Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Starring: Klaus Kinski, Jose Lewgoy, Miguel Angel Fuentes, Paul Hittscher, Huerequeque Enriqu Bohorguez

First, the Lowdown: A man of limited means is determined to build an opera house in the Peruvian jungle.

Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald has a vision. Initially sent to Peru to oversee the building of its railroad, he was forced to find work in order to earn money. But beyond all of that is his love of the opera. Upon hearing that Enrico Caruso is playing at the opera house in Manaus, Brian speeds down the river as fast as he could, only to have his engine break down after the curtain rises. Brian and his girlfriend, Molly, plead with the footman to let them in – he does, with the insistence that they remain at the back and not say anything. They arrive just as the finale reaches his climax during which Caruso gestures at him on his final note. Brian sees it as a sign to finally build his dream, “Fitzcarraldo” an opera house set in the jungle.

Returning back to the city of Iquitos, Brian plays his gramophone for his audience: a flock of native children and their pet pig. His only means of income is making ice – an industry that he sees a future in, but unfortunately no one else does. Brian implores to Don Aquilino, a local rubber baron, to help him apply for a patent so that he can make ice industrially (and finance his opera house), but Aquilino scoffs at the idea. Infuriated, Brian barricades himself in the town's church until they agree to build an opera house. The police take a dim view of his method of petition and lock him up

Brian's stay in jail is cut down from two weeks to two days because his audience, the children, had been spending all of their time praying for him outside the jail. Moved by this display, the police chief has him released. Once out he plans to host a party with Molly. Molly runs the local bordello and makes sure that her ladies are always clean and cater to the upper class, so it should be no trouble to get the local industrialists to arrive. At the party, he talks further with Don Aquilino, who seems obsessed with the idea of losing money. Aquilino isn't so desperate to get rid of his fortune to just give Brian the financing he needs, but is very envious of how Brian was bankrupted by the railroad project. Brian's plan to woo the gentry with his gramophone is derailed, however, and he is mocked by them.

Aquilino owns a giant portion of property, where his men harvest latex to make rubber. But there is a portion that has yet to be exploited because it is inaccessible by steamship due to rapids – and also crosses through the territory of some overly cautious natives. Brian borrows money from Molly and uses it to buy the unclaimed territory and a ship. Aquilino helps him assemble a crew. The major reason why the plot of land Brian purchased had gone unclaimed is that there is no way to get a boat to the nearby trading river. However, Brian intends to boat down the river, and move the ship over a small finger of land (that's mostly a mountain) to access that area.

This movie has been compared a lot with Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Most especially because they shared the same problems with casting, locations, and crew. (Some of the crew had been called away to fight in a war with the Colombians.) The production is lush, and much of it is shot beautifully. Kinski does his usual bug-eyed crazy man routine through the film, yet manages not to leave teethmarks on the scenery. My major problem with the film is its pacing. Quite honestly, I think this is one of the few occasions where a movie could have benefited from less detail rather than more. Many of the shots are lovely, but the linger too long – almost as if director Herzog lost his train of thought as he was shooting them.

Another movie that Fitzcarraldo has been compared to is Herzog's own Aguirre, the Wrath of God. And they share many elements there as well: a madman takes upon a Sisyphean task in the middle of the jungle, enlists in a crew that share that vision, and ultimately loses everything. Personally, I think a better film would have been made if Herzog didn't get so hung up on the scenery.

Line of the movie: “The reality of your world is nothing more than a rotten caricature of great opera.”

Three stars. Stop picking at it.