully unrelated to the narrative; the alien who looks so much like us it is unnerving and who admits, halfway through the film, that he and his fellow aliens "suck".
What Herzog ends up with here is possibly the lowest budget space movie ever shot.
The plot (and here's the 'spoiler', not that it would spoil any enjoyment of the film), is that an alien from the Andromeda system (or a seriously confused human),played by Brad Dourif, who landed on Earth after fleeing his frozen world, tells the story of a group of Earth astronauts who travel to the frozen Andromedan planet and then come back to Earth.
Perhaps it was the context, Herzog's narrative about alien travellers having many generations ago escaped their distant and dying world to eventually arrive here on Earth, attempt to colonise and then witness generations later, humanity's own attempts to escape the dying Earth and seek out a barely habitable world across space.There is a primary loneliness in this concept, especially so in the human's arrival at that very same long-abandoned world, deciding to cope as best as they can with the liquid-helium atmosphere.
It would be interesting to know whether Herzog created this story line around the Nasa footage or the inverse.
The Wild Blue Yonder (from 2005) has got to be one of the most embarrassingly bad films ever produced by an apparently reputable director, ever - Namely - Werner Herzog (who's been in the film-making business for 40+ years now).On all levels - This modern-day, Sci-Fi clunker was about as amateurish as that of a last-minute assignment recklessly thrown together by some empty-headed, little film-school flunky who's hoping to get at least a D on his project, but will very likely get an F, instead.From its boring, stock-footage images, to its "grate-on-your-nerves" ambiance music, to actor Brad Dourif's cringe-worthy performance as "The Alien" (Ho-hum!) - The Wild Blue Yonder really should have put Herzog right out of business as a movie-maker, as far as I'm concerned.From start to finish - The harder this film tried to convince me that what I was watching on screen was totally intelligent, the more it succeeded in confirming to me the real depth of its utter stupidity..
The photography, home movies of people floating around in a space capsule or diving in a poorly lit sea looked like outtakes from any decent nature documentary.
Somehow Herzog got his hands on some space footage and some antarctic underwater footage and thought he could compose that into a sci fi movie.This is of course a visually distinctive journey and a must for all die hard Herzog fans, but I felt it was a bit too strange and far out.
Brad Dourif plays an alien on earth who says he sucks at what he does or something along those lines, which is kind of funny.Maybe you have to be in the right atmosphere to enjoy this journey, but if you are only going to see one Herzog film, don't make it this one..
Half of the movie is stock footage of the space station and we are supposed to imagine these are astronauts traveling to a distant star that, as it was just explained to us, would take hundreds of generations to complete.
For this I never tire of watching Herzog's films over and over again.In Into the Wild Blue Yonder he again encompasses the genius and silliness of humankind and nature.
And these interviews, I'm sure, are not meant for this production either, but simply lectures from some Discovery Channel science program.Add to that, an utterly annoying soundtrack of Nazi-era German soprano/opera, and some tribal folk music - all mixed at levels that make you cringe - and you have a recipe for agony.Then you have the ridiculous narrative, or "story".
So to summarize; Take about bunch of stock footage off the internet, edit it together in no particular order, add some exerts of interviews with some NASA eggheads that you found on Discovery, slap on the most annoying music you can find, and then hire an actor to narrate a "space story", which has nothing to do with the images or footage that you are seeing - and then you'll have this movie.I guess Herzog was running behind on his mortgage and asked himself "what can I come up with before the end of the week?".
Ranging from boring to excruciating, this film combines an hour of stock footage, a bizarre & often unpleasant soundtrack, grating narration, overacting by the only actor, and an uncompelling and often incomprehensible story to create a near utter waste of an hour and a quarter.Brad Dourif is unlikeable in the only significant role, and his enunciation during the narration is often strange and unpleasant.
Additionally, the few bits of original footage could have been shot by a first year film student and though the actor did fine in his role as a mediocre rundown alien, it was nothing memorable what so ever.
As I watched this movie, it struck me how much it seemed like I had turned on the National Geographic or Nature channel, hit the mute mode, and sat there with several buddies concocting our own narration for the images presented us, a la Mystery Science Theater 3000, all the while recording our narration and the clips, then sold the lot for distribution, padding our wallets at no personal cost what-so-ever..
