Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo

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Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo

4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 · rating details · 470 ratings · 90 reviews

Werner Herzog is one of our most revered contemporary filmmakers, a visionary director who ceaselessly tests the boundaries of art. Fitzcarraldo, his lavish 1982 film about a would-be rubber baron who pulls a steamship over a hill to access a rich rubber territory, was hailed by critics around the globe and won Herzog the 1982 Outstanding Director Prize at Cannes.

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Paperback, 306 pages

Published June 29th 2010 by Ecco (first published January 14th 1999)

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Feb 09, 2011 Mariel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: burden of dreams

Recommended to Mariel by: I can't remembers not the same as I don't know

I'm glad that I've not felt that compelled to HAVE to do something. But I kinda relate in feeling sometimes like people around me don't give a shit and I'm some crazy dreamer chick with a crazy dreamy look in her eyes.

But I also kinda wish that I had those visions in my head that had to come out in words and images. I've not felt the kind of righteous rightness that burdened me to create. Maybe that's why I almost never remember my dreams...

Fucking crazy stuff. I loved it. Like the rest of lif...more

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Aug 12, 2009 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Here's something to do before the end of the month: read this book and watch "Fitzcarraldo," "Aguirre: Wrath of God," the Herzog documentary about Klaus Kinski called "My Best Fiend," and the Les Blank documentary about the making of "Fitzcarraldo" called "The Burden of Dreams." A highly recommended crash course in Herzogian ecstatic beauty . . . At one point, a diary entry begins with a hilarious understatment, something like "Profoundly unreconciled to nature." But the writing is so natural an...more Here's something to do before the end of the month: read this book and watch "Fitzcarraldo," "Aguirre: Wrath of God," the Herzog documentary about Klaus Kinski called "My Best Fiend," and the Les Blank documentary about the making of "Fitzcarraldo" called "The Burden of Dreams." A highly recommended crash course in Herzogian ecstatic beauty . . . At one point, a diary entry begins with a hilarious understatment, something like "Profoundly unreconciled to nature." But the writing is so natural and the descriptions of the jungle and mountains and fog and insects and, well, nature in general are profoundly evocative. Like all Herzog documentaries, you also have to sort of treat it like fiction. Mick Jagger, who was in the film early on, is portrayed as pleasantly impish. The New York Times review was idiotic, wishing for more logistic/technical information about certain shots, or Coppola's role etc. The reviewer wanted characters who appeared once to be introduced and appear again, as in a novel or non-fiction, not a journal -- he wanted a non-Herzogian non-fiction, essentially. But this thing reeks of Herzog everywhere as he charts the athletic/spiritual endurance required of pulling off an ambition like this, and also the singular sort of obsessed perspective that allows it to happen in the first place. Also, it's real funny. Dozens of LOLs, often at audacious, over-the-top descriptions, or sudden crazy jumps from sentence to sentence. "Seen from the plane, the sheer expanse of the jungle is terrifying; no one who has not been there can picture it. We do not need virtuosos of syntax." And yet on every page Werner proves himself a virtuoso of seeing and describing what he's seen. This book is almost more about language than any particular film - Herzog's sentences seem to me sharper and funnier and more peculiarly individuated than those of most contemporary prose writers. Plus, this book seems to prove that what's inside the artist comes outside the artist. Hope he has a journal like this for Stroszek, too - another highly recommended movie (if you're a Joy Division fan you probably know this as the movie Ian Curtis watched before he hanged himself).
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Apr 04, 2013 Rose Boehm rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am half-way through. It's a diary without self-pity of a pitiless time in the jungles of Peru. Werner Herzog shot Fitzcarraldo here, where I live. So I don't live in the rainforest, but Lima, the capital. I know the rainforest and understand his frustrations and the culture shock for one used to the comforts of Europe or the US. Only Werner Herzog could attempt this films and actually see it through. Anyone else would have given up before even starting the project.

Soon more.

