Customer Reviews

Stroszek / Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It really is exciting to read these great reviews about "Stroszek." About twenty years ago, I met Herzog and was given the opportunity to play the young banker who reposesses the mobile home in this film. It was a wonderful experience...and something I look back on with great joy. I know I am biased, but this truly is a great film.

Stoszek is a extraordinary patchwork of reality and fiction, German and English, introspection and extroversion. It's many unique images do not go away: a bottle of water that captures a live Breugel-like snow scene, rifle-toting farmers on tractors defending their strip of land, a wizened little man testing fence posts with a voltmeter, and the truly haunting "Dancing Chicken". Herzog, with the eye and ear of a poet, captures these and more, including the unforgettable and weighty performances by the many amateur actors.

Most welcomed of this DVD is the commentary track by Herzog. It's like watching a second film. To see the same images while hearing his stories deepens the impact of Stroszek. We learn the fascinating backgrounds of the curious individuals involved: the dangerous Hamburg Prince, the compassionate doctor in the Preemie Ward, Al the trucker-pimp, Clayton the beer-swilling mechanic, the unnamed "extras" in the fields and truck stops of Wisconsin, and, of course, Bruno S. himself.

"Stroszek" is probably German director Werner Herzog's best film. It's a strange, unpredictable, and oddly funny movie. It's about a Berlin ex-con, Bruno Stroszek (played by a real-life disturbed street musician, Bruno S.), his prostitute girlfriend Eva, and his borderline-senile landlord Scheitz. After being repeatedly terrorized by Eva's pimps, they move to Wisconsin to live with some of Scheitz's friends and, hopefully, encounter the American dream. Revealing any more of the plot would be a crime. "Stroszek" not only has a terrific, haunting performance by Bruno S., but it contains the most fascinating depiction of America I have ever seen in a movie, as well as one of filmdom's funniest bank robberies.
The DVD has "Stroszek" in an aspect ratio of about 1.85:1. It's a bit grainy towards the beginning, but overall it looks pretty good, especially in the Wisconsin scenes. Of the extras, the most interesting is Herzog's commentary, basically an extended interview with a film historian named Norman Hill. It's a very fascinating blend of production tidbits, information about Bruno S., and some of Herzog's trademark tall tales. Also included are production notes (with are actually devoted more to film analysis and Herzog's relationship with Bruno S. than they are to production), a worthwhile Herzog biography, and a German trailer.

Werner Herzog, world reknown film maker and producer received the lifetime achievement award at the Sarasota Film Festival in April 2006. His films are primarily fictionalized documentaries. He adds fiction to bring focus on a larger truth by exaggerating events and making a bigger statement to prove his point. Herzog based the story of "Stroszek" on several real life events, some murders in Wisconsin and a street musician (who plays himself) who lived in Berlin, who was the son of a prostitute, who had been raised in reform schools and ended up in prison. He is lost in the real world because it is totally alien to him. Herzog provides an unusual cast of characters, many of whom are not actors, but play themselves, mostly working class (Wisconsin mechanics and Indians) and street low lifes (thugs in Berlin) who live unusually simple lives, just making ends meet in the world. The extra features include audio commentary with Werner Herzog who explains some of the innovative ideas on which he based the film. This is a tragi-comedy where no matter what improvements in life the main characters attempt, fate intervenes to twist them in a different direction, usually downward. There are humorous and ironic events which makes this a fascinating film from an artistic and creative aspect.

We meet Bruno Stroszek as he is being released from prison, he is given his belongings: cash, a flugel horn, his accordion and a lecture from the prison warden. The warden has a thankless job but when he sees someone released it brings him some measure of satisfaction: he lectures Bruno, to stop drinking beer which makes him crazy and break the a law. The warden tells him to buy a cup of coffee and a piece of pie instead. Bruno returns to the former apartment he shared with an eccentric elderly gentleman. He resumes relations with his prostitute girlfriend Eva, who is beaten up by street thugs. This event provides the impetus to emigrate to the United States, to Wisconsin, where the elderly gentleman had an American friend or cousin with whom he kept in touch.

