To Production Majors, To Artists, To Soldiers of Cinema

by Elizabeth Cho

About a week ago I finally got around to watching Harmony Korine’s most recent movie Spring Breakers. I’ve also been getting into the habit of searching for online film discussions on sites like reddit and mubi after watching a film and reading some user commentary. So, naturally, after finishing Spring Breakers I typed in the title to the search box of reddit and was pleased to see that the director had done an “AMA” a few months back, where he answered, or rather, attempted to answer some questions that redditors submitted. Most users commented about the nonsensical replies Korine was providing, calling it “the worse AMA since Rampart” (the Woody Harrelson AMA fiasco). I disagree with these users. There were quite a few gems of responses, my favorite being Korine’s advice to new directors, where he name-drops director Werner Herzog.

I remember reading this and mentally bookmarking it.

“Soldier of cinema,” I thought, “I like that.”

Then today I watched the short film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. It’s not actually directed by Herzog, but by a fellow documentary filmmaker, the late Les Blank. And yes, Herzog does, in fact, eat his shoe- but only after boiling it for five hours with stock, vegetables, and generous amounts of hot sauce. The dare came about from a promise Herzog made to the not-yet director Errol Morris. From the backseat of a car, Herzog tells the camera how he had read Errol Morris’ writings and encouraged him to get into film. “He has thousands and thousands of pages of the most incredible material I’ve seen in my life but he has not finished his books. So I told him ‘You are a man who should make films and you are going to do that film now’ and he said to me ‘I don’t have any money and no one will give me money’ and I said ‘Money doesn’t make films. Just do it and take the initiative.’ And I said ‘I’m going to eat my shoes if you finish that one.’”

So, as I’m sure you can guess, Errol Morris makes the movie, Werner Herzog eats his shoe.

But, of course, it’s not just about the shoe. I’m sure people will come across the title Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe and think “Wow, these artists dudes are crazy” or perhaps they’ll just laugh at what seems like a terrible bet to lose.  Sure, Herzog prepares, boils, and eats his shoe on screen, but he also takes the time to speak of the destruction caused by capitalistic television and to demand what he calls “adequate images”.

If we speak of television it’s just ridiculous and destructive. It kills us. And talk-shows will kill us. They kill our language. So we have to declare holy war against what we see every single day on television, commercials and… I think there should be real war against commercials, real war against talk-shows, real war against Bonanza, Rawhide or these things.

And suddenly, hearing that, I remembered what Korine said. Or, what Korine said that Herzog said. “Soldier of cinema”. I went back to the thread on reddit and took a screenshot of his words. Rereading it, it’s quite cliche to say “never give up” as a piece of advice, but really, Korine speaks the truth. There is a war and you/I/ we are soldiers of cinema. If you/I/we do believe that there exists a lack of adequate images, it’s you/I/we that have to create them.  And I’m saying this for you but I’m also saying it for me but mostly for us. In the name of cinema, in the name of Errol Morris’ subsequent twelve-films-made success, in the name of Werner Herzog eating his shoe.

For anyone with twenty minutes to spare, here’s the entire film on youtube.