Ok, I have finishe...more

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May 14, 2012 Jeff Jackson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jeff by: Blake Butler; the perfidious obscenity of the jungle

Shelves: celluloid-dreams

His documentaries are still strong, but Herzog the person has started to lapse into self-parody thanks to Youtube readings of "Green Eggs and Ham," etc. It's easy to imagine his journal chronicling the torturous making of "Fitzcarraldo" would be chock full of madly hilarious Germanic ravings and pronouncements on the maniacal cruelty of nature and hairbrained insanity of the universe - but in fact this is a nuanced, affecting, microscopically observant, and sometimes visionary account of the inn...more His documentaries are still strong, but Herzog the person has started to lapse into self-parody thanks to Youtube readings of "Green Eggs and Ham," etc. It's easy to imagine his journal chronicling the torturous making of "Fitzcarraldo" would be chock full of madly hilarious Germanic ravings and pronouncements on the maniacal cruelty of nature and hairbrained insanity of the universe - but in fact this is a nuanced, affecting, microscopically observant, and sometimes visionary account of the inner and outer landscapes Herzog navigated during his epic filmmaking project in the jungle.

Those who have read the equally wonderful "Of Walking In Ice" know that Herzog is a superb stylist and his written voice is far richer than his relatively one-dimensional public persona. These entries are dense with physical and poetic detail, crafted to capture at least a sideways glance of those sensations which tend to elude language. As the book progresses, it would be helpful to be familiar with the movie but it's not strictly necessary. These dark ruminations and unflinching observations are their own reward.

And for those who crave the crazier Herzog, here are some prime bits of jungle madness:

"At the market I ate a piece a grilled monkey - it looked like a naked child."

"Our speedboat is stranded with gasket failure. The boatman forgot to take along spare parts and tools and is now waiting for a miraculous intervention that might revive the engine. Sweat, storm clouds overhead, sleeping dogs. There is a smell of stale urine. In my soup, ants and bugs were swimming among the globules of fat. Lord Almighty, send us an earthquake."

"For a moment the feeling crept over me that my work, my vision, is going to destroy me and for a fleeting moment I let myself take a long, hard look at myself, something I would not otherwise do - out of instinct, on principle, out of self-preservation - look at myself with objective curiosity to see whether my vision has not destroyed me already. I found it comforting to note that I was still breathing."

"Seen from the plane, the sheer expanse of jungle is terrifying: no one who has not been there can picture it. We do not need virtuosos of syntax." (less)

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Nov 01, 2011 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Totally engrossing diary of his time in the jungle during the years of tribulation surrounding Fitzcarraldo. So much of it is about the bugs and plants and the ground. This book is completely mesmerizing. (Sidenote: I stood in line to get my copy of this book signed by Herr Herzog and I brought him a copy of my book to give to him as a thank you for his work. He was utterly astonished and full of gratitude that someone would want to give him something at an event like that and stood up and asked...more Totally engrossing diary of his time in the jungle during the years of tribulation surrounding Fitzcarraldo. So much of it is about the bugs and plants and the ground. This book is completely mesmerizing. (Sidenote: I stood in line to get my copy of this book signed by Herr Herzog and I brought him a copy of my book to give to him as a thank you for his work. He was utterly astonished and full of gratitude that someone would want to give him something at an event like that and stood up and asked me to come over for a hug. I guess he was used to just signing stuff and posing for pictures with people, but I thought it was only fair that I give him something back since I've gotten so much out of his work.)

Quotes from the book:

To fail to embrace my dreams now would be a disgrace so great that sin itself would not be able to find a name for it.

When I am in my cabin and toss the tea remaining in my tin cup out the window, the liquid spurts through the screen onto the banana fronds outside, but the tea leaves remain suspended in the window screen in a flat, strange pattern, harshly reduced by one dimension, betrayed. They stay there as a two dimensional reminder of the turbulence by which the tea went through the wire mesh.

A little farther upstream I shone a powerful flashlight on the opposite bank and made out alligators, their eyes glowing as if someone were smoking a cigarette over there.

The rolling of heavy rocks on the river bottom. has anyone heard rocks sigh?

My work has given me everything and taken everything from me.

(I like the humor of this one:) Lord grant me to see an unknown fish at my fee.

