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Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
4/24
4/24:
I don't get it.
A white guy wishes to bring opera to the Indians who probably won't understand anything that's sung, and to accomplish it,
he's able to get the natives, whom he never met in the past, to do all the work for free to clear out an isthmus that's steep (40% incline)
on both sides. Then, they move a 300-ton steamship across it before it's wrecked on the other river that's filled with
rapids? I assumed the guy confirmed it was calm going down that way. Had he done so, then the whole thing wouldn't have happened
in the first place.
I don't know how long the whole clearing business took, but if it's months and months, I find it amazing the white guy's
clothes are still in good shape if that's the same thing he wore every single day. Why is the brothel owner willing to
squander her money on this foolish idea? Won't it be easier to have the people transport the rubber to be packed into smaller
boats over the land from one river to another?
At any rate, Fitzcarraldo is a unique semi-epic picture that's sometimes slow-paced. I wasn't sure what to think.
After seeing the end result, the middle portion ultimately became pointless. It's been a lot of work for nothing: the felling of
giant trees, the sheer waste of manpower and time, and the several lives lost. At one point, I could tell that a toy model was used for
the ship when it was in the middle of the rapids; the other dead giveaway is nobody was actually on the ship.
By the way, I didn't believe they were able to move the steamship over the hill given the primitive tools at hand along with
the elaborate pulley system which had some steel components. It turns out that they did it with a bulldozer. As for
the clearing part, it had to be years and years if no heavy machinery was used.
All in all, Fitzcarraldo is nonsensical.