Review of Fitzcarraldo (1982) by Alex S — 24 Aug 2009

There are moments in my life when I cannot tell the difference between something stupid and something brilliant and the big scene in this movie is one of those moments. A steam ship weighing several hundred tons is dragged up and over a hill to get to a river on the other side.

You may read that and say "Wow, that's a technical achievement," and it is since a healthy amount of machine- and man-power was needed. You may also read that and say "Wait, that's a tremendous waste of time and money when a model or special effects would have sufficed," and you would be correct again, though not in the manic eyes of the driven director of this piece (Herzog really is passionate about his projects.

.. where "passionate" can be exchanged for "insane"). You might also read that and say "This whole thing is about a boat? Lame..." and you would be partially correct. Herzog mainstay Kinski plays a rubber baron trying to bring an opera house to the jungles of South America.

The locals mock him, his crew abandons him and the natives don't buy his "White God" routine, but they at least really like his ship a lot. Indeed, the boat has more of an impact here than any other characters (save for maybe the on-location jungle that has a life of its own at times) which is kind of disappointing.

It's a great movie, no doubt, and one that took years to make but at the end of it all, I couldn't help but feel like Kinski in the final minutes of the film - confident I had seen something great but not up to what I was hoping for.