Food Movies

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe

Film maker Werner Herzog eggs Errol Morris on to muster up the courage to finish his film "Gates of Heaven", declaring that if Morris does indeed complete it, he would eat his shoe.

This hyperbolic expression, and ultimate gesture performed by Herzog was a way of reinforcing his ideas about the role of the film maker: "Talk shows kill us and our language...the real war is against commercials and talk shows..." Several times Herzog emphasized that "adequate images" do not exist within the realm of advertising, and that film making was a way to provide an alternative to the images we are bombarded with and reveal some form of adequacy.

As the film continues however, Herzog polarizes this argument by describing the immateriality of film-making, "...it is just a projection of light, and doing that makes you feel like a clown, it's an inevitable process."

I find Herzog's approach to be a model for reinforcing one's own ideals. While embracing a certain foolishness involved in one's own creative process, he emphasizes the importance of living up to one's word.