Lessons of Darkness (1992)

The burning Kuwaiti oil fields after the first Gulf War, filmed as if by a visitor from another planet. Herzog names no country and explains no politics; instead he frames the footage through religion and science fiction and scores it with Wagner, Mahler and Arvo Pärt. It is overwhelming and deeply contentious. At its Berlin screening the audience reacted furiously, accusing him of making war's horror beautiful, and that charge is worth weighing as you watch. Few films make catastrophe look this hypnotic, which is exactly the problem and the power.