听 Werner Herzog unleashes Klaus Kinski on another South American river: this time arming him with a massive steamship to drag overland, and a mad desire to build an opera house in the Peruvian jungle. Utterly strange this may be, but for hypnotic effect, it's a film in a class of its own, and is now available to haunt you on DVD.
TECHNICAL FEATURES
Picture Don't let the grainy and horribly murky opening shots of a steam-wreathed jungle upset you. Once past the title sequence, the picture quality radically improves into an impressively clear transfer, made up of a detailed palette of muted, earthy colours.
Sound The opening rumbles of thunder underpinned by the subwoofer, clearly state the potential power this 5.1 mix can unleash when needed. For most of the film though, this is a subtle, almost ethereal sound experience that enhances the vivid strangeness of the story. You can choose between the original English track or the German dub. Herzog prefers the latter, but the lip-synching leaves a lot to be desired.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio Commentary If there were awards for audio commentaries, then Werner Herzog would surely be a frontrunner. By the very nature of the extraordinary films he's presided over, he's bound to have some good anecdotes, but it's his clear warm delivery, combined with his matter-of-fact attitude to relating the most incredible events that make his commentaries so involving, and often very funny.
For this DVD, producer Lucki Stipetic, and moderator Norman Hill join Herzog for a commentary that's worth the price of the disc alone. The story development is discussed, but of greater interest is the casting for this film. While Herzog admits he had considered Kinski for the lead role, he'd tried to find alternative actors, as he knew that the shoot would be difficult, and that Kinski "would freak out, go totally bonkers". He had ample evidence that this would happen from the experience of making "Aguirre: Wrath of God".
Herzog wanted Jack Nicholson, as he thought he'd be "an island of sanity compared to Kinski". Nicholson couldn't commit to such a long shoot though, so Jason Robards was cast with Mick Jagger as his sidekick. Unfortunately Robards became ill, and Jagger had to pull out for musical commitments, so Herzog had to start all over again with Kinski now cast in the lead role.
The whole process of making this film took over three years, the money kept running out, and the production got caught in a border war, so Herzog has no shortage of incredible stories for you to marvel at.
Additional Extra Features Also on the DVD is a behind-the-scenes image gallery, good film notes and biographies, and a trailer.
Region: 2
Chapters: 18
Ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0
Technical Features: Scene selection, multiple languages and subtitles.
This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-S57 DVD player.
