Fitzcarraldo

PG

Now Playing

2h 40m

Drama

List

75%

32 Reviews

Tomatometer

92%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Opera-loving European Brian Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) lives in a small Peruvian city. Better known as Fitzcarraldo, this foreigner is obsessed with building an opera house in his town and decides that to make his dream a reality he needs to make a killing in the rubber business. In order to become a successful rubber baron, Fitzcarraldo hatches an elaborate plan that calls for a particularly impressive feat -- bringing a massive boat over a mountain with the help of a band of natives.

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Critics Consensus

With a production as audacious as the feat it's depicting, Fitzcarraldo comes by its awe-inspiring spectacle honestly, even when it declines to examine the darker implications of its hero's dream.

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Lars N

Loooooong but fascinating. A bizarre spectacle more than a compelling narrative.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

11/14/23

Full Review

Alec B

Beautifully articulated madness. The impressive spectacle is matched by Kinski's brilliant and unhinged performance.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/13/23

Full Review

Wayne K

One of the first film reviews I ever wrote was on Aguirre: The Wrath Of God, written and directed by renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog and starring infamous nutcase Klaus Kinski. It mostly involved Kinski on a boat travelling along the Amazon. 10 years later, Fitzcarraldo has Kinski, on a boat, travelling along the Amazon. I guess Herzog just really likes the Amazon, and boats. But not Kinski presumably, as their relationship continued to deteriorate throughout production, to the point where a trial chieftain asked Herzog is he wanted Kinski killed. Yes, that genuinely happened. I will say that I enjoyed Fitzcarraldo more than Aguirre. There was more substance, more interesting conversation, more incredible visuals. But why on Earth did it have to be almost 2 and a half hours long? So few films deserve such a runtime, and it's usually achieved by long stretches of boring downtime, endless shots of scenery and, in this film's case, constant segments where the cast travel the river with no obstacles in their way. It's interesting when something does happen, such as their encounters with the native tribes, a concept also explored in Terrence Malick's The New World. But much like that film, it's only a small chunk of it. It takes almost an hour to get going and frequently loses momentum, but I can't say the act of transporting the ship through the jungle, the centrepiece of the story, isn't incredible to watch. It's a film I'm glad to say I've seen but have no interest whatsoever in revisiting.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

07/07/23

Full Review

Jakob G

Is this "slave porn"? Our main character decides to go to the jungle, fulfill his absolutely outrageous "dreams", kills a bunch of indigenous people on the way and leaves the movie smoking a fat cigar. Oh yes, and what happened on the set was basically the same, crazy director kills a bunch of crew members, because he wants to fulfill his vision. This is next level ironic. It's even worse than his recent movie salt and something. And that's supposed to be Herzog in his prime? I don't get it, I really don't.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

JJJJJJ J

In the beginning it seems as if the film is foreshadowing, creating themes that will come up later in the film, and sets a basic plot in motion. Then the movie turns into a story about a group of people trying to carry a boat over a mountain in the middle of the Amazon, all other, plots and themes are completely forgotten. This film is a jumbled mess in many ways. It still has many beautiful shots but it just isn't really engaging after a certain point. In the end it comes off as a more of a vanity trip for its director then a good movie.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

georgan g

The making of this film is as amazing as the film itself. Based on a true story, it's another surreal plot that Herzog brings to the world. Will be watching the documentary of how it was made "Burden of Dreams."

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Werner Herzog

Director

Klaus Kinski

Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald - 'Fitzcarraldo'

Claudia Cardinale

Molly

José Lewgoy

Don Aquilino

Miguel Angel Fuentes

Cholo

Paul Hittscher

Captain (Orinoco Paul)

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80%

63%

The Escape Artist

100%

80%

Moonlighting

0%

40%

Staying Alive

94%

85%

Missing

91%

95%

Jean de Florette

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Pauline Kael

New Yorker

The film itself is a leaden variation on [Herzog's] Aguirre, the Wrath of God. It’s Aguirre without the inspired images or great subject.

Sep 12, 2023

Full Review

Michael Sragow

Rolling Stone

My reaction is strictly, "So what?”

Jun 21, 2022

Full Review

Elliott Stein

Film Comment Magazine

This botched, shapeless, gratuitous, ignoble, neo-colonialist film is so poorly made, written, edited, and directed that its centerpiece, its raison d'tre -- the honest-to-God hauling of a boat up a mountain before your eyes -- is meaningless.

Rated: 1/4

Dec 12, 2017

Full Review

Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

Much like the frazzled Fitz himself playing Caruso on his beaten up Victrola record player, we sense there is something special in the art we are consuming.

Rated: 4.5/5

Aug 20, 2022

Full Review

Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

Few motion pictures have captured the frenzied power of obsession with as much veracity.

Rated: 4/4

Mar 18, 2022

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

A film that moves like a ship through the flow of a river, where Herzog acts as helmsman. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 7/10

Sep 26, 2021

Full Review

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Synopsis

Opera-loving European Brian Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) lives in a small Peruvian city. Better known as Fitzcarraldo, this foreigner is obsessed with building an opera house in his town and decides that to make his dream a reality he needs to make a killing in the rubber business. In order to become a successful rubber baron, Fitzcarraldo hatches an elaborate plan that calls for a particularly impressive feat -- bringing a massive boat over a mountain with the help of a band of natives.

Director: Werner Herzog
Producer: Walter Saxer
Screenwriter: Werner Herzog
Distributor: New World Pictures
Production Co: Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 10, 1982, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 11, 2017
Runtime: 2h 40m

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