In the US, Bruno gets a job as a mechanic, Eva becomes a waitress. They buy a mobile/trailer home and television set by taking a loan from the bank. It does not take long before they fall behind on their payments. They receive a visit from the bank loan officer, a very polite man, who makes it clear in the kindest of tones that unless they meet their obligations, the bank will confiscate their home and TV. Eva returns to her former way of life, finding clients at the truck stop restaurant, to provide extra money to pay the loan. Bruno falls into a funk, realizing no matter what they do, they will not make ends meet. Eva ends up leaving with a group of truckers to Canada ... Bruno and the elderly man go on a robbing spree, to get money in order to eat. It happens to be Thanksgiving, so the irony is they rob a store to buy a turkey. The elderly man is caught and arrested. Bruno's car breaks down but he obtains the truck from the mechanic's shop and goes on a driving rampage. He ends up at a Wisconsin tourist trap where he takes a ski lift type ride on which he sits and goes round and round. Prior to that he had turned on several of the exhibits in which different animals perform various tricks. The last scene is one of the most humorous and creative endings which earned Herzog fame. It depicts in a surreal manner that for some the American Dream becomes a bizarre nightmare from which there is no release. The film will appeal to those who are interested in unusual innovations and creativity in filmmaking. There is a lot of irony and off the wall humour which may appeal only to a selective audience. Erika Borsos {pepper flower}

I find it frustrating that American filmmakers cannot make a film as good as this one is. The whole story of misplaced hopes and lost dreams on the dreary American landscape is more powerful in it's telling than many films have been. The action of this film moves us from birth to death in a philosophical journey of the soul. The arrival of these obviously hopeful and distraught people on American shores is like the rebirth many immigrants went through when they escaped their own countries and arrived here. Dreams of streets paved with gold and the easy credit of American commerce is the undoing of many yet, here we see the disaster of it all. One doesn't have to be a recent immigrant to experience the foibles of modern credit like our characters do. They exemplify it though and it is to their peril that they do not understand it. The closing scene where we hear the solitary gunshot is most powerful. That it is done near a roadside zoo with it's caged animals is perfect because it portrays the cage our man has put himself into. There is only one way out, he takes it. Like many powerful financiers of the twenties who lost everything he does the only thing which will solve his problems.
The gunshot is his goodbye to his problems and the beginning of his new life. A shame that American studios cannot produce movies such as this. They are in need of lessons from directors who understand cinema and should study films of this type. Maybe they will be able to improve the fare they offer to us.

Werner Herzog's Stroszek (1977) is one of the ten greatest films ever made. It's almost equally as good as Herzog's The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (1974) and Aguirre the Wrath of God (1973).

Bruno S., the unknown soldier of cinema once again gives one of the finest performances I've ever seen. Eva Mattes is also wonderful as the prostitute Eva who along with Bruno and Herr Scheitz decide to emigrate from Berlin to Wisconsin to fulfill the elusive American dream. This tragicomedy is one of the bleakest films I've ever seen and also one of the funniest.

Herzog's brilliant film making style gives the entire film the look and feel of a documentary, yet like all of his films Stroszek is highly stylized. An absolute masterpiece! Rating: A 10 out of 10.

The venerable Werner Herzog offers his commentary on the red, white, and blue in this mightily endearing chronicle of three outcast sourkraut lovers en route to the United States. Bruno S. turns in a fine performance as the errant accordianist whose dreams fall flat in the American heartland. Also featured: a knock down instrumental rendering of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix."

At one point in Herzog's brilliant "Stroszek," the mentally handicapped street musician Bruno (Bruno S.) and his physician are speaking. Bruno is in despair at the sordidness and violence of life. Taking him to one of the preemies in the hospital's neonatal ward, the physician holds out his two index fingers and the infant, scrawny, leathery, barely clinging to life, reaches up and grabs them so tightly that the doctor can lift him out of the cradle. There is, he tells Bruno, a remarkable reflex grip in humans. They hang on, no matter what.

The reflex grip seems to be one of the two themes running through this black comedy (is it really a comedy? I'm not sure; Herzog defies easy genre) about three of life's rejects: Eva the prostitute (Eva Mattes), the tiny ancient eccentric Mr. Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz), and Bruno. Chased out of Berlin by thugs, they migrate to Wisconsin to begin a new life, only to discover that there are new and unfamiliar threats. In Berlin, Bruno tells Maria in one particularly engaging scene, the Nazis brutally broke bodies. Here, in the U.S., Americans politely break the spirit.

Still, the three characters' reflex grip tightens in rebellion against their fate. Eva runs away from the worsening situation; Mr. Scheitz turns bandito; and Bruno, refusing to capitulate, asserts his grip by killing himself (presumably; it's a bit ambiguous).

The justly famous final scene features an antic and rather creepy funhouse into which Bruno that has cages of trained animals. One of them is a dancing chicken, who does a slippery sort of mashed-potato dance to tinny, carnivalish music. The chicken is a metaphor for the film's other theme, which is in continuous tension with the first: the fact that fate, the system, the Man, call it what you will, plays the tune and the rest of us are chickens that dance. Without the first theme, the film's message would be pretty dismal. But even as dancing chickens, the grip reflex can help us preserve some degree of autonomy and dignity.

