Review of Fitzcarraldo (1982) by Bach P — 02 Nov 2008

Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo". Few directors, if any, can compare with Herzog in terms of scope and imagination. "Fitzcarraldo" is more then proof of this. Shot in the depths of the Peru jungle, the film follows one man's desire of bringing an opera to the Amazon.

Fitzcarraldo is an ambitious man of great ideas, but the world constantly shuts him down. He finally gets an offer that he can't refuse however, a huge piece of land where he can produce rubber to make his dreams of building an opera house come true.

Of course, the journey is far from easy as mother nature and indigenous people of the jungle stand in Fitzcarraldo's way. The film is a truly epic spectacle, perhaps the greatest in film history. The feats that it obtains cannot be described, it must be seen.

Herzog's audacious ideas come to life before your eyes in "Fitzcarraldo". The film has its faults, but it's scope is so grand and mesmerizing that those faults quickly are forgotten.

Herzog went into the jungles for a dream and came away with a masterpiece.