Review of Stroszek (1977) by Adrian B — 18 Dec 2011

A man gets released from prison for his mischievous deeds, from the looks of things related to alcoholism. He is in the city and meets a woman, for which is a friend he had interacted with before he went to prison and is being picked on by several other people.

There is also an old guy and all three agree that they are sick of atmosphere of Germany and decide to immigrate to the United States. They pick, of all places, Indiana for destination of living. Then they lead excruciatingly lazy lives.

Very strange film, with perhaps some of the dumbest, sloppiest characters you could ever see on reel. Yet, that is the point of the film and it is kind of real. What these people expected was that they would get rich by sitting around and doing nothing, rather than work their way towards success.

Unfortunately, that is what a lot people are like today, even immigrants and director Werner Herzog does a pretty good job at expressing people like this throughout his film. Quite interesting, but utterly bizarre.