I recall experiencing a similar shiver of awe as a child in Sachrang, when I found a fried piece of bright blue plastic that had floated down the brook and got caught on an over hanging branch. At the time, I had never seen anything like it, and I kept it hidden for weeks, licked it, found it slightly stretchy, full of miraculous properties. Not until weeks later, when I had my fill of owning it, did I show it to anyone. Till and I discovered when you held a burning match to it, it melted; it gave black smoke and a nasty smell, but it was something we had never seen before, an emissary from a distant world high in the mountains, along the upper reaches of the brook, where it vanished into gorges and there were no people. So where did it come from? hHd it blown into the mountains by the wind? Idid not know, but I gave the plastic a name-what I do not recall. I do know it had a nice sound, and was very secret, and since then I have often racked my brains, trying to remember that name, that word. I would give a lot to know it, but I do not, and I also do not have that delicate piece of weather-beaten plastic anymore. Having neither the secret word nor the plastic makes me poorer today than I was as a child.

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Jun 21, 2011 Derek rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

as Herzog writes in the prologue to Conquest of the Useless: "A vision had seized hold of me, like the demented fury of a hound that has sunk its teeth into the leg of a deer carcass and is shaking and tugging at the downed game so frantically that the hunter gives up trying to calm him. It was the vision of a large steamship scaling a hill under its own steam, working its way up a steep slope in the jungle..."

this premise not only becomes the obsession of his protagonist in the film, but it bec...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Daveski rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

The subtitle of this book, "Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo", is a little misleading - while it is a collection of diary entries that Herzog wrote during the production of that film, very little of it has to do with actual filmmaking. Instead, it reads more like a travelogue from a really terrible vacation. The jungle that Herzog describes sounds like hell on earth - dangerous animals, aggressive natives, and general sort of decay that affects everyone and everything. More than once...more

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Jul 22, 2009 Spiros rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone seeking to understand one of the 20th Century's great works of Art

Shelves: cinerelated, new, i-fought-the-law, heroes

Fear and Loathing in the Peruvian Jungle: Werner Herzog's Pursuit of his Dream.
I feel that it is a fairly safe statement that never has a film production been so fraught by so many factors: political hurdles, extortionate local bureaucrats, wars between indiginous tribes, plane crashes, torrential down pours, drought, dried up funding, drunken extras, drunken crew, drunken actors, snakes, seperate media circuses involving Mick Jagger and Claudia Cardinale, snakes, and Klaus Kinski, to name just...more Fear and Loathing in the Peruvian Jungle: Werner Herzog's Pursuit of his Dream.
I feel that it is a fairly safe statement that never has a film production been so fraught by so many factors: political hurdles, extortionate local bureaucrats, wars between indiginous tribes, plane crashes, torrential down pours, drought, dried up funding, drunken extras, drunken crew, drunken actors, snakes, seperate media circuses involving Mick Jagger and Claudia Cardinale, snakes, and Klaus Kinski, to name just a few. Herzog battles against his head of production, against the jungle, against illness, and against gruesome injuries to himself and his crew: "Mauch said he could not take any more, that he was going to faint, and I told him to go ahead. Then he thought he was going to shit his pants from the pain, but he could not decide between the two options, and in the end did neither."
Herzog, despite a prediliction for filming in extreme environments, is not a wide-eyed lover of nature: "The jungle, existing exclusively in the present, is certainly subject to time, but remains forever ageless. Any concept of justice would be antithetical to all this. But is there justice in the desert, either? Or in the oceans? And in the depths? Life in the sea must be pure hell, an infinite hell of constant and ever-present danger, so unbearable that in the course of evoltion some species - including Homo sapiens - crawled, fled, onto some clods of firm land, the future continents."
Somewhat surprisingly, a confessed fear of spiders runs through this journal; as I expected, an almost pathological loathing of chickens pervades the entries. Unsurprisingly, it would seem that Huerequeque didn't have to do any acting: he played himself. A leit-motif running through the journals is the bizarre quality of the news from civilization that filters down into the jungle: the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, the account of the Japanese surgeon who remved his own appendix, the computer in Miami which sent a dilatory insurance client 24,000 notices of late payment of a monthly premium. Juxtaposed to the shambolic film production, these intimations of entropy from beyond the trees have a tendancy to make Herzog's travails a little more quotidian than they might otherwise seem. (less)

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Oct 03, 2009 Alex V. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First there was a dream about hauling a boat over a mountain, then there was the story Fitzcarraldo to male that dream a solid thing, then there was the film, during which a documentary was made (which is better than the film, story or dream) during which this journal was written and in it you might find the grander meaning of Werner Herzog: romance nothing; ebrace everything.

