The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1985) poster
1985 · documentary · mountaineering · messner · himalaya

The Dark Glow of the Mountains

Directed by Werner Herzog45m1985
ElsewhereIMDb7.41kTMDB7.631
  • measured
  • intense
Movie DNA

Neutral, measured, measured documentary / mountaineering, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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Werner Herzog follows mountaineers Hans Kammerlander and Reinhold Messner during their expedition into climbing the Gasherbrum mountains, which has some of the most difficult peaks to be conquered, and they'll do it without the use of oxygen tanks. Herzog also takes some time to hear about their past experiences with other mountains, their personal tragedies and the reasons why they are so involved with such activity.

Our read · The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1985) reads as a neutral, measured, inventive documentary · mountaineering · messner entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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You want Werner Herzog's short poetic doc on extreme climbers and inner drives.

ends ambiguousit stays with youmeditativegrips from the openattention 4/5breezes bysubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightYou dislike slow philosophical documentaries.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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