Into The Abyss

If IFC Films, the distributor of Werner Herzog's newest documentary Into the Abyss, wanted to get all William Castle, they'd have a functioning execution gurney near the concession stand. It'd serve the dual function of pre-show showmanship and post-show utility. Lord knows, the first question I had after watching this examination of the waste of human life was whether to blow my brains out, jump off a bridge or stick my head in an oven.

There are arguments to be made as to whether Herzog's film has the aesthetic vigor of his other films, or if Into the Abyss is even an effective piece of propaganda (it opens and closes with the director's stated denouncement of capital punishment) but one thing is certain: it is capital D-pressing. Into the Abyss details the triple homicide committed by a soulless mound of organs and flesh named Michael Perry and his accomplice Jason Burkett. At the age of 19 the pair murdered a woman because they wanted her car, then killed her son and friend, kids their age whom they knew.

Herzog recounts the narrative rather plainly, without making any excuses for convicted. This is no Thin Blue Line, but it isn't an episode of 48 Hours Mystery-esque TV either. Mixed with original police footage and interviews of family and key witnesses are prison interviews with Perry and Burkett themselves.

Perry, eight days away from lethal injection, has a juvenile face and eyes like a shark. His default position is to blurt out meaningless religious platitudes. One can't help but think that this horrible creature neither realizes what he's done or what is about to happen to him.

Burkett's story is a little different. He isn't facing a death sentence, but won't be up for a first parole hearing until he is fifty. It is implied that his more lenient sentencing is due the dramatic testimony of his father, a recidivist felon, that led two female jury members to cry. Blind justice!

You can almost hear his mind working off camera as he interviews a man who ran in the same circles as the killers and the deceased. He slams on the breaks when his subject makes a remark about how "he couldn't read back then" to probe about his challenges with illiteracy. It has nothing to do with the focus of Into the Abyss but does more to shed light on the world of these troubled people than any amount of Voice of God narration could do.

These illuminating tangents happen time and again - there's the prison chaplain's epiphany with almost running over a squirrel, Burkett's pro-bono lawyer/new (and pregnant!) bride's description of seeing rainbows, the former death house captain's confession of disquieting voices in his head and many others, all uniquely screwed up and sad.

These deviations from the standard "Court TV" script don't just elevate Into the Abyss as a documentary film, they shed some light on Werner Herzog's creative process. His interviews all feel like brilliant first drafts led by a man with an unnatural ability to draw out the bizarre from the world around him. It is difficult to compare Into the Abyss to Herzog's other, more art-driven docs like Fata Morgana, The Great Ecstacy of Woodcarver Steiner, Encounters at the End of the World, Lessons of Darkness, Wheel of Time or Cave of Forgotten Dreams, but as a rumination on the troubling topic of capital punishment there are few films as singular or intriguing.

Starring: Werner Herzog, Michael James Perry, Damon Hall, Lisa Stoller-Balloun, Jason Burkett
Directed by: Werner Herzog
Produced by: Erik Nelson, Lucki Stipetic, André Singer
Genres: Crime/Gangster and Documentary
Running Time: 1 hr. 47 min.
Release Date: November 11th, 2011 (limited)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for for mature thematic material and some disturbing images.
Distributors: IFC Films