Fitzcarraldo

Rating:
Summary: Swirls in your mind afterwards like mists in a dream
Review: This was the last in the classic string of screen collaborations between director Werner Herzog and his longtime star, Kinski. Almost as if Herzog wanted to mark the tenth anniversary of his shooting of 'Aguirre: the Wrath of God' by doing something big, he takes Kinski and us back to the rainforests of South America on another mission piece. Only this time Kinski isn't portrayed as being the mad hunter in search of something massive....he's already travelling inside it! This is a cinematic story about one man's quest to take the naturally beautiful voice of tenor Enrico Caruso into the natural beauty of the jungle (Kinski, in essence, as an operatic Jesuit). As in 'Aguirre', Klaus Kinski is still cast as a nut, it's just that this time around he's not a sword-swiping megalomaniac, he's instead a lovable eccentric who wishes to cut through the undergrowth with art alone (all right..... art, that is, and the sweat of hundreds of Amazonian natives!). Herzog once again uses his camera to hypnotise, the darkness of the print and the dampered noises being quite capable of inducing a catatonic state right from the beginning when Kinski and Italian starlet Claudia Cardinale arrive by boat, late for the opera. All of Herzog's works need to watched at night to maximise the effect of the sombre tones and cascading wisps of drab hues on the eyes and spirit. 'Fitzcarraldo' ranks highly there because its trance-coaxing powers are greater than in many (but not all) of Herzog's films. And yet at the same time, this movie thrusts at the viewer's senses and sense of reason. Case in point: how do you haul a steel steamboat over a tree-blanketed mountainside? Answer: you do it the Herzog way and actually carry out the project using manpower and slavesque labour techniques, the like of which have not been seen since Pharaonic Egypt. There's so much in the two hour plus run of this film which challenges logic so unashamedly. Most of that lies in the fact that Werner Herzog's films have always been that way, anyhow, but it seems as if 'Fitzcarraldo' was his centerpiece in that department. Everything is magnificently unreal and disproportionate about this picture - the boat ride, the seemingly autonomous soundscape which comes from the river itself, the pygmy station operator and watching the construction of the winch system used to pull the steamboat up the hill. As a Herzog specialist, I could easily say that none of this had an ice cube's chance in hell of surprising me because I should have known he'd pull something like that in 'Fitzcarraldo'. However, having watched this picture again over a full decade after I'd first seen it, I have to declare that none of the images' hallucinigenic qualities have waned in their potency. 'Fitzcarraldo' is synaptic escapism from start to finish - essentially, an LSD trip dressed in classical garb. It's important to note that this endeavour wasn't just Herzog's swan song with Kinski; Herzog was also, in effect, bowing out from his award winner-oriented material by the time 'Fitzcarraldo' emerged in 1982. Although 'Nosferatu', 'Woyzeck' and 'Aguirre: the Wrath of God' are every bit as sacred to this reviewer, I'd have to weigh up the facts which underly the production of 'Fitzcarraldo' and say that Werner had saved his best until last. On the one hand, I'd have to say that this film has sunk into an undeserved obscurity and should be resurrected somehow. On the other hand, I'm quite glad that it's happened that way because it gives 'Fitzcarraldo' an elitist viewership. That is to say, you have to consciously go out for yourself and discover 'Fitzcarraldo'; now that you've come so far as to be reading this, you must surely realise that you wanted this film long before you got here.

Rating:
Summary: An inspiring film!
Review: Werner Herzog has created an inspiring film about the human spirit. The film's central message seems to be that we can overcome immense obstacles based on our desire to succeed (like hauling a river boat over a hill or bringing Grand Opera to the middle of the Amazon jungle). What is remarkable is that the making of the film reflected this in that Herzog and company faced unbelievable challenges that could only be met by a tenacious will to succeed. Fortunately, in this excellent quality DVD, there is a second audio track where you can hear Herzog describe how they overcame these incredible difficulties to complete this film in the depths of the Amazon jungle.

There are so many aspects to this movie worth mentioning...breath taking scenery, beautiful musical score, and, of course, the superb acting by Klaus Kinski and others. The casting of the film was a stoke of genius with a bit of luck thrown in.

This film also depicts one of my favorite subjects...the collision of cultures, or in this case the naive indians of the Amazan on a collision course with the rapacious Europeans. If you liked "Walkabout", "Dead Heart", "Black Robe", "Heat and Dust", "The Chess Players", etc, you will love "Fitzcarraldo"!

Rating:
Summary: Towering!!
Review: What can one say about this unique film experience. Herzog takes the viewer along for the great "ride" and we must pay attention.

The love of opera here is manifest in a way that is so compulsive and thereby so compelling that we have to take breaths often during this film.

All you F(x) experts can stay home and ponder your next bit of software on your bland and insufferable computers which dole out dreams as emotional as Hexadecimal!! Everything you see here is real and the passion of the vision is evident with Mr Kinski giving one of his Dr. Pretarious performances.

Hollywood bean counters and executives beware..This is a real film, this is cinema not the pap you have been shoveling the last 24 years. Finally, I would like to quote a,line by Paul Scofield in " The Train" to Burt Lancaster...and transpose the thought to those same hollywood bean counters " Letting you look at this film is like showing a " String of Pearls to an Ape"!

Fitzcarraldo a Rare film experience

Rating:
Summary: a boring and dull journey into madness
Review: What on earth is this movie about ? It seemed to me pointless and quite unexciting all the way through. Not to mention that the acting is generally below the average and the dialogues mediocre not to say risible. Overrated and a waste of time and money.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic film!
Review: Wow! This is one of the best films I have seen in a long time. I skipped it when it first came out because I thought it sounded like some kind of spin-off of "Aguirre," which it is not. It was mesmerizing from beginning to end. The DVD is well worth buying, including a full-length interview commentary with Herzog. The scene of Fitzcarraldo playing his Caruso recording to calm the natives is one of my favorite movie images ever.