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Aug 04, 2016Nursebob rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Werner Herzog and his nemesis Klaus Kinski return to "Wrath of God" country in this tale of man vs. nature, but this time around Kinski trades in Aguirre’s bloodthirsty megalomania for an obsessive, just slightly unhinged, romanticism. Notorious for its production problems—Kinski was a raging lunatic, the elements refused to cooperate, and there were deaths, disabilities, and disease—Herzog’s film is a surprisingly lucid, at time pastoral, rumination on man’s eternal struggle, the power of art, and the legacy of colonialism (ironic considering how he exploited his small army of Indian extras). A by-the-numbers plot is lifted into the surreal by a series of striking tableaux: Caruso blares from an onboard gramophone as native drumming answers from the surrounding jungle; a ragtag flotilla of rickety motorboats transport an opera company across the Amazon—with costumes and props on full display; and straining natives haul Fitzcarraldo’s multi-ton steamboat through the forest (no special effects used, just an unseen bulldozer). Unfortunately dubbed and in need of a good editing, this is still a charming Quixotic tale of one man who set out to tame the wilderness with Strauss and Wagner only to return full circle to where he began only wiser if not exactly richer.