Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Fitzcarraldo (/fɪtskə'raldo/) is a 1982 epic adventure-drama film written, produced, and directed by Werner Herzog. The film stars Klaus Kinski as Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irish would-be rubber baron known in Peru as "Fitzcarraldo", who is determined to transport a steamship over the Andes mountains to access a rich rubber territory in the Amazon basin, with the ultimate goal of using the wealth to build an opera house in the area. The character was inspired by Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald, who once had a disassembled steamboat transported over the Isthmus of Fitzcarrald by natives.

The film had a troubled production, chronicled in the documentary by Les Blank Burden of Dreams (1982). Herzog had his crew attempt to manually haul the 320-ton steamship up a steep hill, leading to three injuries. The film's original star Jason Robards became sick halfway through filming, so Herzog hired Kinski, with whom he had previously clashed violently during production of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), and Woyzeck (1979). Their fourth collaboration fared no better. When shooting was nearly complete, the chief of the Machiguenga tribe, whose members were used extensively as extras, asked Herzog if they should kill Kinski for him, though Herzog declined.

At the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, Herzog won the Best Director Award and the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Fitzcarraldo received widespread positive reviews from critics, with Roger Ebert describing it as "imperfect, but transcendent".