One of Herzog's very best, with an amateur cast, except for the incredible Eva Mattes, which is simply superb.

This Film was only screened once in an Arthouse 20 Years ago and fortunatly i went to see it.To this Day the Image of the Chicken playing a Toypiano in an Display Cage haunts me. As a native German, the full Impact of the Movie hit me like a Ton of Bricks!!!

I missed out seeing the 70's films by German director Werner Herzog--after all, I was only a child at the time. Anyway, I recently viewed & reviewed the director's very weird, neo-horror flick HEART OF GLASS. In that review I expressed concern that Herzog had more or less "lifted" the styles of the great European directors of same era. However, I was interested enough to view Herzog's 1977 film STROSZEK. This film is more literal & realistic...AND very good.

Herzog follows in the footsteps of other talented directors in that he works with a sort of core or repetory group of actors who appear in one film after another. I recognized many faces from HEART OF GLASS also playing in STROSZEK.

At the center of the script is the character Stroszek, who I think is the same as the actor Bruno S., who is more or less playing himself. The American satrical director John Waters (HAIR SPRAY, PINK FLAMINGOS, POLYESTER, LOVE IN THE DUST etc.) is also known for casting people off the street to act in his films--often with good results. This seems to work for Herzog as well. Just as in HEART OF GLASS, you can catch a few actors who seem to be looking at the off-camera director during a shoot. Nonetheless, it's an interesting technique that can be traced back to the European mediaeval Miracle Plays.

Another production element that Walters & Herzog have in common is that pop music is an important component used to illustrate--or counterpoint--the script. Unlike Waters though, some of the music & sounds in Herzog's films are grinding & nerve rattling. There is good music too, such as in the movie's's opening sequence.

Stroszek is released from a "reformatory." You get the impression he's been in & out of jail and/or mental institution most of his life. One of the first things he does is to haul an accordian & some kind of percussion instrument in a beat up old wagon, taking his 1 man band into an alley where he gives a "recital." There are elements of Berlin "dark cabaret" in the performance that reminded me of today's Tiger Lillies "Shockheaded Peter." Stroszek's recital is wonderful.

Herzog sets his film in the underworld of the Berlin "lumpen prolitariat." This is the lowest strata of the low. (German theatre director Bertolt Brecht set most of his "epic theatre" operas & musicals in this milieu.) Stroszek is attracted to a young prostitute called Eva, and she in turn is totally dominated by her abusive pimp/boyfriend and his equally vicious associate. The movie is extremely brutal in these opening scenes, as Eva is physically & sexually abused & Strosek is physically & mentally abused by the louts.

In another apartment--or sharing the same apartment--there is a strange little man. He is the same actor who played a strange little man in HEART OF GLASS. He has the most fragile face I've ever seen.

The little man says that he is moving to rural Winconsin where a relative has a ranch ("pile of crap" would be more apt.) He invites Stroszek & Eva to join him. Stroszek thinks it's a great idea & convinces Eva that this is just what they need to keep their relationship intact. This is like when a man & a woman can't get along, so decide to have a baby in order to improve their relationship. It's a recipe for complete d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r.

Wincosin is a bust. Other reviwers have covered the plot from that point, so I'll focus on a couple points that struck my fancy. As stated above, music plays a subtle role in the movie. The song EASY TIMES COME HARD FOR ME is playing on the radio in one secene. It is an instrumental version, but the lyrics, I feel, are relevant. "Easy times come hard for me and oh, my darling/ time again to dream that you are coming home/Happy times I've had with you, do you know, my darling/ will there ever be a time I'm not alone?"

I'm not sure if the director assumed that everybody knew the un-sung lyrics, but for me the quoted verse above sums up Stroszek's mental/emotional impairment projected into his hopeless non-relationship with Eva.

Near the end of the film, the little man & Stroszek are on the run from the law (and that's another whole story). They go into a convenience store to purchase some on-the-lam provisions, and Strosek elects to purchase...a 30 lb. frozen turkey!

I believe STROSZEK is an imporant (AND entertaining) cross-cultural film...and what does Herzog do with the last precious minutes? He places his hero at a sort of barnyard animal freak show. You drop a coin in an open-view cage. In one cage when you drop in the coin, a miniature juke box starts playing & the chicken inside does a little dance! In another cage a chicken plays a piano, and yet in another a duck beats on a drum...and you know what? The little hen can really dance! She really does captivate attention.

The film concludes without even trying to supply any kind of ends-tied-up conclusion. This is a hallmark of European neo-realism. You can see this in Vittorio De Sica's UMBERTO, D and Francois Truffaut's THE 400 BLOWS. I appreciate this aspect because it's very true to life. No fudged, romantic endings.

Just more questions, often left unanswered.

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