If I had to resign myself to a world where there was only one god, and he was a man, I imagine his voice would be that of Werner Herzog–comforting with a trace of righteous admonishment. Last night I came to the NWFF to see Linas Phillip’s “Walking to Werner,” after having watched a rough cut at SAM maybe more than a year ago. In the intervening months, the narrative had imploded in the very best possible way. It’s now deeper, more precise, and I laughed a lot more. Using his own voice, as well as Herzog’s commentary lifted from the “Fitzcarraldo” DVD, Linas pulls us down the Pacific coast on a flâneur’s walk past snake charmers, chainsaw sculptors, and plenty of prophets on the gravel shoulders.
While his original goal, as described in the film’s title, was to walk to Los Angeles to meet Werner, a phone call from Werner himself quickly forces Linas to reconsider his motivations. In one of the smartly placed voiceovers, Herzog describes his own “quest for adequate images” in a world that is sinking quickly into commercial mediocrity. Though religion and hardship are certainly threads that run through the narrative, these are brilliant images of ecstatic truth that stick closest to my heart–Linas’ spontaneous dance on the Golden Gate Bridge, a blue poncho buffeted by the wind, the fogged-in rocky landscape on Highway 101, Dayna Hanson’s cover of “I’ll Be Your Mirror.”
What may have begun as a simple task, inspired by Herzog’s own walk from Munich to Paris, Linas has transformed into a study of suffering and redemption and yes, a hero’s journey in the true mythic sense. During the final sequence, we once more get to hear Herzog’s voice and this time, in a melancholy and sweet pay-off, there is no doubt that the adventure and the blisters were totally worth it.
