SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Manthast Absolutely amazing

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Morten_5 Werner Herzog was one of the directors behind the New German Cinema (approx. 1962- 1982). In "Stroszek" (1977), the main character Bruno Stroszek dreams of getting away from his unhappy life in Berlin and starting a new life in the land of dreams. Together with two friends, he sets out for Wisconsin, USA. Bruno's dream, however, does not quite come true. Renowned American film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times once called it "one of the oddest films ever made" when including it as one of his "Great Movies". It's odd for sure and it leaves you with a strange feeling.

Martin Bradley "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.

Claudio Carvalho In Berlin, the alcoholic street musician Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S.) is released from prison and while returning home, he invites the prostitute Eva (Eva Mattes) to move to his apartment and leave her two abusive pimps. His paranoid friend and neighbor Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz) has taken care of his apartment and his piano while he was imprisoned. On the next day, Stroszek plays accordion and glockenspiel on the streets to raise some money and when he arrives home, he finds Eva beaten and the two pimps humiliate him. The harassment continues and without any option, Stroszek, Eva and Scheitz decide to begin a new life in Wisconsin, where a relative of Scheitz lives. The trio of friends travels to the United States of America expecting to make money and accomplish the American Dream. Bruno works in a auto mechanic and Eva as a waitress in a diner, and they buy a prefabricated house despite the concern of Bruno with the installments. When the bank threatens to take the house due to delay in the payments of the loan, Eva enters in the prostitution again with truck drivers to raise the necessary money. Sooner Stroszek discovers in a tragic way the sad reality of the American Dream."Stroszec" is a powerful and realistic movie about losers and the American Dream. The screenplay is original and unpredictable like life is, with magnificent lines and Werner Herzog uses also amateurish cast leaded by Bruno Schleinstein from "The Enigma of Kaspar Hause", who is the unwanted son of a prostitute that spent a great part of his life in mental institutions due to the severe abuse and beaten; therefore, the actor has some problems indeed and the beginning of the film is very similar to his real life. The conclusion is open to interpretation and I believe that Stroszek shot himself. I do not understand the meaning of the dancing chicken; with regard to the frozen turkey, I am not sure whether it is a symbolism indicating that Stroszec wanted to return to his origins in Turkey since he is Turkish-German, or if it is Thanksgiving in USA at that moment and he ends alone without friends just with the turkey. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Stroszec"

cgodburn Stroszek is one of the best films about the American Dream ever made, which is odd because a German made it. Why is it so well made? Because right up until the psychotic, chicken dancing finale, Stroszek tells the truth about middle America from an outsider's point of view. The world that these people live in feels real and the people that inhabit the trailer filled landscape are accurate depictions. That's probably because Herzog cast non actors to play the American roles and shot on location in Wisconsin. The story, about the son of a prostitute who escapes his past from Germany and moves to America with his uncle and whore girlfriend is secondary to the great depictions of American life. Political discussions with the locals about Nazi Germany and American business contracts are scattered throughout the film. The trailer that Stroszek and his girlfriend live in is deplorable, and the job that he has as a mechanic isn't exactly what Stroszek wanted or what he was promised. While in Germany, the three main characters are told that America is the land of opportunity, a place where roads are literally paved with gold. These tales are reminiscent of the ones told to many immigrants at the beginning of the last century, only to arrive and find that America isn't exactly what they imagined.The contrast between the mid-west and Germany is a nice touch as well. Herzog could have had the main characters move to an urban environment such as New York, but it would have been too difficult to truly see the differences in the ways of life. Also, major urban environments are a very small percentage of land in this country and to apply the American Dream to a city only would be unfair inaccurate to the rest of America's population. The ending is insane, so insane in fact that the lead singer of a major rock band killed himself shortly after seeing the film. That's not to say that Herzog made him do it, but one can certainly see how the ending could send an unstable person over the edge. Until the crazy tourist trap, chicken sequence Stroszek is truth. It is truth about how people treat one another about about the myths we tell ourselves. The American Dream is an escape, but is that escape better or worse than what you came from?