Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016)

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

WERNER HERZOG is a world class director who seems to keep his projects revolving around the constant thought of dreams. What could have been, what will happen, what are we thinking, and ultimately who are we? To make a documentary about the Internet, which would seem so rooted in science, and then use it to explore humanity and all our flaws and desires, made for a movie that is both eye-opening and reflective. For Herzog, I would expect nothing less, but the documentary still surprised me in more ways that one.It's a slow-churning story told in 10 chapters. The familiar voice of Werner himself narrates the action, through interviews and questions that attempt no less than to determine the progress of humanity with the dawn of the technological age; the age in which we are all connected and information is both limitless and ever-growing.In a small room in a science classroom in California, the very Internet was born in the 1960's, and the first transmitted message "LOG" was cut off midway through. As one man explains, the importance and simplicity of that first message ("lo and behold what man has achieved") is the thesis on which Herzog explores the topics. We see how information grew, how newspapers were first programmed for people to view on their home computers, how emails began to document business needs at almost instantaneous speeds. What a marvel, indeed.Smartly, Herzog also explores the darker shades of our brilliance: of hate mail and the lawlessness of the online community. From hackers to a family who received spam emails of their daughter's mangled body, nearly decapitated in a car wreck... The tapestries of any invention are countless, but as the documentary begins to explore, no man made invention in history has ever grown at such an exponential rate. A wide-eyed woman with a Stepford Wife's sensibility declares "the Internet is Satan."In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, Lo And Behold would be a bore of talking heads and the breakdown of important dates and times. Herzog seems to relish the bore, asking his subjects questions that often throw them off ("do you love this robot?"). It's oftentimes quite funny, but when we explore the darker implications just below the surface, it could also be one of the scariest films I have ever viewed. With our reliance on the internet so thoroughly engrossed in our lives, one scientist speculates that potentially billions could die were a large solar flare to wipe out electricity as we know it. Nature give and nature take away, but has humanity moved beyond the point of simple survival without technological help?With a haunting score that recalls precious Herzog themes, the movie is nonetheless a fascinating and endlessly entertaining journey through modern times, with Herzog's deliciously German accent piercing through the bland images of computers and wires. There seems no better director to tackle this subject matter, and in fact I doubt many other filmmakers could achieve something so remarkable from something so apparently average as the Internet.I left this movie, looked around, thought about life. There's an existential theme at work which forced me to think about how my life is wholly dependent on machines. They make life easier. I need them for daily support and connectivity. At this point in society, 2016, what is life if not the reliance on technology?

Watched this on Netflix, as I was fed up with all those documentaries we have on "free" TV. I was not aware that Werner Herzog does such profound documentaries, now I know better. This documentary tackles a lot of interesting, and often hurtful subjects. For once it made me proud of working in the industry and being able to contribute something worthwhile. So much good energy gets wasted, and there is a lot of rubbish on the Internet, but there are also the pearls of human wisdom, and so I encourage everyone to go looking for them, or even better, make their own contributions. This goes to show that you can really make a difference by using the Internet for wonderful applications, like bringing people together, and make them understand our world (and one another) much better. It made me very curious about current developments in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and I sure hope there will be much more progress in the next years.I don't think that it is really justified to criticize this documentary, as you really cannot do this gigantic subject any justice in such a short amount of time. There could be ten individual movies on just the ten topics in the documentary! Kudos to Mr. Herzog for tackling such a task and staying decent all the way through. I really felt for all the people who suffered the ill effects. Stay strong and feel your own energy, and speak up your own truth. Through the internet, you will be heard.

Werner Herzog's exploration of the Internet and the connected world.My expectation was that this film would explore the development of the Internet and a bit about how it works and has expanded. To an extent, this is accurate. We get a look at the birthplace of the Internet, and we see plenty of stories about the world of computing, especially hacking (both from cyber threats and from trophy-hunters like Kevin Mitnick).But we go way beyond that. I am disappointed that we don't explore the Internet more, but Herzog makes up for this by exploring other loosely connected ideas. Space travel to Mars, for one. He also talks with people who have an intense sensitivity to electro-magnetic fields. The most bizarre segment involves a family who was apparently attacked over the death of their daughter. Herzog makes the family look a bit crazy, and this isn't helped by the mother's claim that the Internet is the Anti-Christ, a view that clearly demonstrates she is mentally unstable.

I watched this still not knowing what the internet was. I've seen friends talk about it, or my brother bought a TV from the Internet once, but this film was really fascinating. It was fascinating how Herzog portrayed all sides of this massive electronic thing – from the dark side, of how a family were abused through the internet or even how internet sends out signals through your hi-fi and can send you crazy. I didn't even know you could connect to the internet using dangerous hi-fi signals, but you can. I really loved how Herzog looked into how it will evolve, and admittedly nobody really knew, but Elon Musk is going to get the internet onto Mars soon. Like who will need eBay on Mars, duuurrrr!!!Anyway, this film was amazing.