Seeing as how Fitscarraldo is by far one of his best, I wonder if maybe the appeal of Herzog’s films is that of an incredible spectacle that more or less really happened, that he decided to film. Granted, the reality of it is amazing, but if the wonder of pulling a boat over a mountain in the Amazon is what makes this such a great film then Fitzcarraldo qua cinema is sort of a gimmick.

This isn’t to say that it isn’t a visually interesting picture, but it’s one that becomes so meandering when it isn’t focusing on its awe-inspiring mantelpiece, one thinks that maybe it could have been shorter, and that maybe some of its thematic elements are so disparate as to make the entire film scatterbrained in terms of intentional storytelling. The ending/resolution sort of ruined it for me as well. Yes, he does bring the opera to Iquitos…in some way.

Still the acting is pretty great, and if you find Fitzcarraldo charming as a character than you probably love Herzog himself for the very same reasons.