Apocalypse Now in the Amazon headwaters
Called Fitzcarraldo by the Indians, an Irishman (Klaus Kinski) living in Iquitos, Peru, dreams of bringing Grand Opera to the jungle city in the Amazon Basin. It’s the early 1900s and there’s a rubber boom. To fund his dream he decides to exploit a considerable area of rubber trees growing beyond the impassable Ucayali Falls. To get to this remote area he incredibly has his steamboat lifted over a hill from another branch of the Amazon with the assistance of notorious headhunters. Claudia Cardinale plays his girlfriend, a successful brothel owner.
Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo” (1982) is superior to his “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (1972), which was shot in the same general area, the Amazon basin east of the Andes Mountains. It’s longer by just over an hour, but it has a more compelling story. “Aguirre” influenced Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (1979) but “Apocalypse Now” likely influenced “Fitzcarraldo.” The difference is that “Apocalypse Now” took advantage of its infamous setting, the Vietnam War, whereas few people know of the rubber boom of the early 20th century in the Iquitos area.
There’s also less thrills in “Fitzcarraldo.” It’s more impenetrable and all-around curious, a cinematic oddity. Yet it has its highlights, including the core cast, e.g. the burly captain, the impressively hulking indigenous engineer and the drunkard cook. What’s it all about? The beauty of art, great dreams, indomitable will, mysterious cultures, devastating failure and… winning anyway.
The film runs 2 hours, 37 minutes, and was shot in the Iquitos area, Peru, and Amazonas, Brazil, including a couple Tribal Regions.
GRADE: B+/A-
