Salt and Fire

2016

1h 38m

IMDb RATING

4.9/10

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Drama

Thriller

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.

Directors

Werner Herzog

Writers

Werner Herzog(writer by)

Tom Bissell(short story by)

Stars

Veronica Ferres

Michael Shannon

Gael García Bernal

See production, box office & company info

Top cast

Laura Sommerfeld

Matt Riley

Dr. Fabio Cavani

Dr. Arnold Meier

Aristidis …

Flight Attendant

Danner Ignacio Márquez Arancibia

Huascar

Gabriel Márquez Arancibia

Atahualpa

Lilly Krug

Passenger

Werner Herzog

Man with One Story (uncredited)

Directors

Werner Herzog

Writers

Werner Herzog(writer by)

Tom Bissell(short story by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Oof. As I always say when I give films such a bad rating/review (though, tbf, only the ninth time I've rated 1/10...), it is nothing personal and I respect everyone who worked on this film and, of course, understand it isn't easy to make films. I never enjoy slating one, but this... deary me. I'm not sure where to begin. The dialogue. The dialogue! I genuinely do not believe I've seen a movie with such truly awful dialogue, the amount of times I was holding my head out of cringe was immeasurable. You just know the writer, presumably one Werner Herzog, thought he was prime William Shakespeare when he put it all together. It's not just terrible in itself, it also simply isn't written for the actors - none of it sounds natural out of them whatsoever. Talking of the actors, they merit some iffiness too. Listen, they are severely hampered by those behind the scenes but more was needed - especially from Michael Shannon, who I am a big fan of but his performance is... questionable, at best. Again, the ill-fitting dialogue did not help. Elsewhere, Veronica Ferres tries and is likeable but... yeah, not good. At least the Arancibia kids add some charm to things. Those children are put into the film around the middle and somehow (nothing bad on them, just their characters) stay until the very end. Those scenes with them, and Ferres' Laura, are sweet in isolation (pardon the pun), but wow do they feel entirely out of place and disconnected (pardon the p...) to everything that proceeds - to the point that the sweetness drains away. 1/10 always feels harsh to me, yet this is very much deserving of that rating in my opinion. Dire stuff, even at just around 90 minutes. The kids and the neat locations are all I've got by way of positives.

r96sk19 Aug, 2022