Signs of Life

Herzog's first feature is his most conventional: three bored German soldiers spend the last months of the World War II occupation 'guarding' a useless munitions dump on the Greek island of Cos, killing time as best they can until one of them - inevitably - flips out. It's the one occasion that Herzog has tried to draw characters in any psychological depth, and (predictably) the going is sometimes heavy, but the film is still loaded with idiosyncratic, remarkable details... like the devastating moment that sparks the soldier's madness.