Woyzeck Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Woyzeck Blu-ray Movie Review

Franzi got his gun (and his knife and his peas).

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 20, 2014

Note: This title is currently available as part of Herzog: The Collection.

Has there ever been a more fascinating figure in film than Werner Herzog? This much debated individual, one who elicits both hyperbolic accolades and equally exaggerated derision, has been a seeming force of nature in film for decades, helping to define the New German Cinema (a somewhat later analog to the French New Wave). Herzog’s filmography is rather breathtakingly diverse, traversing both traditional fiction, quasi-biographies, and a large number of documentaries. Through it all, Herzog himself has become the subject of considerable controversy, at times seeming to be as obsessively motivated as some of his film subjects. The auteur’s off kilter blend of nihilism and often black humor has given him and his films a decidedly unique place in contemporary media, to the point that a supposed note Herzog jotted off to his cleaning lady became an internet sensation (it’s actually a brilliantly written parody by Dale Shaw). Shout! Factory, a label which repeatedly stubbed its corporate toe on its last big deluxe boxed set built around the talents of one person (Bruce Lee: The Legacy Collection, the only time in my reviewing career I have had to start over from scratch due to a complete recall and reissue) may seem to be throwing caution to the wind by upping the ante with this release. Here there are no fewer than 16 films by Herzog, housed in a handsome hardback booklike case that also features a wealth of text and information about each of the films. Fifteen of the films are new to Blu-ray (Shout's horror imprint Scream Factory released Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre as a standalone a few months ago), and the offerings here cover both iconic films in Herzog's oeuvre as well as some oddities. The extremely handsome packaging offers a 7.5" x 7.5" x 1.5" hardback book exterior casing which houses heavy cardstock pocket holders that contain the discs. Also included are The Werner Herzog Condition by Stephen J. Smith, an appreciation of the director's work with essays about each of the films. The films get even more text in write-ups by Chris Wahl and Brad Prager. Each of the pocket holder pages details the film (or in some cases, films) on each disc, with audio options and special features listed.

For a play that was never actually finished by its author, Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck has had an alarmingly full life in any number of art forms over the decades. Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck is still considered one of the major masterpieces of the dodecaphonic (i.e., 12 tone or serial) school of composition, and even the redoubtable Tom Waits has attempted a more traditional musical theater approach to the subject matter. Werner Herzog approached the material in the late seventies and fashioned a riveting if unabashedly disturbing take on the tale. There evidently actually was a real life 19th century soldier named Johann Christian Woyzeck, who was executed for having killed his mistress, but in Herzog’s reformulation, there’s less of a mundane “real world” quality than one of Herzog’s most potent realizations of Abstract Expressionism, especially with regard to Klaus Kinski’s bug eyed, frantic take on the character. Eva Mattes, who portrays Woyzeck’s mistress Marie in the film, actually won the Best Supporting Actress award at Cannes the year of the film’s release, but as excellent as her depiction is, it’s Kinski who “owns” this film, lock, stock and barrel.

Franz Woyzeck (Klaus Kinski) is a hapless, low level grunt who is reduced to menial tasks like shaving his Captain (Wolfgang Reichmann) while also taking part in bizarre experiments cooked up by the brigade’s Doctor (Willy Semmelrogge). The good (?) doctor has Woyzeck on a steady diet of peas for questionable reasons, just one of many indignities the poor man must endure. The one refuge in his life, his beautiful if self involved mistress Marie (Eva Mattes), soon becomes another note of despair in Woyzeck’s life when he realizes she’s carrying on with a strapping drum major (Josef Bierbichler in a much different guise than his prophet in Heart of Glass).

In a perfectly nihilistic way, Woyzeck’s life, not exactly a bed of roses to begin with, simply spirals completely out of control, taking the soldier’s last shards of sanity with it. Kinski gives a floridly theatrical performance here, one that almost approaches silent cinema expressionistic (small e) appearances at times. He glares, he grimaces, he scowls and struts, a puppet desperately trying to cut unseen strings which are nonetheless controlling his every move. It’s a fascinating piece of screen performance, even if it will strike some as patently ridiculous.

Woyzeck Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Woyzeck is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Some of the same issues that beset other offerings in the Herzog boxed set also show up here. Once again, grain structure is highly variable, at times barely in evidence, at other times looking natural, and even heavy at times (watch during the final scene of the men in the field next to the coffin and body). Colors are quite robust, with the blues and reds of the military uniforms popping nicely, and the great scene with Woyzeck running through the kind of weird looking green field offering nicely vivid and accurate looking hues. Much of the film is bathed in beiges and yellows, which also look good. While nowhere near the level they are in Fitzcarraldo, compression artifacts do crop up here from time to time. This is generally watchable, despite recurrent issues with compression artifacts, and in fact looks pretty good in several places (close-ups are especially sharp and provide ample fine detail), but it's not an ideal presentation.

Woyzeck Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While Woyzeck's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono German track exhibits some of the same hiss as is evident on other releases in the Herzog box set, it's not quite as present. That said, this is still a very bright sounding track, with overabundant highs that make elements like the closing string music sound a bit strident at times (once again Herzog also utilizes the glockenspiel quite evocatively in the score, and that has a slightly less piercing quality to it). Dialogue is always listenable, but frequently sounds a bit on the boxy side. Some of the other music, like the rousing band music played in the town square, sounds nicely full bodied.

Woyzeck Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 3:18)


• In Conversation - Werner Herzog and Lauren Straub (1080p; 58:56) is in essence an audio supplement, though there's a still of Herzog directing the film that is on screen during the dialogue. This has some great anecdotal information in it, as well as even more Kinski vignettes.


• Portrait: Werner Herzog Documentary (1080p; 29:48) is filled with great candid interviews and footage of Herzog. This was obviously sourced from old video and shows rampant haloing and other anomalies.


• Still Gallery (1080p; 4:27)

Woyzeck Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Easily one of Herzog's more patently theatrical efforts (to the point that some backgrounds look like "flats", i.e., stage scenery), Woyzeck is a relentlessly dour and depressing piece that is nonetheless fascinating to watch for its over the top Kinski portrayal. Herzog flirts with a Sam Peckinpah-esque "lyricism of (violent) death" in the closing moments of the film, but otherwise, this is Herzog at his most overwrought. The video presentation here is inconsistent and less than ideal, and the audio can be a bit too bright sounding at times. The two longer supplements featured on this disc may make it somewhat more palatable to some potential consumers.