A major filmmaking accomplishment that only Werner Herzog would have the looney audacity to attempt, FITZCARRALDO stars Klaus Kinski as the title character, a dreamer who plans to bring opera and Enrico Caruso to the South American jungles. With limited funding he decides to finance the
opera house by capitalizing on South America's rubber industry. He discovers a hidden forest of rubber trees well protected by rapids but the only way to get there is via a river on the other side of a small group of mountains. Fitzcarraldo has a bizarre inspiration: he'll hire local natives to
pull his steamship over the mountain--320 tons up a 40-degree incline.
The hauling of the boat is the poetic and symbolic heart of the movie and no camera trickery is used in its filming. This is a real steamship being hauled over a real mountain--all at the command of Herzog, a man as crazed in his way as his most obsessed heroes. The insurmountability of this labor
of filmmaking parallels the character's determination to bring Caruso to the jungles, and herein lies the attraction of FITZCARRALDO--it is an artistic achievement that one watches for the drama of the film and of the filmmaking.
Jason Robards was originally set to play the lead but was forced to quit the film after catching a jungle illness. The resulting schedule delays also forced Mick Jagger, who was cast as Robards's sidekick, to drop out. Herzog was quoted as saying, "If I should abandon this film I should be a man
without dreams... I live my life or end my life with this project." An excellent companion piece is Les Blank's BURDEN OF DREAMS, a documentary about the making of FITZCARRALDO. leave a comment