The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974)
The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974)
There is a particular kind of short-form documentary that exists almost outside conventional cinema, closer to an extended television portrait than anything you would normally seek out on a Friday night. Werner Herzog's The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, made in 1974 for the West German broadcaster Süddeutscher Rundfunk and running to just 45 minutes, sits firmly in that category. Its subject is Walter Steiner, a Swiss craftsman who, away from his workshop, happens to be one of the finest ski-flyers in the world. Ski-flying, for the uninitiated, is the more extreme cousin of ski-jumping, conducted on enormous hills where competitors can be airborne for distances that look frankly implausible from the ground. Steiner, by the time Herzog turned a camera on him, was winning competitions by margins so large that the sport's governing body was reportedly adjusting the course simply to stop him flying beyond the safe landing zone. That is a genuinely unusual premise for a film, and it is the kind of oddball human story that Herzog had already shown a talent for spotting.
By 1974, Herzog was still a relatively young filmmaker operating out of Munich, building the reputation that would later solidify around features such as Fitzcarraldo. His production company, Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, gave him a degree of independence, and the Süddeutscher Rundfunk commission meant the film was conceived for television broadcast rather than theatrical release, which explains both its length and its somewhat intimate, unhurried approach. Herzog himself appears on screen as narrator and interviewer, a presence he would return to throughout his documentary work, as seen in Lessons of Darkness. The film uses slow-motion photography of Steiner's jumps extensively, and the visual sequences of a lone figure suspended against pale winter sky carry a quietly hypnotic quality that is very much a Herzog signature. The score, supplied by the German progressive rock group Popol Vuh, who were frequent collaborators with Herzog during this period, gives the film much of its atmosphere.
Walter Steiner himself is a quietly fascinating subject on paper: a man who builds things from wood for a living and then, at weekends, essentially attempts to defy gravity on a pair of skis. Herzog frames him with genuine curiosity, treating the apparent contradiction between the careful, patient craft of carpentry and the violent velocity of ski-flying as something worth sitting with. Whether the film fully delivers on that promise across its 45-minute running time is, of course, another question entirely, and one that depends rather a lot on what you are bringing to it as a viewer. It has been covered by other documentary reviewers as a curio from the period, and if you enjoy comparing it against other non-fiction work from the same era, there is a reasonable selection on this site, including Next Goal Wins and Nom Tèw.
Honestly... unless you're into Skiing or carpentry I wouldn't recommend this. The soundtrack is great and it's relatively interesting but yeah... that's about it
And that is pretty much where I land on it too. There is a version of this film that would grab almost anyone, but as it stands it is something of a niche proposition, best suited to people who already have a soft spot for either the sport or the craft. The Popol Vuh soundtrack genuinely is a high point, all drifting, slightly eerie synth and guitar that makes the jump sequences feel more cosmic than athletic. Outside of that, it is a polished but unremarkable piece of television documentary work, the sort of thing you respect more than you enjoy. Worth knowing about if you are working your way through Herzog's catalogue, less essential if you are not.
Rating: Not rated | Year: 1974 | Watched: 2026-03-07
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Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Werner Herzog: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Fitzcarraldo (1982)
More with Werner Herzog: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)
More from Germany: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Cemetery Man (1994) · The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) · Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Italianamerican (1974) · Punishment Park (1971)
More documentary: Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Style Wars (1983) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)
