- In the past, I've wondered whether Werner Herzog is more or less eccentric than the subjects of his films. In the case of Fitzcarraldo, Herzog wins. Hands down, no question about it. Isaias Fermin Fitzcarrald, after whom this film's Fitzcarraldo was modeled, was a rubber baron and, unlike Fitzcarraldo, a harsh master to the local natives. He did transport a boat across a mountain but also had the presence of mind to disassemble the boat before moving it. He disassembled the boat!! I'm not saying that such an undertaking would have been easy, but it must have been a damn sight easier than what Herzog did, which was to construct a system of pulleys to transport an intact steamship over a Peruvian mountain.
- Fitzcarraldo is a surprisingly compelling story, even before the mountain scene. The man himself, played by Klaus Kinski, is a typical Herzog hero in that he has made it his goal in life to bring opera to the Amazonian jungle. Sure, why not? To accomplish this, he must first raise funds by engaging in the rubber trade. The only place left to harvest rubber trees is blocked off by rapids, however, so Fitzcarraldo famously decides first to buy a boat with money given to him by his mistress Molly (Claudia Cardinale), then to take it upriver, and finally to transport it over a small mountain to get past the rapids. Along the way, his crew begins to fear that Fitzcarraldo is leading them right to the dinner plates of the fearsome local natives. This is one of the best parts of the film, while the steamship quietly moves upriver and the sounds of the unseen native drums gradually float into range. The seasoned steamship captain (Paul Hittscher) warns that gunfire could get them killed, but the headstrong Cholo (Miguel Angel Fuentes) decides to up the ante by tossing dynamite in the river. The eerie quiet that follows is, to them, a sure indicator of their imminent deaths, particularly since it is followed by the discovery of a lone umbrella washing downriver. It doesn't take much imagination to picture what happened to the umbrella's former owner. In an especially surreal moment, Fitzcarraldo uses the only diplomatic tool he owns, a phonograph recording of Enrico Caruso, to try to win over the natives' hearts.
- By the time Fitzcarraldo finally sees the natives, most of his crew has abandoned him. The natives block the river downstream, so they have no choice but to proceed on their course. Surprisingly, the natives don't immediately attack the ship, but instead slowly and curiously board. For reasons never completely explained, they decide to peacefully accompany Fitzcarraldo to his destination and provide him with inexhaustible manpower for his mad feat of engineering. I don't need to tell you that this is the only time you'll ever see a boat being hoisted up over a mountain, but I'll at least mention that Herzog handles it beautifully. It is quite clear that this is not some special effects stunt, and the entire scene is, quite simply, an amazing spectacle to behold. You can sense that even the actors are unsure whether this madcap scheme will work, which I suppose was the feeling Herzog was after.
- The incredible irony of what happens when the ship reaches the other shore is the sort of thing that would drive most men mad, but Fitzcarraldo manages to retain at least his initial modicum of sanity. There is speculation that the natives sent the boat down the rapids to calm the angry spirits, but I think Herzog's real message is that Fitzcarraldo and the natives never successfully communicated with one another at all. Each group assumed that the other was working toward the same goal, and really who can say which goal made more sense? Herzog seems to be a fan of cosmic jokes, particularly when they are played on naively confident pioneers from the so-called civilized world, and this film depicts one of the absolute best. I suppose the only better joke would have been if the boat had fallen on Herzog himself, but he's apparently too fortunate to be subjected to his own strange sense of fate.
- At some point, Jack Nicholson, Jason Robards, and Mick Jagger were all attached to this project. I guess things could have been stranger.
