Into The Abyss

Herzog has gone documentary crazy of late, even directing documentary shorts in between outings. His latest is the biggest subject he's tackled in some time: can you get bigger than life and death?

"We have a loving, forgiving, merciful God," says the prison chaplain Herzog interviews in the shadow of a state graveyard, the final resting place of those put to death and have no families to claim their bodies. The crosses that mark their graves have only a number; there is no name or dash to suggest a person. When Herzog pushes the visibly moved priest on why would God allow the death penalty, he has no answer. Herzog would like to offer one: killing is wrong, no matter who has done it. But the director challenges himself on that throughout Into The Abyss.

Ten years ago, Michael Perry and Jason Burkett were involved in a triple homicide - a middle-aged mother, her teenage son and his friend were murdered for a Camaro – and have since been in prison. Perry now sits on Death Row, facing death by lethal injection in eight days' time, while Burkett has had his sentence reduced to life imprisonment, as the jury were moved by Burkett's father's testimonial. Herzog takes his camera into the prison to interview the two men, now twenty-eight, but also the relatives of the deceased, retired state executioners and Burkett's father.

Although stating at the outset that he is against capital punishment, Herzog doesn't ignore the raw emotion that might sway him. The director allows the camera of crime scene footage he has retrieved to linger on the blood stains on the floor, the teddy bear beside what are drag marks in the garage, the shotgun shells on the ground and the half-finished cookies on a baking tray. Later, there are glimpses of the bodies of the two teens half buried in the undergrowth. Over the footage are sombre strings, highlighting what didn't need to be highlighted - this was a grim, needless and cold-blooded murder for nothing more than a vehicle. Herzog also allows relatives to pour their hearts out on camera - the grief can be tough at times.

Surprisingly, Herzog all but ignores Perry and Burkett's pleas that they are innocent - something that someone opposing capital punishment might latch on to, seeing as new evidence could come to light later on - and gives them time to paint themselves as good-boys-gone-bad. So to include all this is puzzling - it seems the director is putting his belief to the test: he presents himself with confirmation of pointless and casual cruelty and then goes about trying to keep his opinion intact. Maybe he wants us to challenge us too.

He misses the mark every now and then: Herzog refuses to push Perry and Burkett on 'why' and branches out to include the inherited violence in their hometown of Conroe, Texas, which he then doesn't give enough time to explore fully. But Into The Abyss is a debate-inducing fil