Review of Fitzcarraldo (1982) by Tim H — 27 Oct 2007

Yes, yes...it's my first Herzog film. Stone me right now. Listen, there's only so much that one man can see over time. Admittedly, perhaps I've wasted too much of my life on the multiple screenings of Re-Animator, but some of us just don't have the forsight to understand future passions.

Let me start off with a warning. This movie is ridiculously slow and somewhat disjointed. Yeah, that's not the best way to describe this movie, but that certainly is a huge element of it. That said, I was interested the entire time. Now, because I'm a turd, I watched the first half of the movie with German dubbing and the second half in the original English. Honest to goodness, I just thought it was a bad German dub before I decided to research the language. My bad. Apparently, Herzog actually prefers the German dub, so I guess I wasn't completely in the wrong, but I just feel silly. Really, the dub doesn't take away or add anything for me. I attribute this to Klaus Kinski's performance and gereral demeanor. Kinski looks weird. Okay, I said it. Take that weird look and add some really intense reactions and you already have the first few steps towards a memorable movie.

Jeff at work was telling me to watch Burden of Dreams. I feel like I might have to if I ever want to watch this movie again. I honestly don't understand how some of the movie was made. That boat had to be literally dragged over that mountain to get some of these shots. That blows my mind.