Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
Fitzcarraldo is more like a feverish delirium than a movie. It will transport you into the wildness of the Amazon as well as engage you in the seeming insanity of the protagonist’s eccentric vision. It is a very entertaining excursion.
Historical Background: Werner Herzog is one of the most interesting of modern German directors. He has directed many films over more than forty years, from the late 1960’s right up to the present. He has also appeared a few times as an actor. He is perhaps best known for three remarkable films that all star Klaus Kinski – a rather eccentric and difficult-to-work-with actor: Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), Nosferatu, The Vampire (1978) (a remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu), and Fitzcarraldo (1982). Any one of those three could be reasonably asserted to be Herzog’s preeminent masterpiece, though my personal preference is for Fitzcarraldo. A couple other fine Herzog films include The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) and Woyzek (1979).
More than for most films, the story of Fitzcarraldo overlaps with the story of the making of Fitzcarraldo. Both are stories about utter fixation on realizing a dream. Both dreams involve bringing the creative artistic process to the Amazon. For Fitzcarraldo, it was bringing opera to the Peruvian jungle; for Herzog, it was making a film in the Amazon jungle. Both Fitzcarraldo (fictionally – though loosely based on a real story) and Herzog (actually) had to overcome seemingly impossible conditions to realize their respective ambitions. The obstacles ranged from financial problems, to doubting Thomases, hostile environmental conditions, and the flare-up of a border war. Fitzcarraldo had to haul a ferry boat over a steep esker to advance his vision; Herzog actually hauled a ferry boat over an esker to ensure the realism of his film. There is something mysteriously autobiographical about the film Fitzcarraldo but the autobiographical events are those that occurred simultaneous with the filming of the story!
There are some superficial similarities between Fitzcarraldo and Herzog’s earlier film Aguirre: The Wrath of God, despite the fact that some 400 years separate the historical times of the two films. Both films are set in the Amazon and were filmed there. Both films are about obsession. Both are about the imposition of European initiatives on the wild environment and native culture of the Amazon. Both films involve hauling matériel across mountains. Both films involve extended river excursions. Aguirre is darker psychologically. Fitzcarraldo is somewhat more uplifting in the end.
Fitzcarraldo, the film, is perhaps most famous for being a near failure – in much the same way that the character Fitzcarraldo was a near-failure. Herzog didn’t really want Kinski for the lead part. Herzog knew all too well that Kinski was emotionally erratic, especially during a long and arduous shoot. Herzog had pretty much had his fill of Kinski during their previous work together. Herzog wanted Jack Nicholson and almost got him. Nicholson was very interested, but the length of time that he would have had to commit to the filming of this project was more than his schedule could sustain. Herzog next settled on Jason Robards with Mick Jagger in the role of a “sidekick” to the main character (a role that was ultimately written out). Robards, however, came down with dysentery and Jagger went on tour with the Rolling Stones. Herzog was stuck with Kinski by default. Kinski was such an extraordinary pain in the . . . neck during the filming that Herzog and Kinski exchanged repeated death threats. The natives that were used during the filming actually offered to kill Kinski for Herzog, if he wanted them to!
The Story: The story relates to an obsessive Irish visionary living in Peru at the time of the rubber barons. His name is Fitzgerald but the natives call him Fitzcarraldo. He runs an ice-making operation and barely scrapes by. He has a deep love for the opera and the opening scene sees him and his paramour arriving at the opera house that the rubber barons have built on the Amazon at Manaus. The great Enrico Caruso is performing. So devoted is Fitzcarraldo to the opera that he finished the boat trip to the opera after the engine conked out by rowing. The opera house is magnificent as is the scene with the opera performance, for which Herzog hired a subsidiary director to stage the opera within the movie. One especially noteworthy aspect was the use of a transvestite in one of the female roles!
Fitzcarraldo is already well-known in town for his entrepreneurial dreams and failures. His project for a railroad through the Amazon went bankrupt and his ice business is also floundering. The successful businessmen in town view him as an impractical dreamer but he is admired as a visionary by a group of local children and natives as well as by Molly (Claudia Cardinale), a comely middle-aged woman who operates the prosperous local brothel. Molly is what every dreamer needs – the ultimate cheerleader, the one person who never loses faith in the visionary no matter how grotesque the setbacks. She’s either what every dreamer needs – or precisely the kind of encouragement to idiocy that will lead every psychotic visionary to rack and ruin. Fitzcarraldo’s ultimate dream is to bring opera to the Amazon but first he will need to find a way to make a lot of money. The rubber barons have already become wealthy beyond imagination, but all of the useful plots of land for harvesting rubber have been long since parceled out.