This purported top original movie was 30 minutes (all i should stand) of old NASA footage with cheesy music in the background.Of course their was the paranoid "alien" making a few complaints and attempting an incoherent story But in reality the was a poor attempt at originality and a ripoff of old NASA footage.Put me to sleep!DoNotWaste Your Time.
I think it has a brilliant idea and for the most part the idea is created very well but in the end I couldn't help but feel this would have worked better as a forty-minute film instead of a feature length (even though it still only runs 75-minutes).
The Antarctica footage, which Herzog would later use in his documentary Encounters of the End of the World, makes for a unique "frozen sky" of outer space.
The underwater scenes are going to be alien just about to everyone watching the film so to use this as another alien outpost (outer space) was a very good idea.
Using existing footage from space (from the 1989 Atlantis mission STS-34) and Antarctica (by Henry Kaiser) as well as about 15 minutes of his own footage, Herzog creates a faux narrative revolving around an alien in human shape (Brad Dourif) looking almost, but not entirely unlike a Steve Ballmer/Karl Lagerfeld crossbreed.
Brad Dourif was the perfect choice for the alien role and even though I do not believe this film will be embraced by mainstream American film goers, I think this is one of the most beautifully photographed films in some time, which of course is a tribute to a master filmmaker like Werner Herzog.
In summary, if you're into watching Werner Herzog play around with medium of film, maybe you'll enjoy this, but if you were expecting an actual movie, you'll be sadly disappointed..
It was like someone farting in your face and expecting you to think it was life-enhancing." LOL"Add to that, an utterly annoying soundtrack of Nazi-era German soprano/opera, and some tribal folk music - all mixed at levels that make you cringe - and you have a recipe for agony." OUCH"So to summarize; Take about bunch of stock footage off the internet, edit it together in no particular order, add some exerts of interviews with some NASA eggheads that you found on Discovery, slap on the most annoying music you can find, and then hire an actor to narrate a "space story", which has nothing to do with the images or footage that you are seeing - and then you'll have this movie." SPOT ON !"I struggled to restrain myself from laughing at how absurdly bad it was.
I can certainly appreciate what Herzog is trying to do with this film; it's an interesting idea, taking stock NASA footage and some interviews and trying to make a narrative out of it, but it just doesn't end up panning out.
It's just really hard to stay interested in a movie that has about ten minutes of just watching people float around in space.
I can only say that this movie was a bunch of Discovery channel footage (or similar) accompanied by a pathetically weak plot (if one even existed) and a few scenes by Brad Dourif.
If not this could be the first.By mixing documentary footage of space shuttle astronauts, JPL scientists (mostly celestial mechanics, the guys who plan mission trajectories) and scientific Anatartic footage with REALLY BAD science Herzog comes up with a movie that manages to be worse than the sum of the parts.
Consisting of new footage by Herzog the film also contains a great deal of footage from a space shuttle mission as well as images from under the Antarctic ice.
"Wild Blue", therefore, plays like a watery bowel movement of Grizzly Man. Called a "science fiction fantasy" this movie pairs images of astronauts eating, drinking, sleeping, working (with plenty of sexy leg shots) on a space station with a loony talking about an ancient race of aliens that came and settled the Earth, thereby attempting to create a world replete with a Senate, a White House, a monument to Andromeda, and- a shopping mall.
The Wild Blue Yonder is a must for Herzog and science fiction/astronomy fans, but the IDOL/Hollywood crowd should probably look elsewhere..
The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) takes stock footage and real interviews and then intertwines it with a fictional story narrated/discussed by (actor Brad Dourif) an alien from another planet.The story, constructed with this outside footage, is about some journey to and from the Andromeda galaxy, and it really doesn't matter because the story is really boring.
An extremely disappointing Herzog film, Wild Blue Yonder is laboured and boring.
In Wild Blue Yonder, Herzog intersperses a space mission with an alien as a character pulling the strings.
There is the sadness of a man who is trapped in an ultimately futile existence.The last sequence is haunting, sad but uplifting.For those who have not yet seen this film but want to, yet aren't sure whether to get it based on the negative reviews I would suggest that they go the special features first and view the interview with Herzog and listen to what he was attempting to do.
In an ironic twist, mankind undertakes a space mission to his home planet to search for a new home for Earthlings after a dangerous microbe is discovered in a captured Roswell UFO.Made originally for television, Werner Herzog's science fiction fantasy, The Wild Blue Yonder feels like an in-joke that the viewer is not in on.
