10 Most Insanely Perfectionist Film Directors
9. Werner Herzog Built A 320-ton Boat....Then Hauled It Over A Mountain
Werner Herzog is probably the most influential figure in modern documentary film-making next to Errol Morris and Michael Moore. While Herzog’s directorial abilities are legend the mad methods he has used to create celluloid greatness are not quite so well known.
In 1982 Herzog made Fitzcarraldo, which won him the Best Director award at Cannes. Fitzcarraldo tells the story of an Irishman known as Brian Fitzgerald who, in his quest to build an opera-house in a small Peruvian town, must move an enormous steamship from one side of a mountain to the other.
1982 was the cinematic age of Star Wars and Blade Runner, full of special effects. Surely Herzog’s transportation of his gargantuan boat would be accomplished by a similar kind of cinematic magic, possibly involving matte painting, cgi or dwarves in costumes? Well not quite.
Herzog instead decided to haul the steamship over a mountain for real with the help of indigenous people . Although Herzog succeeded and the result was an acclaimed film, hauling a 320-ton steamboat of your own construction over a mountain takes its toll and after a production marred by snake-bite induced amputations and sets burning down because of feuds with native peoples, Herzog decided to retire to his quiet mansion in Germany and…no, wait, he spent the next few years filming in the Sahara desert, the Australian outback and among communist militias in Nicaragua.