Into the Abyss (2011 Werner Herzog)

Into the Abyss is the chilling story of a triple homicide committed by two young boys one sentenced to death and the other life in prison. The horror of this story is clear, director Wrner Herzog mixes unsettling archive footage of the murder scenes with a large range of interviews exploring the victims, their families, the crimes, the criminals and their families and ultimately the people who deal with corporal punishment, the issue that lies at the heart of the film.

The film begins as a clear argument against capital punishment, a priest retells stories and process' he goes through when an inmate is given the lethal injection, he holds their ankle, reads them their rights, and prays for them. With all of his faith he says "I cannot stop that process, I wish I could", one would expect the documentary to continue in this way, and then to further its point justify the crimes of an inmate on death row and put him on an almost heroic pedestal, Herzog doesn't. Instead Herzog uses real crime footage of the bodies and harrowing recalls of the moment the families discovered what had happened, in a large number of segments Herzog explores every facet of the crimes.

The film is largely participatory, as is Herzog's style, he constantly and visibly pushes people into an emotional response creating a really heartfelt piece of cinema that touches the whole audience. The ethics of this participatory documentary, in Herzog's pushing, for example one of the culprits says he cant explain how he felt, to which Herzog responds "try, try to explain it". Pushing people in this way is clearly crossing a boundary into a level of manipulation that heightens drama and gets the emotional responses Herzog is looking for. I think the only thing that saves Herzog's approach from being incredibly insensitive is that he leaves in his own probing, he doesn't display the "pushed" answers as natural therefore exposing his probing to the audience for their judgement. The biggest problem with this is that it works against the emotional connection the audience gain from their recounts of lost family members. Herzog uses these characters in part as witnesses but mainly to give the audience an emotional connection and "activate" (Nichols 2001) the audience, making them actively think about their own family members.

Into the Abyss is a good example of a documentary which splits the line between being about a subject and telling a story. Clearly the crimes committed and the way they have effected everyone involved is the main story of the documentary however almost every scene is laced with a point for or against, although usually against, capital punishment. Whilst these points may seem hidden by tears and emotion and the middle of the film villifies the clear villains further for their crimes Herzog ensures the argument is not forgotten and tays the most poingient thing in the film. He does this by framing the whole narrative with "expert" witnesses arguing against capital punishment in the "Prologue" and "Protocall of Death" sections. Despite the clear argument against capital punishment the film makes Heerzog is careful to include some other opinions however briefly.

It is clear throughout Into the Abyss that Herzog has done his best to show all of the damage that the crimes caused in a fair and emotive way. He shows the culprits not as evil but as people who have made a mistake working towards his argument against capital punishment. He goes some way to trying to explain why it could have happened, in a cultural way, and works his hardest to show what the people involved have learned. Overall Into the Abyss is a look into all facets of life after murder from all angles and perspectives presenting all as victims in some way. Throughout all of these messages the theme of anti capital punishment rings through compiling a compelling argument through its heavily constructed representations of good and evil people throughout and after the hardest of times.

Bibliography
1. Into the Abyss (2011), Herzog W, USA, UK, Germany,  Creative Differences Productions

2. Nichols. (2001). Why are ethical issues central to documentary film making . In: Introduction to documentary. usa: Indiana University Press. p1-19.

3. Nichols B. (2001). How do documentaries differ from other types of film. In: Introduction to documentary. usa: Indiana University Press. p20-41.