Written and directed by Werner Herzog, Fitzcarraldo is the fourth and possibly, the greatest collaboration between Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski. The film tells the story of a man, in the turn of the century, who has dreams of bringing the opera to the masses as he and his companions go on a steamboat to the Amazon where at one point, he tries to take the boat over a mountain in order to get to the other side of the river. One of the most ambitious films of the 1980s, the film is shot on location in the Amazon as Herzog tells the story of a dreamer trying to achieve the impossible as Kinski plays the title role of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald aka Fitzcarraldo. Also starring Claudia Cardinale, Jose Lewgoy, Paul Hittscher, and Peter Berling. Fitzcarraldo is a sprawling, magnificent masterpiece from Werner Herzog and its star, Klaus Kinski.

Arriving late to an opera house in a far place in the Amazon in Peru, Fitzcarraldo and his wife Molly (Claudia Cardinale) hope to hear the voice of Enrico Caruso as they watch an opera where Fitzcarraldo has gained a huge idea. After a meeting with the opera manager (Peter Berling), Fitzcarraldo announce he wants to have a Grand Opera in his quaint, little river town of Iquitos though many laugh at his idea. Only Molly was supportive of him as she runs a brothel in the posh part of the town while Fitzcarraldo works producing ice in the poor part as he often lives there with his opera records in which he connects with its natives and children. He then makes a promise to a pig in bringing the opera to Iquitos where the pig would sit in a red chair watching Enrico Caruso sing.

After a party where several rubber barons laugh at his idea and mock him, Fitzcarraldo still dreams of having the opera to Iquitos despite the fact that he doesn't have a lot of money to fund such a grand scheme. The only rubber baron that doesn’t make fun of Fitzcarraldo is Don Aquilino (Jose Lewgoy) who wants a piece of land that's unclaimed down south in the Ucayala Falls. The only problem is that the reason it was never claimed is a dangerous series of rapids called the Pongo das Mortes that many claimed is filled with evil spirits. Fitzcarraldo gets a map and realize that the only other way to discover and exploit the land is to go to the other river in the Pachitea though it features a dangerous group of tribes.

Fitzcarraldo decides to exploit it in order to fund his opera plans as he tells Molly of what he wants to do as the two decide to buy Aquilino's old ship with his mechanic Cholo (Miguel Angel Fuentes). After obtaining a large group of Iquitos natives including a drunk cook named Huerequeque (Huerequeque Enrique Bohorquez) and a Dutch captain named Orinoco Paul (Paul Hittscher).

After saying goodbye to Molly, Fitzcarraldo and his crew aboard the newly repaired steamboat named Molly Aida. Instead of going downstream towards Ucayala, they go upstream to the Pachitea where they trek across the Amazon. After stops at an old railroad that Fitzcarraldo owned that is now abandoned, they take the rails that they need for metal as Fitzcarraldo tells the old station manager (Grande Otelo) that the failed railroad might be restored. During another stop at a missionary station, Fitzcarraldo and Paul talk to two priests (Dieter Milz and Salvador Godinez) about the dangers of the Pachitea concerning the tribe. The only person who knows anything about the tribe is Huerequeque.

After kicking out two women and a couple of men from the crew, Fitzcarraldo and the remaining crew trek downward towards the sinister Pachitea where an uncomfortable sense of silence emerges as men become paranoid as the music of the tribe is heard. Fitzcarraldo makes a strange move as he plays the operatic voice of Enrico Caruso where things quiet down. Huerequeque tells him that the tribe believe in a myth of a man in white with a large boat might take them away from the sorrow and evil spirit that they've been surrounded by.

The journey continues despite the fact that the entire crew, except Cholo, Paul, and Huerequeque, have left the boat believing in a curse. Still, Fitzcarraldo and his men continue on their journey where they meet the tribe thinking there could be trouble but taking on the myth that Huerequeque mentioned, Fitzcarraldo and his men remain quiet as they take the large tribe of hundreds towards the river where they find a mountain. Upon above in the mountains, they realize the beauty and greatness of the land that Aquilino had been wanting. Still, to claim the land before his contract for the ship and other business propositions are to be expired, he needs to get back to Iquitos but the tribe had already blocked the way in the Pachitea stream earlier.

