Where the Green Ants Dream (1984)

I watched another Werner Herzog directed film. I've seen a few now haven't I? Yes ma'am! This one oddly sees the German director venture to Australian shores to tell the tale of a mining company encroaching on land Aboriginals claim to be sacred. Tall timber Bruce Spence, who I haven't seen in anything for a while, plays the engineer who's at first frustrated by the Aboriginals but becomes a sympathetic ally of sorts. Such issues have been an emotional and prickly issue in Australia over the years and it can be intriguing to get a foreigners take on things. 

Busy broadcaster Phillip Adams was involved with Herzog during the making of this film. If a recent article he wrote in The Australian is anything to go by he is still reeling about the outcome. I don't share Adam's concerns about the film but then again I don't claim to be the most enlightened on Aboriginal culture. To me it seemed like a reasonable view of events still taking place on the richly resourced lands of the outback.
Herzog manages to elicit feats of under and over acting from much of his cast, a trait I have noticed common to many of his films. This is at the bottom end of the films I have seen of his but is not a bad effort. Surely he could have satisfied us fans though by squeezing in an unrelated shot of a desert mouse feeding its young on the tit or something of the like.

3/5