Search: Directed by Werner Herzog

Breathtakingly visual and epic in its ambitions.

No film by Herzog has ever been so defiantly mainstream – and yet at the same time this remains one of the director's craziest, most outlandish affairs.

For all the strangeness of the premise there’s not a lot of meat on the bones of this story.

If there is anybody who can provide insight into the lives of those long-vanished it must be Herzog.

Bleak, stripped down and haunting.

What he’s talking about and looking for is oddity masquerading as normality.

The situations highlight a sense of existential loneliness in the modern world that might come with specifically Japanese trappings but which many elsewhere will recognise the emotional truth of.

For a director obsessed with "the real", Herzog's script begs for a dose of plausibility.

Part of Herzog's genius has always been his ability to persuade strangers to tell their stories plainly and directly, with not a hint of self-consciousness, providing unusually intimate access to their lives.

Anyone who has seen Herzog's Fitzcarraldo will know of the director's fascination with doomed quests and magnificent obsessions, and in Treadwell he has found his dream subject.

An intriguing if uneven journey into a strange, violent and very sad part of modern America.

After a string of vulgar performances in awful films, Tim Roth here makes a stunning return to form as the cabaret owner and hypnotist, courageously portraying an ambitious and frightened man whose life is dominated by the secrets he keeps.

This is one of Herzog's best documentaries, possibly because his subject matter strays close to the boundaries of fiction.

This is a poetic documentary, a reverie, in which partitioned themes offer differing perspectives on the whole.

Herzog's film does not follow the documentary conventions - would you expect anything different from him?

This is brilliant.

Everything comes to life under Herzog's gaze, but rarely has he revealed so much of himself directly.

Adjani's performance has an ethereal, otherworldly quality about it.

Beneath the cover of portraying the generalised horrors of war, the film is more subtly critical of America's conduct in both the Vietnam War and the current conflict in Iraq.

The posturing and overly theatrical nature of the delivery is going to make or break the experience for many.

The tale he has to tell is a fascinating one, and it is illustrated by some truly remarkable images.