How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck
Dir: Werner Herzog
1976
***
It's hard to call many of Werner Herzog's films 'documentaries' but it is hard to find another word for them. Herzog is a genre unto himself, 1976's How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck is more of a musing than a factual exploration and once again Herzog invites us to look at something hard and long enough to see that there is far more to it than first thought. In this short film he examines the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship held each year in New Holland, Pennsylvania. We observe several auctioneers until their unique style of language almost takes on different meaning. The auctioneers speak in a rapid manner that sounds as if they are rolling their words. As Herzog puts it "It is an extreme language, frightening but quite beautiful at the same time."
He goes on to explain that it is "the last poetry possible, he poetry of capitalism." It is hard to tell if this is meant as an optimistic light, that there is beauty in everything or if this is it, the last bastion of creativity, and even then it isn't particularly pleasant. Herzog observes like an alien might, indeed, this sort of thing is alien to most people, but he analyses it quite differently than most and his interest in small town America continues. I love it, it's a subject I have very little interest in and I dislike the sound of the auctioneers language and yet I'm transfixed by the possibilities that Herzog suggests. Only Herzog makes these types of films and I love them - however, this didn't do it for me as much as his other early short films. As a Herzog fan though I like it as this where we see the first collaboration between the director and Cinematographer Edward Lachman which is a great point of reference. Herzog can interject his magic to just about any subject, this is the proof and as repetitive as it is, there is a certain music to it. He touches on the lives of the Amish people who live near the auctions and comperes their lives to that of the auctioneers which is fine but I can't help but think that a full on Herzog documentary on the Amish people might have been a little more entertaining, albeit a little too obvious.