1001 Club - Fitzcarraldo (1982)

#688. Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Why It's In The Book: "Fittingly, or perhaps typically, making a film depicting such a near-impossible feat encumbered by almost insurmountable obstacles indeed turned out to be an ordeal itself. It didn’t help that Herzog approached the project with every bit the stubborn madness of his titular character. Injury, insanity, pain, illness, and even death in Herzog’s quest to realize such a uniquely impressive vision in fact marred Fitzcarraldo’s production… To capture footage of a raft expedition threatened by tumultuous rapids, Herzog and a small crew ran the tumultuous rapids themselves. Most famously, to show the steamboat being transported over the mountain, Herzog did just that, depicting the effort with a documentary-like verisimilitude. In fact, much of the difficult process of making Fitzcarraldo is shown in Les Blank’s equally riveting documentary Burden of Dreams, where a struggling Herzog teeters on the brink of a breakdown. Yet Fitzcarraldo, the finished film, hardly comes across like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, let alone Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse now, and Kinski is no Kurtz-like invader. Compared with Herzog and Kinski’s bleak conquistador tale Aguirre: The Wrath Of God, Fitzcarraldo is downright innocent. Kinski’s optimistic opera lover, nicknamed “Fitzcarraldo” by the Peruvian locals, is driven by idealism as much as intransigence…. As surreal as it is inspiring, simultaneously announcing an accomplishment that is both dramatic (in terms of the narrative) and impressively tactile (in terms of filmmaking)." -1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Member Ratings

Klaus Ming - 10/10
"Herzog bridges the gap between fiction and reality."
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Michaël Parent - 9/10
"There is a popular admiration towards Fitzcarraldo in the world of film buffs, the film itself and the making of the film is almost unbelievable."
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Movie Guy Steve - 9/10
"A tale of magnificent obsession."
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Adolytsi - 8/10
"I hope the crew members all got consolation prizes that said 'I survived Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt'."
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Nicolas Krizan - 8/10
"Incredible in every sense of the word."
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Sunny D - 7.5/10
"What really drove the idea of the movie into my brain were two further factoids: 1, that it was supposedly based on a true story; 2, that rather than using special effects or tricks of any kind, the filmmaker went ahead and actually dragged a steamship up a freaking mountain with the cameras rolling.  This I gotta see."
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Siochembio - 7/10
"I am an opera lover. Opera is one of those things that, when you fall in love with it, becomes a bit like a parasite... For me, I understand Fitzcarraldo's motivation."
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Squish - 7/10
"Fitzcarraldo, played by the perfectly hideous Nosferatu-faced Klaus Kinski is a passionate character, a real dreamer, a man so driven by Caruso that in the opening sequence, his hands are bloody from rowing for two days to catch a glimpse of him at the opera."
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Overall Rating: 8.4/10