The film mixes NASA footage from a space mission in 1989, cinematography from an exploration under the frozen waters of the Arctic, and mock interviews with scientists and mathematicians Roger Diehl, Ted Sweetser, and Martin Lo that often make them seem like objects of laughter.
With The Wild Blue Yonder, Werner Herzog has pushed the boundaries of cinematic experimentation further than most post-modern art films have.
Despite a little pretentiousness in the writing, it remains a fascinating picture, (even if it may require multiple viewings)The Wild Blue Yonder starts off in an urban wasteland, with Brad Dourif as an alien from a 'Blue World' in the Andromeda galaxy.
What a strange experience to see Werner Herzog's documentary/drama/whatever movie the Wild Blue Yonder, particularly on the big screen.
This is a practically great film of visual magnificence and imagination, where Herzog, still on his never-ending search for adequate & new images (unlike, as he says, ones that are overused or boring in the mass media), makes his 'science-fiction fantasy' into one that blurs the line between fantasy and reality, between what is expected.
In fact you might take a look at the trailer and have no idea what the hell the picture is about; all you see are interspersed images of underwater and space flight, and Brad Dourif as Andromedan alien talking to the camera in weird language.
Indeed Dourif, for the sort of spaced-out but totally all-together-upstairs alien-man that Herzog presents us with, is perfect for the role, and is the best performance (so to speak) that he's delivered in quite a number of years of his long, terrific career as a character actor.
We get the views into space, which are balanced with the shots inside the spaceship (all taken by people from NASA, though at first I couldn't tell if maybe Herzog had a little extra budget going).
And then come the shots under ice, which at first I couldn't believe totally how they were done.In this case, in a sense, Herzog is even better as an editor this time as opposed to just getting the images down.
Plus the side of the Stephen Hawking/X-Files sort, where Andomedan Man and physicians respectively come off as being too paranoid (albeit an alien of course) and too confusing with the formulas & numbers.Still, if you're a fan of Herzog, or even just into science fiction, its surely worth the look, and if not on DVD even better on the big-screen.
I just watched Werner Herzog's 2005 science fiction fantasy film The Wild Blue Yonder, and am left in that rare position of not having much to say of the film that could really change the opinion of a viewer, pro or con, toward it.
It is beyond such reckoning, a purely aural and visual experience for most of its 81 minutes, and thus has an effect similar to the phantasmagoric end of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.The narrative, however slight, is this: the alien (Dourif) comes to earth some decades ago, in a Third Wave of colonizers, before the supposed 1947 Roswell UFO crash, because his home planet entered an Ice Age. Upon landing, they attempted to establish their own version of Washington, D.C. out in the California desert, thus justifying Dourif's rants out in a ghost town.
With Earth explored he then moved toward documentaries, in which he typically followed explorers, astronauts, pilots and scientists, all of whom shared his longing for further expanding man's frontiers.Ironically, the impossibility of this expansion is what two of Herzog's later documentaries, "Encounters at the End of the World" and "The Wild Blue Yonder", are covertly about.
The latter film consists of recontextualized documentary footage - taken largely from NASA space missions - which is spliced together with an extended monologue by actor Brad Dourif.
Tuesday November 8, 7:30pm Seattle Art MuseumAn evening with Werner Herzog featured the North American Premier of his latest, "The Wild Blue Yonder", a strange, fictitious, quasi-documentary starring Brad Dourif as an alien and self described failure.
Herzog uses a combination of vintage newsreel, NASA and exotic Antarctic Ocean footage along with bizarre narration from Dourif shot in the California Ghost town of Niland to tell a story of human travel to a far off planet and convince the viewer that interstellar space travel is utterly absurd.
Herzog's film is based around the accounts of an alien forced to leave his own planet and travel across the Universe in search of a safe new home.
I can say that this film is not for everyone, even fans Herzog's other eccentric documentary work.
Instead, I spent 81 minutes watching "a science fiction fantasy" titled Wild Blue Yonder.
In WBY Brad Dourif play an alien who narrates his way through NASA and arctic diving footage that Herzog interestingly uses completely out of context.
The context is entrusted to Dourif's character who spins an elaborate yarn of human space exploration to his former home, the exploration of this distant planet and the astronaut's return to a future, pre-historic earth almost 200 years later.WBY is essentially a found footage film, albeit an imaginative and interesting one.