Review of Stroszek (1977) by Mitchel H — 26 Jan 2013

This is yet another singular film from everyone's favorite German auteur, Werner Herzog. While I still have a great deal of the Herzog canon to get through, I have to admit that this one is probably my least favorite of his so far (I think it was the 10th movie of his I've seen). It's still great, obviously, but it just isn't quite as gripping as his other films, and it seems like a little bit of a thematic anomaly, as well.

Stroszek follows its title character, played by a man credited only as Bruno S., as he immigrates from Germany to America. Poor Stroszek, it seems, is the result of nearly lifelong institutionalization and mistreatment - he's not mentally retarded, quite, but nor is he very good at dealing with the normal world. Along with a battered prostitute (Eva Mattes) and a slightly dementia-stricken old man (Clemens Scheitz), Stroszek leaves his dismal life in Germany in hopes of finding a better one in America. I knew they were doomed as soon as they decided Wisconsin seemed like the best possible place to live in America.

I actually listened to the entire audio commentary by Herzog on the DVD after watching the film, and it was quite interesting and illuminating. Bruno S., who plays Stroszek, apparently actually had spent most of his life in asylums or jail. In fact, nearly everyone in the film, except for the actress playing the prostitute, was not a professional actor and was indeed playing characters very close to themselves. It works extremely in this case; you never get the sense that what you're watching seems manufactured.

As for the film itself, the story unfolds at a naturalistic, unhurried pace. The reason I said that this movie seems like a thematic anomaly for Herzog is that his films are normally about mad characters pursuing grandiose dreams in exotic, strange settings (see Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, The White Diamond, Grizzly Man, and Encounters at the End of the World for examples of this). In this case, Stroszek might be a little crazy, but more in a sad, ordinary way than the larger-than-life dreamers of the other films, and his ambitions don't range much beyond living in a mobile home in Wisconsin. Then again, the film does show that even these modest dreams are as beyond poor Stroszek as the other characters' dreams were sometimes beyond them.

The film ends with what Herzog declares to be his own favorite scene he has ever shot, of a chicken dancing in a cheap sideshow machine. I'll let you puzzle over that one yourself.