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      My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

      R Released Dec 11, 2009 1 hr. 33 min. Drama Horror List
      50% 42 Reviews Tomatometer 44% 2,500+ Ratings Audience Score A man experiences mystifying events that cause him to kill his mother with a sword. Read More Read Less
      My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

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      Critics Consensus

      Enigmatic and digressive, this mystical potboiler possesses director Werner Herzog's penchant for offbeat atmosphere, but lacks the absurdist humor and profundity that makes his previous trips into madness compelling.

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      Audience Reviews

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      Ken B Did everyone completely really miss the main thrust of this film? The terrible generational curse of the House of Atreus portrayed in the Greek tragedy of the Oresteia trilogy! They only rehearse portions of it over and over and over for us... Mix that with his Peruvian experience, what ever it was, and his bible visions. Yes, it does't quite match the horror of the Greek matricide of the original, but don't criticize if you're not going to at least consider those many references to the Greek tragedy. Perhaps a more powerful evocation of the impact of Greek tragedy to a modern audience is "A Dream of Passion" with Ellen Burstyn and Melina Mercouri. In Athens, an American woman (Burstyn) murders her 3 children because her husband is having an affair. A Greek actress (Mercouri) is producing Euripides' "Medea" (who murders her children) for the BBC. The plot is involved, but the film ends with a scene of the play's production at the ancient theater at the site of the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi. Acted entirely in Greek, the viewer nonetheless experiences some of the horror the original Greek audience would have. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/30/23 Full Review Audience Member A different take on a hostage situation, with the flashbacks just making Brad (Shannon) look even crazier. No real rhyme or reason to anything in the film, with it seeming to be weird for the sake of Herzog's whims - staring into the camera, frozen, for 30sec at a time, a score that doesn't fit, flamingos and ostriches... Also a waste of Dafoe's talents - felt long @ 87min. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member The worst of geniouses Lynch and Herzog. Mental illness of boredom. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member This rough picture flits from mockumentary to weirdness that borders on self-parody. The few glimpses of dark beauty couldn't save a rushed and mediocre thriller. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member It does not really work, but I would take a flawed Herzog film over most good films. Michael Shannon is perfectly cast. I'm not sure if that is a good thing, but it is true. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member This is the fifteenth movie I've seen by the incomparable Werner Herzog, who, based on his overall body of work, remains one of my top 5 favorite filmmakers. This movie, while embodying a number of typically Herzog elements, is probably the least effective work of his that I've seen. It's still got plenty of insanity going on, and it's more interesting than a lot of movies; but compared to Herzog's other works, it feels jumbled and doesn't have as strong a flow or thematic cohesion as one might hope. I would recommend it, but only to people who have already liked a bunch of Herzog's other films. The story follows a disturbed man (Michael Shannon, who was excellent in the film Take Shelter and one of the only good things about Man of Steel) who lives with his overbearing mother and, one day, murders her with a sword. Most of the movie plays out as a hostage situation, with him inside his house hiding from the police, as his girlfriend (Chloe Sevigny) and drama teacher (Udo Kier) tell a detective (Willem Dafoe) stories about him, which we see in flashbacks. Parts of the movie play like a remix of other elements from better Herzog movies. Insane protagonist? Check. Scenes shot in the Amazon jungle? Check. Lingering contemplative shots of animals? Check. There's a lot of Herzog-ian stuff here, but compared to his other films it largely feels tossed-off and/or inelegantly incorporated. The acting is agreeably strange, and there are a few long takes where I felt true brilliance shining through. On the whole, though, it's not one of Herzog's stronger films, and feels like an afterthought relative to, say, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. If you love Herzog already, go ahead; if you've never seen Herzog before, I've got 14 other movies I recommend first. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

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      Ben Kenigsberg Time Out Rated: 1/5 Nov 18, 2011 Full Review J. R. Jones Chicago Reader What they deliver is the sort of fake mysticism that usually ensues when secular intellectuals try to plumb the depths of religious faith. Jan 3, 2011 Full Review Marc Lee Daily Telegraph (UK) Oddly understated, it's nevertheless as unnerving a vision of disintegration in suburbia as you'd expect from director Werner Herzog and producer David Lynch. Rated: 3/5 Sep 10, 2010 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review The result feels like Herzog handed his camera and script to Shannon’s character Brad and let him direct. Rated: 3.5/4 Aug 9, 2023 Full Review Monika Bartyzel Collider What results is a very theatrical world of quirk and weirdness that's too real to thrive in the weird, and too weird to thrive in the real. Just try to imagine Herzog in Lynch's world, and vice versa, and you might begin to envision this awkward world. Apr 10, 2018 Full Review Jeffrey Chen ReelTalk Movie Reviews The version of madness displayed by [Michael Shannon's] Brad is not typically dramatic; it's mostly just strange, and dances the line bordering on goofiness. Rated: 6/10 Sep 25, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A man experiences mystifying events that cause him to kill his mother with a sword.
      Director
      Werner Herzog
      Executive Producer
      Bingo Gubelmann, Benji Kohn, David Lynch
      Screenwriter
      Herbert Golder, Werner Herzog
      Distributor
      Unified Pictures
      Rating
      R (Some Language)
      Genre
      Drama, Horror
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Dec 11, 2009, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Nov 30, 2016