Review of Stroszek (1977) by Kevin D — 20 Jan 2011

I might have went into this movie with misleading expectations. Before watching the film, I heard that it was a comedy or at least that it had a few funny moments. I kind of sat around just waiting for a joke or a laugh, but they never came around. That's when I realized that the movie was just a hardcore docudrama.

The first half of the movie shows the tough times of the title character and his friends in Germany. A lot of the situations seemed to be unclear at first (who was the woman Stroszek was friendly with and who were the men who hated the woman and Stroszek?). Inferences can be made, I guess, but their relationships were never clearly stated. Through context we learn that the woman is a prostitute and through wikipedia I found out that the mean men were pimps and that the woman was Stroszek's girlfriend. Maybe this stuff was explained, but the subtitles might have thrown me off since there were slight complications in the version I watched.

Anyway, the first half of the film is really over the top. There were a few scenes that did not feel realistic at all (Stroszek's punishment on the piano) and some of these scenes seemed like they had no place in the movie. The second half of the film is about Stroszek, his girlfriend, and a neighbor immigrating to America. The second half of the movie is authentic, realistic, heartbreaking, and powerful. Once again Werner Herzog made a great production here.

There were several unforgettable sequences in the movie. The ending is interesting and I loved a few of the surprises that both Stroszek and the audience got to see in the final scene. This is a really good movie that has moments of greatness.