Imagine aliens landing on Earth after the Gulf War. They’d find towering oil fires, black skies, and a desert that looks like another planet.
Shout-out to Jeremy Urquhart, who listed this one in The 10 Best Non-American War Documentaries of All Time.
Trailer for “Lessons of Darkness”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- At the peak of the retreat from Kuwait, Iraqi forces set roughly 600 oil wells on fire. Some burned for more than eight months. They could be seen from space.
- One sequence shows workers driving directly into walls of fire to cap the wells. The flames are so massive that the people look like ants.
- Many viewers initially assumed the footage was from another planet or a science-fiction movie rather than a real place on Earth.
Watch “Lessons of Darkness”
You can watch “Lessons of Darkness” on Apple TV and Prime Video.
You can also watch it free with ads on YouTube.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 90/100
- IMDb Rating: 8.0/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 91/100 (Users); 100/100 (Critics)
Release Date: September 10, 1992
Director’s Note: Werner Herzog directed this 54-minute documentary. He also directed “The White Diamond” (which I rated 90/100) and “Into the Inferno.”
Other Unique Stuff
- The doc sparked a debate among critics. Some accused Herzog of turning real-world suffering into beautiful imagery, while others praised it as one of the most powerful anti-war documentaries ever made.
- Herzog intentionally removed most political context because he believed viewers had become numb to Gulf War news coverage. His goal was to make audiences see the destruction with fresh eyes rather than as another news report.
Wrap Up:
“Lessons of Darkness” is one of the strangest war documentaries I’ve ever seen. It is worth a watch, even if you aren’t a history buff.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc