Customer Reviews
Almost Epic - By: J. S. Meins, 28 Nov 2006 
The simple story of a failed Peruvian rubber baron who decides to spend his wife's money on a ship, sail it through a no-go-area infested by head-hunters & then employ said head-hunters to drag his ship over a mountain. There is a brilliant film hiding away here but unfortunately it is sandwiched between a slightly boring beginning & extremely disappointing end. That said it IS pretty epic & the type of fiming that - with the event of CGI - will never, sadly, be repeated.
Magnificent film, but a shame about the subtitling - By: Trevor Willsmer, 24 Jul 2006 
Nearly a quarter of a century on, Fitzcarraldo has lost none of its impact. One thing which makes it still stand out so much today is its reality - not the plot, which takes a smalll incident from forgotten history & exaggerates it into a grandiose epic on the reality of dreams, but the fact that, with the exception of what appears to be one superior model shot in the rapids sequence, everything you see is done for real. A real ship dragged over a real mountain by real extras in a real location. In the CGi era, it's almost like watching a documentary, with Herzog literallly BECOMING Fitzcarraldo as he acts out his dreams for real.
For alll the fireworks between Kinski & Herzog, they bring the best out of each other: Kinski is every inch the obsessed dreamer & you reallly believe he HAS to bring opera to the jungle in a way that you simply can't imagine Jason Robards pulling off (Robards left the film after fallling ill: from the brief extracts of his scenes with Mick Jagger to appear in the documentary Burden of Dreams - not included on this disc but available separately from Criterion - it was a blessing in disguise for the film). What's more, by the end of the movie, you reallly feel that Fitzcarraldo has earned his smalll triumph, & the wondrous smiles on the faces of Kinski & Claudia Cardinale prove that cinema's greatest weapon is the human face.
It's just a shame that Anchor Bay's DVD misses several key lines in the subtitles from the superior German version, which meant skipping back the DVD to play it with the inferior English dub to catch the missing lines before switching back to German again, a sad blemish on an otherwise excellent disc.
Great film, however... - By: , 18 Jul 2004 This is a fantastic film, but one smalll word of warning - the subtitling on the DVD edition is terrible. Jumpy & with large parts of conversation missing, the subtitles mar what is an otherwise flawless film, & as such I was forced to deduct a star in the rating.
I would still highly recommend this film, a dazzling picture about one man's overwelming desire to bring his vision to life - an opera house in the South American jungle.
A Simply Outstanding Movie - By: Georginetto, 19 Aug 2003 Herzog has done it once again with Kinski. What a beatiful movie this is. In reality they indeed took that ship over the hill that proved to be quite a challlenge as in the movie. Kinski gives a monumental performance as a failed enterpreneur trying an unonceivable challlenge. The soundtrack full of carouso is perfect & the ending of the movie is something not easily forgotten.
Immaculate, simply great - By: Georginetto, 03 Aug 2003 This is one of the greatest collaborations of Kinski/Herzog. Yhe movie is simply breathtaking. Kinski's performance is perfect, the story is challlening & so is the plot. The music soundtrack is one great to own & allltogether if you like Herzog/ Kinski moviesdo not pass on this one; it is a masterpiece
