Werner Herzog/Jungle Survival

S

Shearwater

Joined
Dec 6, 2004
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OK, I'm outing myself. I'm a regular listener to public radio.

"All Things Considered" had a brief interview with filmmaker Werner Herzog about a book he's written based on the journal he kept when filming "Fitzcaraldo" in the Peruvian Amazon. In the brief interview they mentioned the film company filming their steam boat going through a rapid, a guy cutting off his own foot with a chainsaw after being bitten by a deadly snake, native peoples shooting (bow and arrow) other native people that were in Herzog's employ, and the native people at some point offering to kill the lead actor who was an insufferable jack#$%.
Sounds like the book might be a good summer read. Here's a link to the NPR article.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106012800
 
"the native people at some point offering to kill the lead actor who was an insufferable jack#$%."

I can see that very easily. They were probably going to do it anyway and thought they could get a few bucks for the job. Mac
 
That movie was painful enough just watching let alone living through it.

sheet I listen to all things considered all the time and I can't believe I missed this.
 
Sounds a little like, but more extreme, to the back story behind Apocalypse Now. I thought African Queen also had some crazy behind the scene stories also....
 
Apparently Herzog at one point threatened to shoot Kinski if he didn't finish the film - and meant it! On another film Kinski locked himself in his trailer for a 24-hour tantrum and destroyed every single thing in there - furniture, plumbing, everything - down to bite-sized pieces. They had a colorful working relationship.
 
Remember, this is Werner Herzog you're talking about, take everything with a grain of salt. :D
 
Don Rearic said:
Remember, this is Werner Herzog you're talking about, take everything with a grain of salt. :D
Click to expand...

Yes, I was thinking that Herzog himself would be interesting to find out more about. I was confusing or combining him with Martin Doblemeier for some reason yesterday.

I think I only know Herzog from some interviews about "Grizzly Man" which I thought was pretty good if far from perfect.
 
Considering his interest in Timothy "Treadwell," I'm amazed Herzog didn't do a documentary on the McCandleless guy. If there were every two guys that needed to find each other, those were the two. Two peas in a very disturbed pod. :)
 
Yep, I just read the Wikipaedia entry on Herzog and it sounds like those kinds of characters are what he wants to explore with his films. I find them interesting too...at a safe distance. For some reason I liked McCandleless better that Treadwell and even felt respect for him after reading the book, though he was possibley more disturbed than Treadwell. RIP to both of them.
 
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