I liked it. Werner Herzog as a filmmaker is a lot like Norman Mailer is as a writer...to me anyway. What I mean is there is always something interesting about his films and I always notice something wonderful about how he approaches things. Even if I'm not that crazy about the film there will be things that make me say WOW! Reading Mailer can be the same, I might not be that crazy about the book but you always notice what a master craftsman he is.

I won't give anything away about the film but he makes interesting choices with the music and how he presents the story. Notice the serenity in the torture sequences when you watch it. How he sets up and presents these scenes. This is not at all how most people would approach them and certainly not how an American filmmaker might set them up. It's not some fetishistic celebration of the pain, suffering and horror. In fact the film often has a dreamlike quality to it and the way he keeps the focus on the human spirit and how he does this is pretty interesting. In a way the film is like a poem and it has a certain rhythm to it...a unique ebb and flow.

I love Herzog so I'm biased anyway. I have not seen the doc yet either but it's on my list too. I think I like having seen the film first and then going to the doc as a follow-up.