Review: Nomad: In The Footsteps Of Bruce Chatwin

Image courtesy of Music Box Films.

It makes sense that legendary German director Werner Herzog and English travel writer Bruce Chatwin, who died in 1989 due to complications from AIDS, would have been friends. Herzog's work - from his epics about adventurers with mad visions ("Aguirre: The Wrath of God" and "Fitzcarraldo") to globe trotting documentaries that have taken him from Iraq to Alaska - has often been defined by a sense of restlessness and a penchant toward setting out into the great unknown in search of experience. 

Chatwin, quite the world traveler himself, produced work - novels and cultural studies - that would fit into Herzog's areas of interest. In fact, Herzog adapted one of Chatwin's works, "The Viceroy of Ouidah," into the 1987 film "Cobra Verde," which was the third film in which he'd directed cinema's great madman, Klaus Kinski, as a man traveling to a foreign locale and attempting to conquer it.

"Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin," Herzog's latest documentary, is a chronicle of Chatwin's life, but also specifically a story about the duo's friendship, and how Chatwin's travels inspired Herzog to follow in his footsteps to such places as South America and Australia. Utilizing some gorgeous drone footage, "Nomad" is a travelogue documentary in which Herzog honors his friend by keeping his mythos alive, but also introducing audiences to his work and the fascinating places and cultures it portrayed.

Two of Chatwin's works, "In Patagonia" and "The Songlines," draw much of the film's focus. In the former, Chatwin was inspired by what he believed to be a piece of brontosaurus skin - it turned out to be a giant sloth - to travel to the region where it was found. Chatwin's fascination with the skin and even some feces from the animal that have been preserved displays the writer's ability to transform something mundane into a storytelling device and open worlds of possibility for those with the knack for travel and history.

Herzog is obviously fascinated by "The Songlines," which interestingly enough tells of how some Aboriginals in Australia use songs - rather than maps - and other mnemonics for travel. Perhaps, as a filmmaker, Herzog is captivated by the concept of storytelling and art as a means to get people from point A to point B - even from birth to death - in their own journey.

Some might consider "Nomad" to be a smaller - or more minor, if you will - Herzog documentary, especially when faced with such a masterpiece as "Grizzly Man," something so topical as "Lessons of Darkness" or a film on life or death matters like "Into the Abyss." That may be so, but it's still often spellbinding and gorgeous to look at. 

Many people have suffered through slide shows of travel photos from friends or family - but in the case of "Nomad," the story being told, the journey being described and the places being chronicled are often mesmerizing. This is one of the year's better documentaries.