FILM: Fitzcarraldo

Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald is an Irishman, known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo. Fitz has a dream to open an opera house in his town in Peru and will stop at nothing to get it. In order to raise money, he buys a boat and sails it down the infamous Pachitea River to begin work in the rubber trade. The untouched rubber trees are just off the Ucayali River which is blocked from the Amazon River by dangerous rapids. It becomes Fitzcarraldo's mission to get his large boat from the Pachitea River, over a mountain, and into the Ucayali River on the other side.

I really enjoyed this film. Not only does it involve the mad notion of dragging a boat over a mountain for the far-off goal of opening an opera house, it also involves a very interesting look at the clashing of two cultures as Fitz and his crew become entangled in a very ambiguous deal with a tribe of natives.
The story ends very unexpectedly, in a heart-warming way, which is unusual for Werner Herzog. I loved the ending - what a great entrance! I don't want to spoil it for you.
I love the fact that Herzog's films involve no special effects - there were no special effects to use when these were being made. This means that Herzog and his crew actually pulled a massive boat over a mountain with a tribe of natives (as Herzog tells in his documentary My Best Fiend). Totally mad.