Salt and Fire (2016)

Salt and Fire: Directed by Werner Herzog. With Veronica Ferres, Michael Shannon, Gael García Bernal, Volker Michalowski. A scientist blames the head of a large company for an ecological disaster in South America. But when a volcano begins to show signs of erupting, they must unite to avoid a disaster.

“Salt and Fire (2016)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e* 1/2 (out of 4) u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThree scientists are on their way to give a report to the United Nations when they are taken hostage. Laura (Veronica Ferres) is the main focus as one of the kidnappers (Michael Shannon) wants to make sure she realizes what a greedy company can do to people and their environment.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWerner Herzog is one of the most fascinating filmmakers to ever grace film buffs yet thereu0026#39;s no question that something went horribly wrong with this picture. Herzog has a brilliant mind and probably a mind that is a lot more intelligent than the majority of the people who watch his films yet for the life of me I donu0026#39;t know what he was trying to do with this picture. He wrote the screenplay so Iu0026#39;m sure he was trying to get some sort of message across about ruining the world that we live in but it comes as a pretty epic fail.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSALT AND FIRE is a very weird film and a very bad one at times. Again, Iu0026#39;m sure Herzog had something in mind but sadly it just didnu0026#39;t come to life on the screen and the end result is a rather boring and flat film. It starts off as a hostage/thriller type of picture yet thereu0026#39;s never any suspense and for the life of me I canu0026#39;t even see where the director even attempted to build any. Iu0026#39;m really not sure what the entire point of this opening kidnapping was if you werenu0026#39;t going for some sort of suspense.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThings donu0026#39;t get much better once the lead scientist and her taker begin to form a strange relationship. Again, what the point of this was is rather confusing because it just doesnu0026#39;t play out in the picture. We then get another set up with the woman out in a salt field with two blind children. I think these sequences are the most interesting in the film and Iu0026#39;m sure something great could have been done with this alone but it just wasnu0026#39;t to be. Even these scenes are full of bad moments where thereu0026#39;s just no pay off or anything of real interest.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBoth Ferres and Shannon are good in their roles but thereu0026#39;s just so much any great actor can do with mediocre parts. The film does features a rather nice and unique music score and Iu0026#39;d argue that the cinematography was very good as well. The film was shot in Boliva and weu0026#39;ve got some terrific visuals to look at but sadly just about everything else is flat. SALT AND FIRE is a real misfire from a legendary director who usually delivers much better.”