This book is exhausting because all the corrosive forces at play: the oppressive jungle, the people oppressed by the jung...more

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Oct 07, 2009 Andy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I’ve watched plenty of DVDs with the director commentary turned on, enough to know that this material is rarely illuminating and all too often a complete waste of time. And so it seems like Werner Herzog’s diary of making his 1982 film Fitzcarraldo, the diary reconstituted after three decades on a shelf somewhere, wouldn’t be something I’d be too interested in reading.

But Herzog is an engaging diarist and a witty observer, and in short, this is the diary of a madman. Venture with cast and crew i...more I’ve watched plenty of DVDs with the director commentary turned on, enough to know that this material is rarely illuminating and all too often a complete waste of time. And so it seems like Werner Herzog’s diary of making his 1982 film Fitzcarraldo, the diary reconstituted after three decades on a shelf somewhere, wouldn’t be something I’d be too interested in reading.

But Herzog is an engaging diarist and a witty observer, and in short, this is the diary of a madman. Venture with cast and crew into the remote Peruvian Amazon, carve a path through the jungle and up a steep embankment, and then pull a 320-ton steamship up and over this slope. And then there were the scenes to be shot in the river’s rapids. Herzog’s project was absolutely absurd and many of his colleagues tried to talk him into shooting his movie in a sound stage instead. And probably they were right; Herzog might have made a better film in California.

Here are some fairly typical entries from the book:

On local craftsmen: It took [the carpenter:] six days to make two sets of shelves for the hats. For three of those days he was hammering on the wall, for reasons not obvious to me. When this job was done, he attached a molding to Gisela’s closet, for which he had to climb into the closet. I saw him kneeling inside. Then we did not hear anything more from him and forgot all about him. When we got worried hours later and opened the closet to check, we found him asleep on his knees.

On transportation:Upon landing on the river near Saramuro, the two young pilots, who take themselves tremendously seriously, almost destroyed the floating platform, and later they flew off course, and because they had forgotten to fuel the plane in Saramuro, the tank was almost empty, and the still had not found the Maranon. They turned to me and gave me an embarrassed grin. I was sitting in the aisle on several sacks of onions and politely pointed out to them that they were flying away from the mountains instead of toward them.

On local swimming holes and the “irrationally” cautious Jason Robards:In the bathing lagoon near Iquitos, where children are always splashing and swimming, a piranha bit off half of [Klausmann’s:] second toe. At the time there was much laughing and joking at his expense, but to Robards this is proof of how malicious and life-threatening the jungle is.

For what he endured in the Amazon—obstacles by turns environmental, sociopolitical, and psychological—it is impossible not to admire Herzog’s tenacity, but after a few hundred pages of this—poisonous snakes, native attacks, near drownings, and on and on—I found myself begging him to throw in the towel. Of course though, he didn’t. Herzog went on to complete his film in the jungle, and the only reason I can conceive of is that Herzog knew that someday his Amazonian adventure would make one hell of a story.
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Sep 07, 2009 Sophie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Herzog presents himself as a modern Robinson Crusoe. He can do no wrong, even though he does a lot of bad things. I cannot help thinking that he wrote this knowing it would be published later, and that makes some of the descriptions garish and exaggerated.

-Yesterday I had opened the window in the bathroom, and the evening sun was shining in, clear and bright. I took my shoes and put them on the windowsill to air out. Half inside, half outside, with the trees pointing in. Later I forgot they wer...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Kathy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gave this to Jeremy for Christmas and look -- now I'm reading it. I may not love the movie Fitzcarraldo the way JM does (not at ALL, in fact), but I'm sure I'll enjoy the story of the making of it. Crazy!

Okay, so I didn't love it either. It wasn't so much a "making of" as it was Herzog's journals documenting the process. A fine line, perhaps, but not what I was expecting. There's a point where Jason Robards has dropped out of the production and Herzog is considering taking on the lead role himse...more

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Jul 08, 2010 Marie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Incredible. Love Herzog's prose, he writes the way he directs, often focusing on seemingly random but interesting things amidst the greater picture. Miracle that Fitzcarraldo was made, fascinating miracle. Love him.

