A man's uncle, and said uncle's two dearest friends, an alcoholic recently released from prison and an abused prostitute, has come from Germany to live and work along w/him in Wisconsin. In America. The American Dream. The man, who is, in actuality, a minor character, if a somewhat vital one, is driving the three around the town in his truck. He's obviously a simple man, w/a thick, easily mockable accent and an oft present smile of the somewhat creepy variety, but he goes off to spew some fascinating dialogue right then and there. He explains that there have been four murders in that very town, and he believes that there was a fifth one, b/c one farmer drove away on his tractor one day and never returned, no explanations or traces left behind. The police looked into the case for some time, but gave up, but this man, steering a rusty, blatantly-low-quality(-to-put-it-rather-nicely) vehicle of stereotypical proportions, this man right here goes out to the frozen ponds near his home every Sunday w/a metal detector and looks for signs of this missing man's tractor. Besides a rather brief scene later on in the film, this little factoid is never really mentioned again, and Lord knows it has no real affect on the plot. In the grand scheme of things, this kind-of-(unintentionally, on his part)-goofy man gets little screen time in this film, and in almost any other film such dialogue would be seen as somehow "out of place," unnecessary; but, the truth is that it kind of IS necessary. Particularly in a film like 'Stroszek.' 'Stroszek' is a film about many things, but, upon my fourth viewing of it today, one of its themes stuck out among all others, and that theme is the presence of the absurd in our everyday lives. Many films explore such an idea, and so do even more works of literature , but 'Stroszek' does it even better than many of those works, no matter how masterful they be, as 'Stroszek' does it in such a way that feels so odd/surreal, but at the same time so unbelievably, undeniably REAL that I champion it as a pure masterpiece of the absurd. It is, of course, a masterpiece "of" many other things as well; including, but not limited to: tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, cinema, & art. It is so funny, so sad, the performances are strange and different but completely pitch perfect and, in the end, absolutely outstanding. Everything about the filmmaking is done w/subtle mastery, and the simultaneous brutality and sensitivity of Herzog's storytelling is something else...out-of-the-extraordinary...beautiful, cruel, comic, violently devastating, a psychological trip through total paralyzing darkness w/sprinkles of likability and hilarity. Only a man w/such talent and eccentricity as Herzog can craft such a brilliant, weird, funny, cold, insightful, and heartbreaking masterpiece that serves as both a savage satire and uniquely sincere drama.

The quintessential premise of a Werner Herzog film involves an ambitious protagonist trying(misguidedly, on most occasions) to beat all the odds and overcome the obstacles and the obstacles generally involve nature's merciless wrath. Herzog has made a career out of capturing the struggle of 'Man vs Nature' where nature is beautiful, but at the same time unforgiving and vicious. 'Stroszek' however does not involve a protagonist trying to conquer nature. It involves a group of social outcasts trying to overcome something else. It's about the trio of Bruno, Eva and Scheitz trying to overcome social injustice cum marginalisation and financial insufficiency. This struggle forces them to leave Berlin and head towards America which leads to the prospect of having to overcome further barriers in the form of cultural traditions and of course above all, the language.'Stroszek' is widely regarded as one of Herzog's best films, however from a personal standpoint I have to admit that on this first viewing, I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed as I admired the film more than actually loving/liking it. Interestingly, the film contains quite a few of the trademark Herzog elements that I love and adore in his other films like his unique brand of absurdist humour, his alacrity to capture moments that have very little to do with the overall plot, beautiful use of trance-inducing music to set a specific tone,etc. I also like Herzog's underlining of the fragility of the so-called 'American Dream' and the philosophical message that marginalisation and despair exists in all societies and countries transcending geographical borders. However in spite of these elements working well, the sum of its parts felt inferior to the respective parts. This might be because I never really felt any emotional connection during the film which is necessary for a story that shows characters being beaten down by society and poverty. Maybe this emotional detachment is intentional in the sense that Herzog possibly wants the viewer to feel the detachment and disillusionment of his characters and such an approach of preventing the viewer from getting emotionally overwhelmed has been successfully used by various directors. But somehow the emotional distance in 'Stroszek' prevented me from fully loving the film. However my impression and view changing radically after another viewing is not beyond the realms of possibility as one thing the film made me want to do despite not completely impressing me, is watching it again.

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.

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?