One good thing to be said about Werner Herzog, he is certainly NOT predictable. I almost always enjoy his non conventional approach to whatever material he chooses to tackle. His stories are fascinating. Most of them are about madness, this one included
My Son My Son What Have Ye Done, can be considered a good film OR almost a good film. The question is how much you will be bothered by a sense of pretentiousness, which distorts story telling and leaves the viewer with questions. If you were to ask me what this film was about, I would say it is about madness. But if you were to ask me to explain it in a sentence, what the film is about, I'm not sure that I could. You get the impression that a message is trying to be delivered, something Oedipal related, but you are never entirely certain what that is. I liked the film on a more superficial level. Michael Shannon's performance is credible, even though he doesn't get enough to do. Ninety minutes is not enough time I think to tell this story, but one of the benefits is that it is never dull.
I've seen most of Werner Herzog's work, and it has taken me until this movie to notice, but he seems to have bizarre uses for animals. Take for instance, the monkeys in Aguire: the Wrath of God, the cows in Heart of Glass, the jellyfish in Invincible, and The lizards in The Bad Lieutenant. Here, Herzog offers us a farm load of ostriches. What it means is not automatically obvious. Perhaps Herzog simply admires the creature for its aesthetic beauty, but I think the idea is that the ostrich looks fragile and delicate, but can actually be quite vicious. Such a description certainly applies to Shannon's character, hence a connection
In various Herzog movies, you sense that he has a very dry sense of humour. It can be detected fairly distinctly in The Bad Lieutenant, and in a similar fashion, he spikes My Son My Son with three or four laughs. Brad Douriff's appearance in the film is almost a comedic element in itself
I think when all is said and done, what this movie needs more than anything is a bit more space to be fleshed out. The central character feels rather underdeveloped, and the story material seems a little unorganized, and given the related lack of explanation, it doesn't have quite as much to say as I think it intends to. My Son, My Son, never feels very important. It is supposed to be a deep psychological movie, but ironically it ends up feeling more like a very direct, literal experience with nothing to hide. By those standards, I think the movie can be enjoyed, but only if you like art cinema.
My Son My Son What Have Ye Done, can be considered a good film OR almost a good film. The question is how much you will be bothered by a sense of pretentiousness, which distorts story telling and leaves the viewer with questions. If you were to ask me what this film was about, I would say it is about madness. But if you were to ask me to explain it in a sentence, what the film is about, I'm not sure that I could. You get the impression that a message is trying to be delivered, something Oedipal related, but you are never entirely certain what that is. I liked the film on a more superficial level. Michael Shannon's performance is credible, even though he doesn't get enough to do. Ninety minutes is not enough time I think to tell this story, but one of the benefits is that it is never dull.
I've seen most of Werner Herzog's work, and it has taken me until this movie to notice, but he seems to have bizarre uses for animals. Take for instance, the monkeys in Aguire: the Wrath of God, the cows in Heart of Glass, the jellyfish in Invincible, and The lizards in The Bad Lieutenant. Here, Herzog offers us a farm load of ostriches. What it means is not automatically obvious. Perhaps Herzog simply admires the creature for its aesthetic beauty, but I think the idea is that the ostrich looks fragile and delicate, but can actually be quite vicious. Such a description certainly applies to Shannon's character, hence a connection
In various Herzog movies, you sense that he has a very dry sense of humour. It can be detected fairly distinctly in The Bad Lieutenant, and in a similar fashion, he spikes My Son My Son with three or four laughs. Brad Douriff's appearance in the film is almost a comedic element in itself
I think when all is said and done, what this movie needs more than anything is a bit more space to be fleshed out. The central character feels rather underdeveloped, and the story material seems a little unorganized, and given the related lack of explanation, it doesn't have quite as much to say as I think it intends to. My Son, My Son, never feels very important. It is supposed to be a deep psychological movie, but ironically it ends up feeling more like a very direct, literal experience with nothing to hide. By those standards, I think the movie can be enjoyed, but only if you like art cinema.