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Apr 24, 2013 Rick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, what a great book!!! I am a big fan of Herzog, and anyone who enjoys his work MUST read this book. It is a collection of Herzog's diary entries from the long, wild, and sometimes catastrophic filming of Fitzcarraldo in the Peruvian jungle. One of the things that I enjoy most about his film-making is his ability to blur fact and fiction, and his diary entries leave you constantly trying to figure out what is really happening and what he imagined or dreamed or... It's very funny at times, esp...more

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Dec 22, 2009 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you are a Herzog fan, you will love this. Reality, dreams and imagination all flow together with no boundaries. Part chronicle of the making of "Fitzcaraldo", part journal of his thoughts and struggles with the jungle and the whole experience, and part cathartic rant, you will hear his voice throughout. In an interview that I saw, he claims that this is the only diary he has ever kept on a film, and he did it here out of tne need to channel the chaos around him. Not a conventional read, but,i...more

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Oct 07, 2009 Billy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"The enormous remaining boa constrictor will die in its cage, I think; it leans its ugly head against the wire and has a heartrending air such as you see only in the dying. I thought it must be thirsty and carefully poured water on its mouth and head, but it merely stared at me from the depths of a loneliness that had little connection left with earthly things. So we decided to release the boa. Walter and I shook it out of the cage, because it did not want to budge. The women watched from a safe...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Is

Shelves: 2012, own, 2012s-most-enjoyed

"...in this setting, left unfinished and abandoned by God in wrath, the birds do not sing; they shriek in pain, and confused trees tangle with one another like battling Titans, from horizon to horizon, in a steaming creation still being formed. Fog-panting and exhausted they stand in this unreal world, in unreal misery -and I, like a stanza in a poem written in an unknown foreign tongue, am shaken to the core."

Me too dude, me too.

Perhaps it's because I'm a city girl, but Herzog's vision of natur...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Werner Herzog is one of my favorite filmmakers and Fitzcarraldo, while not his best film, is certainly his most impressive in terms of the courage, determination and endurance it took to create it during a lengthy shoot in the jungles of Peru. Conquest of the Useless is the diary Herzog wrote during the making of Fitzcarraldo. It contains a few details regarding the technical aspects of the film's production, but it primarily describes his dreams (or, more often, his waking visions), random thou...more

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May 14, 2011 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars

Werner Herzog's poetic, fever-dream account of the making of 'Fitzcaraldo' his most famous film, in which a mad opera lover ( and also, of course, the filmmakers) pulled a boat over a mountain in the Amazon jungle. The book is based on his diary entries during the long and arduous process of making this strange vision a reality.

It vividly describes, in a different way to the film, life in the jungle -- a kind of dreary fecund existence. You can almost smell the rotten fruit and feel the mud, dam...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Luke Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are few more interesting minds on the planet than Werner Herzog's. His films are quirky and always wholly original, both in terms of subject matter and his ferociously unique perspective. This book, a collection of his journal passages written while shooting his epic "Fitzcaraldo" in the deep Peruvian jungle in the early 1980s, offers a glimpse of how that mind works and the types of insane situations that must pepper all of Herzog's life to shape his singular outlook on earthly existence....more There are few more interesting minds on the planet than Werner Herzog's. His films are quirky and always wholly original, both in terms of subject matter and his ferociously unique perspective. This book, a collection of his journal passages written while shooting his epic "Fitzcaraldo" in the deep Peruvian jungle in the early 1980s, offers a glimpse of how that mind works and the types of insane situations that must pepper all of Herzog's life to shape his singular outlook on earthly existence.

He is a very skilled writer, and in these musings captures the insanity of a Conrad-esque jungle. His descriptions of the local flora and especially fauna and how they interact with the humans around them are indispensable, and thoroughly entertaining. The writing is light and ephemeral, and though it's quite interesting to read, without a true narrative arc or clear direction it almost evaporates after reading it - it doesn't leave much of a lasting impression.

The book is the third component of what is a wild tale of cinematic megalomania. In "Fitzcaraldo", the title character decides to build an opera house in the middle of the jungle. In order to do this, he must raise the funds by harvesting upriver rubber. But in order to get the boat where it needs to go, Fitzcaraldo must pull a huge ship up and down a giant slope - he must literally move mountains. Of course, to capture this on film, Herzog himself must do the exact same thing - and does. The movie is great, but just as interesting is the documentary, "Burden of Dreams", about the making of the movie in which Herzog plays a sort of real-life version of Fitzcaraldo, with wild dreams of pulling off the impossible for the sake of art.

