Werner Herzog was once shot during an interview. He once pulled a giant boat over a mountain. He once ate a shoe after losing a bet, and had it filmed for a movie. He once rescued Joaquin Phoenix from a car accident. He once made a movie where the entire cast performed under hypnosis. He also recently watched 30 minutes of Barbie, and he came away with the correct conclusion about Barbie Land.
Werner Herzog on Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. pic.twitter.com/emCFM3yYEd
— The Film Stage
(@TheFilmStage) February 24, 2024
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the legendary filmmaker and scene-stealing actor went on Piers Morgan: Uncensored, during which he weighed in on some of this year’s Oscar crop. He admitted he hasn’t seen Oppenheimer yet, but he did see some but not all of the one about a living doll who suffers an existential crisis.
“Barbie, I managed to see the first half hour, and I was curious,” Herzog told Morgan. “I wanted to watch it because I was curious. And I still don’t have an answer, but I have a suspicion. Could it be that the world of Barbie is sheer hell?”
The director of Even Dwarfs Started Small added, “For a movie ticket, as an audience, you can witness sheer hell, as close as it gets.”
He’s not wrong! The plot of Barbie kicks off when its titular hero is struck with a sudden and violent case of self-awareness, wondering aloud if anyone else has ever thought about death. Barbie Land is so pink it may or may not have almost caused a paint shortage. All the men (well, save one) are idiots who are this close to turning into patriarchal tyrants. Barbie ends [spoiler!] with Barbie escaping into our own horrible world, where she can finally have lady parts.
Of course, the filmmaker who once allegedly pulled a gun on his main actor when he tried to flee set hasn’t gotten to most of that yet; he still has another 80-some minutes left.
You can watch Herzog’s full Piers Morgan appearance in the video below.
(Via THR)