Meet the Makers: Werner Herzog

[Herzog was born Werner Stipetić in Munich. He adopted his father’s name Herzog, which means “duke” in German, later in life. His parents were Croatian. His father abandoned Werner and his mother early in Herzog’s youth, when he returned from a prisoner of war camp after World War II.

His family moved to a remote village in Austria after the house next to theirs was destroyed during the bombing at the close of World War II. When he was 12, he and his family moved back to Munich and shared an apartment with Klaus Kinski in Munich-Schwabing. About this, Herzog recalled, “I knew at that moment that I would be a film director and that I would direct Kinski.”

At 14 he was inspired by an encyclopedia entry about film-making which he says provided him with “everything I needed to get myself started” as a film-maker – that, and the 35mm camera that the young Herzog stole from the Munich Film School.] — from Wikipedia

I recall being first introduced to Werner Herzog while attending community college in Saint Louis. I was taking a Film Studies course as an elective towards my media production degree. The film we were viewing in class that day was Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), starring Klaus Kinski, with whom Herzog had known since he was a child. I remember how amazing the movie was, leading the viewer deep into the realm of the human psyche. The story takes place in the mountains of Peru, only decades after the fall of the Inca empire. Kinski plays Don Lope de Aguirre, a ruthless leader of a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado. Aguirre gradually loses his sanity as he pushes his men to the very brink, all in the name of making himself rich and powerful.

As the danger increases along the journey, so too does the morale of the men following Aguirre, leading to tension and a struggle of power amidst the ranks. Once Aguirre slips fully into the abyss of insanity, all hope for the mission is lost. Kinski portrays Aguirre with such convincing aptitude that many believe he was only partially acting. There are stories of mixed relations between Herzog and Kinski while on the set of the many various collaborations they filmed together. Herzog would later make a fascinating documentary about his friend and actor Kinski, entitled My Best Fiend (1999). The film does great justice in portraying Kinski’s relationship with Herzog to be bi-polar, at best.

Fitzcarraldo (1982) is a story about one man obsessed with his dream of building an opera house in the middle of the Amazon jungle. Fitzcarraldo, played by Klaus Kinski, employs the help of the local tribesmen to transport his steamboat uphill from the river to reach his ultimate destination. The task quickly becomes dangerous and Fitzcarraldo is the only one who still believes in his dream.Herzog would also become the metaphorical subject of Burden of Dreams (1982), a documentary made by legendary but little-known filmmaker Les Blank. Burden of Dreams, in my opinion, is one of the greatest documentaries ever made. It chronicles the correlation between the character Fitzcarraldo and the director Herzog, whom both will stop at nothing to realize their dreams. While it may be difficult to get hold of, I highly recommend viewing this film. It was released on DVD by Criterion Collection.

Grizzly Man (2005) was a return to the documentary format for Herzog. The film would garnish an amazing 12 awards and an additional 6 nominations. Herzog’s character study of Timothy Treadwell relies a lot on archived footage, much of it shot by Treadwell while out in the field. Treadwell was a passionate, if not often misguided, advocate that the grizzlies need to be protected and that our fears of them are mostly unwarranted. Treadwell, by way of actually practicing what he preached, would enter the Alaskan wilderness each spring and live among the bears. The film is a fascinating document, but it is more a study of human nature, for better or for worse, we feel compelled to involve ourselves in theirs beyond our control.

Rescue Dawn (2006) was Herzog’s most recent release, starring Christian Bale and Steve Zahn. The film chronicles the experience of Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale), an American fighter pilot who was shot down over Laos in 1966. Dengler was captured and stowed away in a POW camp in the middle of a vast jungle. Having lost over half his body weight, Dengler escaped from the camp despite incredible odds against his survival. Rescue Dawn is actually a narrative feature film adaptation of his original documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997). These pair of films make a great double feature, complimenting each other beautifully as a document of a tragic war through the eyes of one fortunate survivor.