 A film in three minutes, Fitzcarraldo. Werner Herzog is a filmmaker whose body of work could best be described as a journey into the soul of the human experience. From full-length features that push the physical and psychological limits of both cast and crew to soul-searching documentaries which provoke terror just as much as they have the power to inspire, it would be scandalous not to consider Herzog as one of the most original and stimulating storytellers alive today. His eccentric style has led to countless works which have stood the test of time, but no film of his in terms of its story, production or mental exhaustion has come close to the toll he undertook for his 1982 masterpiece, Fitzcarraldo. Set at the turn of the last century, the story follows the troubled exploits of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, known to the locals as Fitzcarraldo, played by long-time Herzog collaborator Klaus Kinski. Despite his love for the opera and his obsessive quest to build an opera house in the small Peruvian town of Akitos, Fitz falls on hard financial times and decides to purchase a steamship and a far-flung plot of land deep in the Amazon basin in order to pay for his ill-conceived dream. What follows is a journey into the heart of darkness for Fitz and his crew before encountering the story's now iconic obstacle. To say that the production of the film was a nightmare would be a gross understatement. Herzog's initial casting choices of Jason Robards and Mick Jagger for the main two roles would lead to disaster after Robards contracted dysentery from long hours of filming in the jungle. This combined with a scheduling conflict due to Jagger's upcoming Rolling Stones tour in 1981 meant that roughly 40% of the principal photography had to be completely reshot. Herzog's problems also included fraught-onset tensions between Kinski and the crew, often leading to tantrums the German actor was infamous for. The local tribes people hired by Herzog to act as laborers and extras for the film's main set-piece were so appalled with Kinski's behaviour that one chieftain famously offered to murder the actor with the director having to politely decline. This combined with the tragic deaths of extras due to malaria, punishing weather conditions, equipment being vandalised and also the task of lifting a 320-ton steamship over an actual mountain would make Fitzgerald's status as a film almost legendary simply for the fact that it was ever completed at all. In many ways, the film's narrative revolving around an idealist visionary frustrated by failure acts as a metaphor for Herzog's own ambition for the project and the struggles he faced with seeing it through, and despite Kinski's notoriously errant behaviour, he is electrifying in the main role, portraying a character who is quite literally possessed by his raging desires without being able to foresee the possible dangers that lie ahead for him. Fitzgerald's success doesn't just lie in its beautiful locations, supporting cast and direction, but also as a testament to what can be achieved in the name of storytelling when one person, much like Fitz himself, has a vision.