Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Runtime: 2 hrs 37 mins
Synopsis: Director Werner Herzog returns to the exotic locales and obsessive themes of previous works in his Amazon masterpiece, FITZCARRALDO. Klaus Kinski gives a terrifying and determined portrayal of mad genius Fitzcarraldo, whose twin goals of making a fortune off the Amazon rubber trade and... Director Werner Herzog returns to the exotic locales and obsessive themes of previous works in his Amazon masterpiece, FITZCARRALDO. Klaus Kinski gives a terrifying and determined portrayal of mad genius Fitzcarraldo, whose twin goals of making a fortune off the Amazon rubber trade and bringing an opera house to the jungle give the film its crushing centerpiece--the maniacal leader's Sisyphean efforts at hauling a gigantic steamship over a mountain bank. The single-minded and wickedly energetic Fitzcarraldo moves mountains (and a boat) with his will and along the way acts out a stunning and emotional battle between man and nature, as in the similarly themed Herzog/Kinski collaboration AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD. Herzog's razor-sharp attention to the minutiae of both Fitzcarraldo's madness and the jungle's corresponding apathy and enormity makes the film a breathtaking metaphor for civilization's impact on the natural world. The documentary style of the film (the cast and crew actually hauled the boat over the mountain) gives the tale an urgency and suspense that, combined with Kinski's bravado performance and Herzog's striking sense of landscape, make FITZCARRALDO an unforgettable experience. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Klaus Kinski, José Lewgoy, Claudia Cardinale, Miguel Angel Fuentes
DVD Info
Release:
Mar 4, 2008
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Widescreen
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Werner Herzog sure has a soft spot for obsessive idealists engaged in hopelessly enormous tasks.
The film may have been intended as an ironic comment on the absurdity of human ambition, but it's an irony that explodes in Herzog's face.
Awesome, hypnotic storytelling, Fitzcarraldo finds this director working in top form
If you have a dream, the only way to accomplish it is to face it head on. If your dream requires you to drag a massive boat up a mountainside, do it. So says director Werner Herzog in the bizarre but captivating Fitzcarraldo.
As a document of a quest and a dream, and as the record of man's audacity and foolish, visionary heroism, there has never been another movie like it.
If there's a point to this, it's what Herzog's point always is: That obsession can drive you nuts. I'm not sure I needed a freaky German traipsing through the jungle for 2 1/2 hours to drive that point home.
Fitzcarraldo is a more objective record of a comparable fever dream, and as such is the preeminent testament of Herzog’s labor as a filmmaker.
It's a stunning spectacle, an adventure-comedy not quite like any other, and the most benign movie ever made about 19th-century capitalism running amok.
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