The only way to get to the Ucayala falls is to go to the other side as Fitzcarraldo has a strange plan of dragging the steamship from one side of the mountain to the other. Despite months of work and everything else including false starts that proved to be fatal, Fitzcarraldo at first seemed defeated but his drive to dream the impossible makes him determined as he hopes to do the impossible, even if he has to go through the cursed rapids of the Pongo das Mortes.

Easily the most ambitious and grandest of Herzog's films, Fitzcarraldo is truly Herzog in every shape and form from its conflict of man vs. nature to doing the impossible. The film is about dreamers achieving what could be impossible and the result is truly magnificent in every frame shot. While the film does have similarities to another Herzog film, 1972's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, about a dark journey in the Amazon river, where both Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo embark on dark, treacherous journeys into the heart of the Amazon. Unlike the doomed, manic Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo has an innocence and determination that's more human as he embarks on this journey just to have this crazy dream of bringing the Grand Opera to a little poor town of Amazon natives. Still, this film is really about Herzog himself, who manages to do something impossible and succeeds in the end. Really, the film is about the experience of doing something to achieve a destiny that many refuse to believe in.

Herzog's screenplay is wonderfully structured in the first act being about Fitzcarraldo wanting to bring an opera to Iquitos despite those against him while the second is about the journey into the Amazon. The third and most climatic act is about that ship being dragged on top of a mountain and the journey afterwards in which Fitzcarraldo has become a character that's more human in everything he's experienced. It's really due to Herzog's ability to portray man in a way that's he is completely relatable to anyone that is a dreamer. Fitzcarraldo is really every person who has a dream and wants to achieve it. It's his most personal and its filled with a lot of heart and joy, it's truly Herzog at his finest.

Herzog's direction is also ambitious by shooting the film entirely on location in Iquitos and parts of the Amazon. Herzog, known for his work in documentary, brings a documentary-like feel to the film where the audience isn't sure what's going to happen or if a character like Fitzcarraldo is going to succeed. Then there's the climatic scene of the steamboat being dragged on top of a mountain. The steamboat is real and this really happened. No film or film director has done something like this by actually doing something with a cast of hundreds of people including a few accomplished actors giving into the emotions and everything that could go wrong or could go right. It's a very unpredictable film as Herzog really pulls on all the stops and sees what he can come up with as he delivers a knockout of a film. Plus, it should be noted that Hollywood has probably never done something like this nor would they since they can't work with someone as fearless and as driven as Werner Herzog.

Longtime cinematographer Thomas Mauch brings a wonderful visual scope to the landscape of the Amazon in its beauty and treachery with wonderful, long shots of the boat in the river during sunset. Mauch's photography is exquisite and harrowing in its documentary-style where it adds all sorts of poetic imagery to the film's exterior look of the Amazon while adding some wonderful shadows and lighting style to the film's interior scenes in Iquitos. Editor Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus does wonderful work in the editing in bring a nice, elliptical pace to the film and long cuts to reveal a scene in its 157-minute running time. Production designers Henning von Gierke and Ulrich Bergfelder do wonderful work in creating the posh houses of the barons and opera managers while doing extensive work on the steamboat which serves as a great character. Costume designer Gisela Storch does great work in the film's costumes for the first act from the period dresses that Claudia Cardinale wore to the white suit that Klaus Kinski wears throughout the entire film. Sound recordists Juarez Dagoberto Costa and Zeze d'Alice do excellent work in capturing the sounds of the Amazon, including one great scene of the tribal drumming mixed in with the opera music in one scene.

