Fantastic!

As Good As It Gets

A lot of fun.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Indifferent truth.The only movie I've seen that portrays emptiness and indifference to an utterly devastating degree, I can see how Ian Curtis could've committed suicide after watching this film, and Bruno's brilliant performance doesn't help either. It's one of the best performances ever and he's not even an actor.I believe this is the most honest and truthful film there is, not interested in making you sad or happy it just is, just like the real world, also it's one of the most unforgettable endings I've ever seen.The goddamn chicken will haunt me for the rest of my life, they will also remind me to live a spontaneous life, void of routine.

"Stroszek" may be Werner Herzog's greatest masterpiece. it's certainly his most humane picture and in casting non-actor Bruno S in the title role he gets so close to the feeling of raw truth we may as well be watching a picture of Bruno S's life, (something he also achieved in "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" where Bruno S's performance as Hauser totally transcended acting to become the character). Here he simply becomes Stroszek just as Eva Mattes becomes Eva and Clemens Scheitz becomes Scheitz. Herzog transports them from Germany to America where Stroszek gets a dead-end job in the garage of Scheitz's nephew and Eva becomes a waitress, (in Berlin she turned tricks to earn the money for their trip and doesn't appear too anxious to give up that line of work).Nothing conventional happens but seldom on film has the mundane existence of ordinary people seemed so fascinating, (and Herzog's use of non-actors throughout only enhances this feeling of reality). Of course, these characters are misfits; they don't fit in and they lead lives of mostly unrelieved misery and this has lead to accusations that Herzog is nothing more than a misanthrope and that, at best, he patronizes his characters. His continual casting of actors like Bruno S and Klaus Kinski has lead to a kind of alienation though, in Herzog's case, madness, like beauty may be only in the eye of the beholder with Stroszek no more to be pitied than Cool Hand Luke. If "Stroszek" is a tragedy, it is a comic one and immediately identifiable as the work of its director: you don't mistake a Herzog movie set in America as a Bob Rafelson movie. And yes, before you ask, it's visually superb and with a great soundtrack, too. Essential.

STROSZEK might well be Werner Herzog's movie masterpiece. Certainly it contains material here which appears to me to be the natural high point of the director's career, some of the best cinema I've ever witnessed.The story is centred around the titular character, played with relish by Bruno S. (THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER) in what is undoubtedly his definitive performance. Stroszek is a musician, fresh out of prison and down on his luck, who decides to emigrate to the USA accompanied by a hooker and an old man (the latter being Clemens Scheitz, a frequent - and welcome - Herzog collaborator). They go in search of the American dream, but what they find is very different.STROSZEK perfectly encapsulates Herzog's world view that the natural order of things is chaos and destruction rather than peace and harmony. Watching it makes for a depressing experience, at least for the most part, particularly because Bruno S. is such a sympathetic actor. The good news is that things change tack in the last 20 minutes, which is a mini-movie in itself, a glorious surreal comedy that gets weirder and weirder until the last, well, dancing chicken. The accompanying blues music just nails it. The ending of this film had tears of laughter streaming down my face while at the same time being completely profound and moving. It's a masterful moment that Herzog should be justly proud of and it closes a thoroughly engrossing film.

From director Werner Herzog (Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man), I confess that I do not remember much of this German film at all, not even watching all of it, but I know I did see it because it is in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Basically Berlin street performer Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S.) has been warned to stop drinking after being released from prison, but he immediately goes to a bar, where he meets prostitute Eva (Eva Mattes), who he comforts as she is down on her luck, and later he ends up beaten up by the pimps. Bruno and Eva decide to escape any more harassment from these people by escaping from Germany by moving to Wisconsin, America, and live with his American nephew Clayton (Clayton Szalpinski), so they start their journey, stopping off to do sight seeing in New York City. There Bruno gets a job with his nephew as a mechanic, and Eva works in a truck stop as a waitress, and the couple buy a trailer, but they trouble with the bills, so to stop the bank repossessing their home she is forced back into prostitution, but it isn't enough. After Eva leaves him, he starts a little bit of drinking again, and is forced to put the trailer up for auction, and after believing there is some kind of "conspiracy", he and his original elderly neighbour Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz) steal some money from a barbershop. The police catch and arrest Scheitz, but Bruno gets away, heading back to the garage, taking loads of beer and heading for the highway into the mountains, but forced to stop in a small town when the truck breaks down. Bruno sets the truck on fire, and the final time you see him is getting on a ski lift with a frozen turkey, then the police arrive, you hear a shot, and the last moments see a chicken playing the piano and a rabbit riding a toy fire truck, I don't know why, LOL. I did pay attention to the moments that mattered, were most interesting and would make it a "must see", such as a scene of the lead actor playing his accordion, and the strange ending, but I don't think it would have made much difference to me if I had paid more attention, it seemed a confusing story anyway, but what I did see and catch onto made an alright satirical drama. Worth watching, at least once, in my opinion!