If you read this book - which Herzog describes in the intro as "inner landscapes, born of the delirium of the jungle" - you must see the two films. And if you've seen the two films, definitely read the book.

(I've bumped my rating up to four stars just because the whole package is so great, but as a standalone book, I'd say my overall enjoyment of it and attachment to it could be described with three stars.)(less)

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Aug 31, 2010 El rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Clovis and other Herzog-heads.

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, late20th-centurylit, wanderlust, cuckoos, put-it-in-your-journal

Werner Herzog is one of the greatest filmmakers in cinematic history. Anyone who says otherwise is, well... Wrong. Seriously. Go watch Grizzly Man and come back and tell me I'm wrong. That shit is crazy.

He also did this one film few people have heard of, Fitzcarraldo. During the filming of that movie in South America, Herzog kept a journal of his everyday experiences. Later he turned those recollections into a book, Conquest of the Useless. Santa loves me and gave it to me for Christmas, so it's...more Werner Herzog is one of the greatest filmmakers in cinematic history. Anyone who says otherwise is, well... Wrong. Seriously. Go watch Grizzly Man and come back and tell me I'm wrong. That shit is crazy.

He also did this one film few people have heard of, Fitzcarraldo. During the filming of that movie in South America, Herzog kept a journal of his everyday experiences. Later he turned those recollections into a book, Conquest of the Useless. Santa loves me and gave it to me for Christmas, so it's about time I got around to reading it.

Herzog's recollections cover a gamut of information - the socioeconomic situations of the countries in which he was filming, the politics, the weather, the wildlife, his crew and film-buddies. The Hollywood gossip factor was pretty high here, from Jason Robards (initially chosen to play Fitzcarraldo until he freaked the eff out about being in the jungle all the time and had to go bye-bye) to Mick Jagger (whose role in the film was ultimately cut, sadly). Some of my favorite passages from the book involves those two particular crazies:

Herzog on Robards: "Robards is being flown out today. [...:] I had seen Robards at the crack of dawn, when it was actually still quite dark, hurrying through the camp without his dentures, his hair flying and his eyes crazed, like King Lear through the deserted chambers in his castle." (page 130)

Herzog on Jagger: "We shot some footage with Mick and the little Indian boy who is called McNamara in the film, and both of them did such a good job that the team broke into applause. During the scene Mick was bitten on the shoulder by one of the monkeys and laughed so uproariously about it afterward that it sounded like a donkey braying. Whenever we take a break he distracts me with clever little lectures on English dialects and the development of the language since the late Middle Ages." (page 131)

You can't make that kind of stuff up. You have to be there. I love me some Jason Robards, don't get me wrong. But that man has always been at least 900 years old. He's like Ray Bradbury. Were they ever young? But I can totally picture Robards going around stark-ass crazy. And Jagger - well, whoda thunk that he'd converse about language on some downtime? I love it.

There's also a bit about Herzog fishing piranhas out of the water and trying to convince his crew it's okay to swim there now. They didn't believe him, even after he got in the water himself to illustrate. Dude, I don't know about you, but the piranhas I've seen at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium are nothing to be trifled with.

(Which then led me to think about the fish in my high school Biology class called Oscar. He wasn't a piranha but I swear each day that damn fish got just a little bigger and scarier-looking.)

Piranhas are scary. Which is probably why I haven't seen the movie yet. It's not like they're the evolved sting rays like in that classic book I read a few years ago, Natural Selection. Piranhas will beat your ass, even in 3-D.

(This review was written in a sober state.)(less)

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Oct 05, 2009 Topher rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: art, biography

I read Werner Herzog's Conquest of the Useless immdediately before reading the Lost City of Z by David Grann. Two jungle books, but complete opposites, hilariously different: They are perfect embodiments of apollonian and dionysian minds.

