Signs of Life

1968

1h 27m

Drama

List

92%

Tomatometer

12 Reviews

72%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

Three recovering German soldiers guard a munitions depot, until one goes mad and threatens to blow up the cache.

Read More

Read Less

Watch on Prime Video

Stream Now

Prime Video

Watch Signs of Life with a subscription on Prime Video.

Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

Exhibits the director's off-kilter sense of the absurd.

Rated: B+

Mar 22, 2006

Full Review

Eric Henderson

Slant Magazine

Stroszek's motivations are as enigmatic as those of the windmills: the emphatic reversal of Kubrick's nasty, gorgeous joke.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 11, 2005

Full Review

A.H. Weiler

New York Times

As a writer-director in his feature film effort, Mr. Herzog has failed to make his harried hero's case or his parable believable. Otherwise, his Signs of Life provides vivid signs of considerable talent and promise.

Rated: 2.5/5

May 10, 2005

Full Review

Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

It is notable that this acclaimed first feature is comparatively conventional—albeit perhaps only when held alongside the singular style and mystic sensibility of many subsequent works...

Nov 10, 2023

Full Review

Manny Farber

Artforum

Very ephemeral in its charms, Signs has some of the casual goodhearted zaniness that Gassman injects into Easy Life: playing up meandering activity over dialogue, getting all the times of day, the feeling of friendship in its inactive-silent aspects.

Sep 12, 2019

Full Review

Jesús Fernández Santos

El Pais (Spain)

The first part is extremely effective in its approach to the story, which is at times too naive and slow, but reaches new heights with the protagonist's madness. [Full Review in Spanish]

Jul 24, 2019

Full Review

Read all reviews

Andy F

Herzog's first film is an odd little near masterpiece. A WWII movie, that's not a WWII movie but a character study. Dripping in atmosphere, a stunning score and memorable scenes - yes it is Werner Herzog all over!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Perhaps not as honed of a character study as some of the later Herzog, but still a memorable time with a dusty village, perfect Greek guitar (?) music, and a solidier snapping and going berserk not because of the war (well, immediately at least) but the prospect of being sent home. It gets played as quixotic resistance to the military machine rather than, well, Nazi madness or something, which I am still thinking about.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Pretty boring for the first half (though this is probably intentional), and Stroszek's breakdown seems to come out of nowhere and is kind of silly. Though not a great Herzog film, it's still a good, interesting movie. The ending is almost perfect, slightly punctured by the narration.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The master is born....

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Introduction: Werner Herzog is one of the greatest directors in history and surely one of the best or even the best living director. The quantity of his work combined with the consistent quality makes him a truly daunting figure in the Cinematic world. Over the course of 5 decades he has directed 17 feature length films all of which are highly acclaimed, 7 short films and around 30 documentaries, some feature length, some made for TV and others short. So he's not one of the most prolific directors, when it comes to feature films anyway, but his films very rarely disappoint in terms of quality. Herzogs' films are great examples of art in film instead of being empty-headed entertainment. They are sensitive, often beautiful works that deal with fascinating subjects that really show mankind in a different light than what we are used to seeing in film. As well as being fascinating and sometimes illuminating stories of Man and Nature, Herzogs' film are always extremely well made, he just has a natural talent behind the camera and can make any scene however seemingly banal into something wonderful to experience. Now I could go on for a considerable length of time discussing Herzog's merits as a director, but this is after all a review of his first feature film, Signs Of Life. Read The Rest Of The Review here: http://jacklfilmreviews.blogspot.com/2011/01/signs-of-life-1968.html comment on the blog or on RT, whatever you prefer...

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Hot summer madness in Greece. Some beautiful shots in here.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Werner Herzog

Director

Peter Brogle

Stroszek

Wolfgang Reichmann

Meinhard

Wolfgang Stumpf

Captain

Henry van Lyck

Lieutenant

Florian Fricke

Pianist

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

View more photos

Synopsis

Three recovering German soldiers guard a munitions depot, until one goes mad and threatens to blow up the cache.

Director: Werner Herzog
Screenwriter: Werner Herzog
Production Co: Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
Genre: Drama
Original Language: German
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 9, 2021
Runtime: 1h 27m

Most Popular at Home Now