In 1982, film-maker Werner Herzog set out into the Peruvian jungle to tell his story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, the Fitzcarraldo of the title, based on the true life tale of rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald. It was to be a mammoth shoot, the likes of which have never been seen and will probably never be seen again in terms of sheer spectacle.
Brian "Fitzcarraldo" Fitzgerald was a man with a dream, to bring an Opera House to the Amazonian jungle and to have Enrico Caruso sing at its opening. To pay for such a grand dream, he decides to set off up the river to the uncharted jungles rich in rubber trees to make his fortune in an old riverboat. To get to this, he must drag his ship over the mountains to the other side. An obsessive, Fitzcarraldo goes beyond all reason to achieve his dreams.
Some films are famed for the travails of their production, Fitzcarraldo is just such a film. Essentially a true life tale of the hubris of blind ambition without reason, its production became such a tale. Choosing to work without Studios and with no special effects, this film was a personal odyssey for Herzog. With Jason Robards originally cast as Fitzgerald and Mick Jagger as his assistant, the film was 40% complete when Robards fell ill with dysentery and had to leave the production. Jagger's role was written out of the film and filming started again from the beginning with the notoriously erratic Klaus Kinski in the title role. The troubles of the production are documented in Les Blanks "Burden Of Dreams" who followed the production from begging to end.
The really epic thing about this film is that there are no special effects. They really do drag that ship over the mountain. Those Indians did toil on the mountainside for days on end. Even more amazing is that in the real life story upon which the film is based, the boat weighed only 30 tons not the 300 ton behemoth of the film and it was never dragged over the mountain, merely taken apart and reassembled on the other side. By Herzog's own admission, this is unlikely to be attempted again. You may wonder while watching it, what possessed him to attempt it. Was it hubris? Regardless, it makes for gripping viewing and that along with the magnificent imagery of the Amazon make an epic film. Perhaps the answer for Herzog's vision lies in a line from the film spoken by Claudia Cardinale:
"Its only the dreamers who move mountains"
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