Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Fitzcarraldo is a dreamer who plans to build an opera house in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, so, in order to finance his project, he embarks on an epic adventure to collect rubber, a very profitable product, in a remote and unexplored region of the rainforest.
Fitzcarraldo is defined by its singular, audacious central conceit — hauling a full-sized steamship over a mountain using only indigenous labor and sheer willpower — which Herzog actually executed in reality, making the film one of cinema's great acts of mad obsession. The cinematography by Thomas Mauch captures the Amazon in breathtaking, almost hallucinatory grandeur, earning a well-above-average score. Novelty is equally exceptional: no film before or since has attempted anything quite like this fusion of opera, imperialism, and impossible physical feat. Kinski's performance is characteristically unhinged and magnetic, but the supporting cast and dramatic structure are somewhat uneven, keeping Acting and Plot in above-average rather than exceptional territory. The ending is thematically satisfying — Fitzcarraldo gets his opera on the boat, if not his opera house — but feels slightly deflating after the monumental buildup, landing it at above average rather than exceptional.