Grann's is an impeccable work of journalism and research, with a bursting bibliography and pages of acknowledgments for the archivists and librarians who helped him cross his historical 't's and dot his anthropological 'i's. No question, it's a good yarn, with o...more

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Oct 15, 2009 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book baffles me. Herzog as center of the primordial universe. I had no idea a person could be so self-absorbed, and yet I am undeniably charmed and engaged by his prose. The idea of hauling a steamship over a mountain on the backs of humans is conceptually and metaphorically compelling, but to do this without regard for lives or money lost in the process is something that disturbs me deeply. Where does this mania spring from if not a thirst for power? Why sacrifice so much for a dream to be...more

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Mar 26, 2010 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Oh, how I enjoyed this: the filth, the misery, the degradation, the hopelessness.
Don't read this expecting to learn anything about moviemaking, but you will learn a lot about determination (or stubbornness). Herzog has a wonderful eye for detail and an almost poetic turn of phrase, especially when describing the overwhelming, pitiless jungle. Based on this I would never in a million years visit the Peruvian jungle, but I'm glad Herzog did.
Thanks to Jane for the recommendation.

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Aug 24, 2010 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not sure where to start on this one. The book is an excellent fever dream of dry wit, sublime observations, recordings of actual dreams, and so many other wonderful and hilarious tangents about the moving of a large ship up a large mountain with a large number of crazy people and all the other crazy things that entailed. I am now very excited to engage with Herzog's work as an author....I only knew him as an amazing filmmaker before....

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Jun 12, 2012 my name is corey irl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The white turkey, that vain creature, the survivor of so many roast chickens and ducks transformed into soup, came over to inspect, gobbling and displaying, and used his ugly feet to push one of the beheaded ducks, as it lay there on the ground bleeding and flapping its wings, into what he thought was a proper position and making gurgling sounds while his bluish-red wattles swelled, he mounted the dying duck and copulated with it.

some of the best kinski anecdotes too

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Apr 30, 2013 Hobart Frolley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You either love Werner Herzog or hate him, either think he is a genius or a pretentious blow hard, either love the liberties he takes with documenting "reality" or take umbrage with it. If you are of the camp that loves Herzog, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. Somewhere between filming diary and fever-dream, this book reminds me of Moby Dick. Both books feature a monomaniacal narrator, an obsession with an ever-elusive quarry and the exploration of the unknown which leads to an exploration o...more

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Nov 12, 2012 M.R. Dowsing rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Herzog's diaries from the making of "Fitzcarraldo" make for fascinating reading as he battles against torrential rain, fire ants, supply shortages, accidents, unpredictable natives, jungle rot, gravity, the epic rages of Klaus Kinski and just about everything else in what must surely have been one of the most difficult shoots in cinema history. He has a unique way of looking at the world and writes beautifully with a real eye for detail. If you're a fan of his films, you're unlikely to be disapp...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Steev Hise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-it, filmmaking, fun

This is a wonderful book. If you're a big Herzog fan like I am, or interested in filmmaking, or Peru, or just interested in reading the journals of a really unique artist and thinker, trying to do the impossible in the middle of a jungle, you will probably like this book. I'm not sure who else would like it for sure if they don't fall into one or more of those categories.

This book covers a lot of ground. It's some descriptive logging of daily work on a film set, but it's much much more. Many ent...more

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Dec 18, 2011 Sara Gray rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of those few books where I wanted to turn back to the first page and start reading it all over again once I finished it. Herzog is a poet; passages crackle with the same awesome intensity of his best film scenes, while others are just goddamn hilarious. And all the human misery of having a great dream, and his unending dedication to it despite anticlimax, are inspiring and heart-rending. I couldn't tell half the time if he was recounting real events, dreams, hallucinations, or shit h...more

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About Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog (born Werner Stipetić) is a German film director, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.

He is often associated with the German New Wave movement (also called New German Cinema), along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Wim Wenders and others. His films often feature heroes with impossible dreams or people with unique talents in obscure fields....more

More about Werner Herzog...

Books by Werner Herzog

Of Walking in Ice: Munich-Paris, 11/23 to 12/14, 1974

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call: New Orleans

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“But the question that everyone wanted answered was whether I would have the nerve and the strength to start the whole process from scratch. I said yes; otherwise I would be someone who had no dream left, and without dreams I would not want to live.” — 7 people liked it

“A fairly young, intelligent-looking man with long hair asked me whether filming or being filmed could do harm, whether it could destroy a person. In my heart the answer was yes, but I said no.” — 2 people liked it

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