Lessons of Darkness (1992) on Netflix
NR199254mDocumentaryWar
After the Gulf War, oil fields across Kuwait burn out of control. Workers struggle to stop the fires as smoke and fire cover the land.
- Netflix4.5/5
- IMDb7.9/108,537 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
The oil fields of Kuwait burn after the Gulf War, sending fire and smoke across the country. With almost no narration and no interviews, the documentary records the ruined landscape, often from helicopters and moving trucks. Murky skies, scorched earth, and flames make the country look like an alien world. Workers appear near the wells, trying to stop the fires. The film divides its images into thirteen sections, with title cards including "A Capital City" and "The War". It frames the catastrophe through religion and science fiction, opening with a line attributed to Blaise Pascal. The approach strips away political and geographical context, leaving a meditation on destruction.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Lessons of Darkness (1992)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film opens with a quotation attributed to Blaise Pascal — "The collapse of the stellar universe will occur – like creation – in grandiose splendor" — but the attribution is false: Werner Herzog wrote the line himself, choosing it, like the music, to set the film's mood.
- At the close of its Berlin Film Festival screening, the audience rose in fury, accusing Werner Herzog of aestheticising the horror of the war; he waved his hands fiercely and shouted "You're all wrong!", later arguing Hieronymous Bosch and Goya had done the same in their art.
- Herzog shot the Kuwaiti oil-field landscape with a telephoto lens, truck-mounted shots as in Fata Morgana, static shots of workers at the fires and many helicopter shots, deliberately avoiding establishing shots to heighten the apocalyptic effect.
