Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Red-Barracuda Last Words is a short film a young Werner Herzog shot and edited in three days, while he worked on his first feature film. Filmed in black and white this is a very early example of the pseudo-documentary with a format that takes the form of the talking heads style. In all honesty, when it began I wasn't too sure if it was fiction or fact, which sort of ties in with Herzog's later approach to film-making, where he never fully recognised the dividing line between documentary and fiction meaning that his documentaries often wilfully included fictional elements and the fiction movies often included documentary realism and non-actors. It has to be said though that Last Words increasingly reveals itself as an absurdist piece, with characters spouting dialogue repetitively for reasons that frankly eluded me. Whatever the case, this is the story of a man who is saved from a Greek island which once was host to a leper colony. He was the last survivor and now lives on the mainland working as a musician in a bar, while refusing to speak to anyone (although ironically he goes to great lengths to tell us that he is going to say nothing).In fairness, this one is virtually plot-less. The short running time means that it is always going to be no more than a snap-shot of something rather than a fully-fledged story. It does have to be said though that, with its focus on a possibly insane outsider living on the fringes of society, this is a subject that Herzog would return to again and again throughout his career. So this is a very interesting early example of one of his major interests. While it has to be said that this is understandably a fairly limited film, it does have some interesting imagery, especially the scenes shot in the ghost town on the island. It also has some very lively musical interludes showcasing traditional Greek folk music played vigorously on lyre and bouzouki. So, while this one ultimately is pretty slight, it is interestingly bizarre enough to ensure it is pretty compelling for a short film.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) And it's in Greek. Werner Herzog was in his mid-20s when she shot this 13-minute black-and-white short film. Basically it is about a man (a leper) living on an island on his own and we hear people living on another island talking about him. They judge him, insult him etc, so this is a perfect example of negative badmouthing. He seems to be in harmony and yet they have to interfere with him. First verbally, then physically. Yes he has an illness and he has gone insane apparently, but he does not aim for a cure. So why not let him be? The interesting thing is also that his illness is highly contagious, but only if people interfere with him. Yeah well.. that's me trying to make sense of this short film. It could be a statement for solitude and harmony and against general conventions. I'm not too sure though if that was Herzog's intention. Or if he even had any. It's difficult to interpret this film and also the details. For example why were the people repeating themselves constantly? Maybe because Herzog wanted to show that they actually have no substance in their statements, nothing really to say? And why do some of them not repeat themselves. Anyway, if you have seen other early works by the director, you will know that these are still pretty odd and completely different to most of his later works. Admittedly, I wasn't really impressed watching this one. Thus, the low rating. But it does not take away any of my admiration for Werner Herzog and I hope he will still be with us a long time and make lots of films. Oh and finally, don't mistake "Letzte Worte" for a documentary. This is all scripted.

dbborroughs Documentary style story of a man who is rescued from an island that once housed a leper colony and how he's better for it even if he won't talk to anyone as a result.Surreal and often very funny, thanks to the constant repetition of the lines of dialog. This is the place where you really can see the Herzog style coming into being. There is wonderful local music, portrait like shots of the characters and haunting images of the landscape. Like the rest of the early Werner Herzog films I watched in this sitting its more a sketch than a real film, but at the same time its a pretty good sketch.Worth a look

Nestor-13 The short is shot in B&W and is a very surreal film. Set on a greek island this short doesnt have a plot but rather follows like a documentary the tragik story of an old man who withdraws himself of the life on the island. It is told by the residents of the Island. In their Interviews they repeat their sentences over and over again. The Island is probably the last place in the world, its people are the last and the old man is the last of them...Quiet melancholy but dam good!