Longtime collaborators Popol Vuh and its leader Florian Fricke bring a wonderfully operatic, atmospheric score filled with guitar, choir-like vocal arrangements, and melodic textures that adds a lot of dream-like quality to some of the film's scenery. With a mix of traditional, tribal music, the soundtrack is filled with a lot of opera cuts from Richard Strauss, Vincenzo Bellini, Giacomo Puccini, and Guiseppe Verdi. The soundtrack is wonderfully amazing and the mixing of tribal and opera makes total perfect sense in its rhythm and intensity.

The film's casting is truly inspiring since a lot of the natives and locals in Iquitos were used for realism while David Perez Espinosa is given a memorable performance as the tribal chief along with notable small performances from Dieter Milz, Salvador Godinez, Grande Otelo, and from Aguirre, Peter Berling. Huerequeque Enrique Bohorquez is hilarious as the drunkard cook whose crazy idea of how to get the ship on top of the mountain is pure comedy as he brings humor to some of the film's tense moments. Miguel Angel Fuentes is excellent, skillful mechanic Cholo whose awareness of the Amazon makes him a wonderful supporting character in making sure that Fitzcarraldo does what he is yearning for. Paul Hittscher is great as the weary but experienced captain who is really the moral conscious of the film as he wonders if he, Fitzcarraldo, and their crew are doing the right thing. Jose Lewgoy is good as Don Aquilino who helps Fitzcarraldo fund his big dream while showing what he must do in order to achieve it. Though she's only in half of the film, Claudia Cardinale is excellent as Molly, who is the great supporter of Fitzcarraldo while believing that he can do it as she really serves her role very well.

Finally, there's Klaus Kinski in what has to be one of his greatest performance ever in film. Unlike the madness of Aguirre, the creepiness of Dracula in Nosferatu, or the fragility of Franz Woyzeck, Kinski brings a newfound sense of innocence into playing the title character of Fitzcarraldo. While Woyzeck showed his range as an actor, Kinski gives Fitzcarraldo something that audiences can relate to as a dreamer who wants to bring something for those around him. Kinski adds a complexity of emotions as a man who is aware he has to face realism where he nearly breaks and often ponders if he will fail or succeed. Kinski brings a maturity and wisdom to a man that is flawed and complex as Fitzcarraldo and this is truly the best performance he did in the films with Herzog.

When Fitzcarraldo was released in 1982, it became an international hit where at the Cannes Film Festival that year, Werner Herzog won the Best Director award. Despite the film's success, the story behind the making of Fitzcarraldo proved to be more interesting as Herzog originally had Jason Robards in the title role with Mick Jagger playing an assistant before things went wrong during production in the late 70s. Everything about the making-of Fitzcarraldo was revealed in the documentary Burden of Dreams by Les Blank as it was released months after Fitzcarraldo to rave reviews. Still, both the film and its accompanying documentary put Herzog in the list of top international directors while this also marked the beginning of the end for Herzog's often troubling collaboration with Klaus Kinski.

Fitzcarraldo is, in the end, one of the greatest achievements in cinema thanks to the talents of Werner Herzog and its star Klaus Kinski. Fans of films about dreamers will no doubt find this classic as well as fans of international films. Those wanting to know about Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski will no doubt find this film as the best place to start. So in conclusion, anyone who wants to see the impossible happen should check out Fitzcarraldo.

Werner Herzog Reviews:

Invincible (2001):

(Coming Soon)

Grizzly Man (2005):

(Coming in January 2008)

Rescue Dawn (2006):

http://www.epinions.com/content_408676961924

Herzog-Kinski Reviews:

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972):

http://www.epinions.com/content_300303748740

Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht (1979):

http://www.epinions.com/content_301492964996

Woyzeck (1979):

http://www.epinions.com/content_303925792388

Cobra Verde (1987):

http://www.epinions.com/content_310345174660

My Best Fiend (1999):

http://www.epinions.com/content_311488581252

Herzog-Kinski Collection (2002):

http://www.epinions.com/content_313239047812

Related Review:

Burden of Dreams (1982):

http://www.epinions.com/content_307413159556


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older