Paul Elliott’s review published on Letterboxd:
Visuals and mood chiefly dominate this Werner Herzog written and directed epic adventure-drama, not to mention an impressive and unique performance from Klaus Kinski. It follows an eccentric opera-loving entrepreneur during the early part of the twentieth century named Brian Fitzgerald, better known as Fitzcarraldo by the natives of the small city in Peru he resides.
Its production is infamous, and it's a monument to Herzog's abilities as a filmmaker that the project, which accounts Fitzcarraldo attempting to raise collateral for an opera house he intends to build in his town, was ever brought to a successful conclusion. He hatches an elaborate plan to become a successful rubber baron to subsidise his dream with the main obstacle to his passionate ambitions being the transportation of a steamboat over a mountain.
Parallels between the challenging film and its production are hard to freeze out and wonderfully recounted in Les Blank's Burden of Dreams documentary; both are an excellent illustration of obsession and the foolishness of ambition. Herzog's achievement is a magnificent visual and technical accomplishment with some lovely and evocative set-pieces and outstanding performances, particularly Kinski who secretes particular unconventionality which makes the titular character both frightening and endearing simultaneously.