Fitzcarraldo (movie review)

A fun way to watch this movie, if of a Buddhist slant, other reincarnation religion, is to see our dashing Fitzgerald as Aguirre reincarnated.

True to karmic form, he's learned a thing or two in the afterlife. For example, he's now much better with women (which isn't saying a whole lot, given where we were in Part One).

Herzog provides this outrageous director's commentary, providing this back story about how the movie had to restart when Jason Robards and/or Jack Nicholson fell ill and/or thought life was too short, and Mick Jagger (Herqueque?), though willing to forego many pleasures, had gigs to get back to.

So it was back to Klaus Kinski, always Werner's top choice, but too inclined to freak out in the Peruvian Jungle (witness Aguirre).

That scene with Fitzgerald going absolutely bats in the belfry, wanting his opera house, rivals the best of Jim Carrey, with or without a mask. And he gets one in the mix, dreams do come true, which is the happy ending... and that this movie got made, yay.

Burden of Dreams (movie review)

This is the movie that goes with Werner Herzog's director's commentary track on Fitzcarraldo.

Werner plays himself as a crazed film maker, willing to risk life and limb (others' as much as his own) to get those special effects only obtainable if you do them for real. Tribal politics play a role, as the presence of indigenous Germans leads many to expect the worst and/or want a piece of the action.

Werner monologues about his existential problems with the Jungle's decadent opulence, plus shows a crazed Kinski losing it with the crew (bonus feature). Also in the bonus features, Werner eats his own shoe, for reasons unrelated to the making of this film.

For those skeptics and cynics who don't think this all really happened as portrayed, check out the clip from the first version (before the restart) featuring Robards and Jagger, as the split personality earlier cast for this role, and filled handsomely by Kinski once the film ran into problems (probably mostly around Werner's ego, though no one ever comes right out and say so on the director's cut).

This "making of" spends a lot more time on the rubber making process, rubber barons, and their love of opera, being so pivotal in the more fictive version.

Bruno (movie review)

As with Borat, the comic index of this film depends a lot on the viewer's assumptions about how scripted it is, i.e. which characters know this is a spoof and which do not?

The DVD version, which my daughter inherited from somewhere, has the movie with commentary, and that clears up some questions.

However, given Sasha is good at fooling people, how much of the commentary are we to believe in turn? Was Harrison Ford really "in on it"? Perhaps not.

I'm reminded of Werner Herzog's commentary regarding the filming of Fitzcarraldo. I took that as a spoof as well, in cahoots with his cast, the film savvy, Mick Jagger, Jason Robard and friends.

I viewed Bruno (twice, once with commentary) with a gay rights activist and community organizer, who thought, as I do, that Sasha is brilliantly brave, and knows how to do poignant social commentary.

Borat, Bruno and Ali G represent a new form of cultural anthropology, wherein the anthropologist learns enough about a culture to offend, enrage, excite and otherwise perturb it.

This is the opposite of trying to stay out of the limelight while taking notes.

I found myself reminiscing about Team America: World Police after it was over, a likewise penetrating spelunking exercise within the collective unconscious. Talk about "special operations"!