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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: January 13th, 2015.
Director: Werner Herzog
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale
Year: 1982
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The Movie:
Herzog and Kinski's most epic collaboration follows the exploits of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski), a man who runs an ice house in the Amazon and toils away for little. His true passion is opera and after taking in a performance with local madam Molly (the eternally beautiful Claudia Cardinale) at his side, he decides that he will build his own opera house in the middle of the Amazon jungle. He sets about trying to get financing but not so surprisingly, nobody wants to fund this madman's endeavor.
Molly, however, has enough money that they decide to buy a steamboat and pilot it up the Amazon River where Fitzgerald hopes to lay claim to an empty, un-owned stretch of land that has been used only for the harvesting of materials to be used in the making of rubber. He'll use his boat on these well-travelled waters to earn the money he needs to build his dream. What Fitzgerald doesn't tell anyone, including the boat's captain, is that the ship will have to make it through a series of rapids to reach its destination and that if they make it through there, they'll have to haul the massive ship up a mountain to get it where it needs to go, and to do that, they'll need help from the natives.
Where in earlier films Kinski had played dangerous characters, here he's a charming man whose only wish is to bring what he sees as beauty and art into the heart of the jungle. While in many ways the upriver voyage parallels Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, obviously the intentions behind the similar trips are completely different. Kinski shines in the lead, really giving the part his all and while he infuses the character with plenty of his trademark manic style, his Fitzgerald is generally a 'nice' guy.
While the film really is longer than it needs to be, it's a beautifully shot picture that takes full advantage of the location shoots used by the director to create authenticity. Of course, the most remarkable set piece is when a literal army of Amazon natives haul the ship up the muddy slope of the mountain but there are other standout moments here as well. Shots where we see Kinski's character simply enjoying the music coming from his Victrola as he voyages on the boat resonate with us in calm, serene ways. Seeing Kinski at ease is maybe something most of us are not that accustomed to.
Herzog famously did have a bunch of Indians drag the boat up that mountain, however. Pulleys and blocks and logs were all used as well as countless man hours of intense physical labor. In this regard, the quest of the filmmaker is equally as mad as that of the film's central character (and this is well documented in the feature length documentary on the making of this picture, Burden Of Dreams, directed by Les Blanc). The whole film is enchanting, awe-inspiring in its way, allowing us to look past the pacing issues and the lack of structure that sometimes shifts the narrative and take it all in.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Fitzcarraldo was previously released on Blu-ray by Shout! Factory as part of their Herzog: The Collection boxed set. This disc appears to be the same in every way to the disc representing Fitzcarraldo in that boxed set. As such, it has some compression artifacts evident in a few scenes but otherwise looks decent if sometimes a bit soft in this AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed in the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85.1 widescreen. Detail is okay in the close up shots but sometimes gets a little lost in medium and long distance shots. There's some light noise reduction here from the looks of things but no edge enhancement and the image is clean in that there isn't much in the way of serious print damage to complain about. Colors are reproduced nicely and black levels are fine.
The audio options on this disc are DTS-HD 5.1 (German), DTS-HD 2.0 (German) and DTS-HD 2.0 (English) with optional subtitles provided in English only. As far as the quality of the audio goes, there's little room for complaint here. Levels are nicely balanced across the board regardless of which option you go for and the director's penchant for using excellent musical selections to accompany his visuals really benefits from the added depth of the lossless audio on this disc.
As far as the extras are concerned, this set includes an English audio commentary featuring Herzog and moderator Norman Hill (with producer Lucki Stripetic) and a German audio commentary featuring Herzog and moderator Laurens Straub. Both tracks are well paced and quite fascinating. Of course, there is some crossover between the two talks but there's also enough unique material here to make them worthwhile. Herzog's a great storyteller and Hill knows his filmography well, as such, the English track has a good camaraderie to it as he shares stories about shooting on location in the jungle, the use of natives in the cast, and of course, Mr. Kinski. The German track is a little more reserved but it too nicely details the experience of making such a unique film under such bizarre circumstances. We also get a theatrical trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Fitzcarraldo remains a high point in Werner Herzog's filmography, which is really a pretty remarkable achievement in and of itself when you consider the quality of the man's output. It's incredibly well directed, it's ambitious, it features some fantastic performances and most importantly, it's as gleefully insane as its subject and its leading man. If you don't have the previous boxed set release, this is a fine way to revisit the movie and the commentary tracks provide some fascinating details about what went into this entirely unique and amazing movie.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
