Movie review
March 4, 2016 · 99 min · PG-13
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Werner Herzog made this 2016 documentary about the internet. It starts with the first connections at UCLA and looks at how the technology grew, what it enables, and the problems it creates. Chapters cover early days, benefits, a family hurt by online trolls spreading private photos of their dead daughter, people living without the internet, solar flare risks, AI and robots, Elon Musk on Mars travel, and big questions like whether the internet can dream of itself. The film stays focused on technology's effects on human life and asks philosophical questions without any visible modern identity or activist messaging.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.
Woke representation / casting
The documentary interviews technology pioneers, experts, hackers, futurists, and ordinary people affected by the internet based on their direct knowledge or experiences, with no visible patterns of identity signaling, diversity quotas, or emphasis on representation in prominent segments.
Woke political dialogue
No activist language, identity-based arguments, or social-justice framing appears in the interviews or narration; discussions stay on technology history, practical risks, AI ethics, and human vulnerability.
Identity-driven story themes
The core story follows the internet's development and its wide effects on connection, grief, addiction, and the future of machines, centered on universal human and existential questions rather than race, gender, sexuality, or identity-driven plots.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The film notes downsides like anonymous online cruelty, surveillance risks, and over-dependence on connected systems in a philosophical, cautionary style similar to a Frankenstein tale, but it does not apply modern activist framing around patriarchy, whiteness, systemic oppression, or anti-Western cultural critiques.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No notable anti-woke or right-leaning complaints exist that accuse the film of pushing woke, DEI, or identity politics messaging; public and critical response remained focused on its tech themes and Herzog's style.
Creator track record context
Werner Herzog's work centers on artistic and philosophical inquiry into human themes without political or identity advocacy patterns, matching his low cached score; producers show no activist history.
Production
