Review of Fitzcarraldo (1982) by Erno K — 30 Jul 2009

I guess this is supposed to be one of Herzog's more famous movies. That's the word on the street anyway, street being one of my friends. Let me tell you, this is a weird fucking film.

First of all, the main character looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie, and he loves opera. Seriously, he fucking loves opera. He even uses it to solve everything. Guests not interested in his proposals: opera. Native Amazonian indians getting a bit too aggressive: opera. Work going a bit slowly? You guessed it, fucking opera.

This film also has the longest filler scenes I think I have ever seen. We get to see a wooden ship crawling along a hill for five minutes, we get to hear opera (did I mention opera yet?) for lengthy periods without anything else, we get to see indians blankly staring into the distance etc... Moves too goddamn slowly!

The main character's insane endeavors are pretty amusing to witness, and he himself seems to be certified. And he fucking loves opera. The best part of the movie is when the native indians get paid for their work with ice (yay!), and they silently accept it without incident. Then the bosses wake up on their wooden boat in the middle of a raging rapid, because the indians cut them loose during the night.

At least I choose to believe that was payback for the shitty salary, because that scenario amuses me.