With the help of Molly’s capital, Fitzcarraldo purchases the rights to a large tract of jungle with valuable rubber trees, but which is inaccessible because of a set of river rapids so impassible that the natives believe them to be haunted by evil spirits. Fitzcarraldo’s ambitious plan is to operate a ferry boat on the river above the rapids but he will first have to get it there. The river in question is a tributary of the Amazon and another almost parallel tributary passes at one point within a few hundred yards of the first, separated only by a steep esker (an esker is a narrow ridge separating two bodies of water). Fitzcarraldo’s plan calls for proceeding up the passable tributary, hauling the intact ferry boat over the mountainous esker to the other tributary, and then making a fortune harvesting rubber. The remainder of the story concerns the trip up the river into the deep jungle inhabited by hostile natives, the effort to haul the ferry boat over the esker, and the unexpected culmination, which will be left for readers to discover on their own.
Themes: The main theme of this film can be defined either optimistically or pessimistically. The optimistic wording is the beauty of following one’s dreams, even if, in the end, the result is failure. Even failure can be glorious if what was attempted was visionary! The pessimistic version might be worded as the terrible costs that obsessions inflict. I’ve always liked eccentric people and have tended to gather some as friends at various stages of my life, so for me, it is the optimistic interpretation of the film that prevails. Watching this film could either encourage you to pursue a dream or to back off from one that is really a fanciful obsession that has potential disaster written all over it.
Production Values: Herzog was never one for use of storyboards. He felt it necessary to build his work based on the circumstances and the aura he encountered at each film location. His style was ideally suited for the extremity of the challenges that he encountered filming in the Amazon. The cinematography of Fitzcarraldo is glorious. The natural setting in the Amazon is inherently mysterious and foreboding, but Herzog augments the natural wonder by using a rich color palette emphasizing earth tones. The DVD transfer is superb, giving full life to the gorgeous images.
Klaus Kinski is best known for his three great films with Herzog and for being a rather erratic, manic, and highly politically-incorrect human being. In his heyday, he was frequently invited to make television appearances on talk shows but on some of those occasions, the broadcasts had to be interrupted and Kinski asked to leave because of the extremity of his behavior. He was notoriously difficult to work with in a professional setting. That being said, the fact remains that his bizarre psychology as an individual is probably a major factor in the success of his performances as Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, and Nosferatu. It helps to be nuts to play a nut. Fitzcarraldo was the least insane of his three great portrayals, being mainly a harmless if obsessed eccentric. Kinski does a marvelous job developing this character over the course of the film. I was rather put-off by the character in the opening scene but developed some grudging admiration for him by the end of the film.
The soundtrack warrants some mention as well. First, there’s the great opera segments. Then there’s additional musical components. And finally, there’s very effective incorporation of discrete sounds that create the ambiance of the jungle. It really adds to viewer involvement in this story. You feel like you’re there, helping with this project.
Bottom-Line: I’ve known about this film for several months but had put off watching it because I had other films higher on my list of priorities. I thought that the notion of a ferry boat being hauled over a mountain would be a bit too fanciful for my tastes. I was wrong. This is a fully involving film. In fact, part of the beauty of the film is seeing a fanciful dream gradually becoming reality by the force of human will. The ending of the film is a real adrenaline rush. This is not quite a five-star film but it is a very strong four-stars. It is not four-stars by default because 3.5 is not available; it is four-stars because 4.5 is not available. Most viewers will find it very entertaining.
The DVD version has what is probably the best commentary track that I have encountered so far. It features Herzog, the producer Lucki Stipetic, and a moderator named Norman Hill who interjects probing questions. You may very well end up investing five hours in watching this DVD, sooner or later – two-and-a-half for the film itself and then another two-and-a-half listening to the commentary with the film running in the background. The commentary is packed with anecdotes about the production of the film and the amazing range of difficulties that were encountered. This is another case of a film where it is a miracle that it even exists as a completed project. You can watch this film in English or in German with English subtitles. It is unrated but I see no reason why it would not be appropriate for age thirteen and above. There is next to no violence and no sex or nudity other than one National Geographic-style exposed native breast at one point.
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