Review of Stroszek (1977) by Ivan D — 19 Apr 2010

The "American Dream" at the peak of its promises, and the brutal realization of its non-existence. These are the primary themes explored in "Stroszek", one of Werner Herzog's best, and one of the finest films ever made.

It's primary concern was to follow Bruno Stroszek, a complete nobody whose pursuit of the comforts America has to offer became initially fruitful, but turned out to be nothing but temporal. Majority of the picture was shot by Herzog with a certain touch of Cinema Verite, and even using non-actors to portray the characters.

But the last ten minutes or so was transformed from hard reality to Herzog's trademark weird beauty, with a visible phrase in one scene that can sum up Bruno Stroszek's late realization: "Is this really me!" We have already seen many film protagonists chasing the "American Dream", and many of them, like Joe Buck and Ratso from "Midnight Cowboy", or Wyatt and Billy in "Easy Rider", tumbled down with it.

But what's more painful is seeing this elusive dream through foreign eyes, whose only sin was wanting some piece of the sweet life.