
Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck. After they are harried and beaten by the thugs who have been Eva's pimps, they join Bruno's neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin. In that winter bound, barren prairie, Bruno works as a mechani... (Full plot summary below)
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Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck. After they are harried and beaten by the thugs who have been Eva's pimps, they join Bruno's neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin. In that winter bound, barren prairie, Bruno works as a mechanic, Eva as a waitress. They buy a trailer. Then, bills mount, the bank threatens to repossess the trailer, Eva wants privacy, and inexorably, the promise of a new life deserts Bruno.
Leave your thoughts about Stroszek.
| Film Freak CentralWalter ChawEvery time I revisit it, it has a new gift for me. |
| Goatdog's MoviesMichael W. Phillips, Jr.For every cheap shot about rural America (and there are many), there's an answering scene that kicks you in the stomach with its brutal honesty. |
| Not Coming to a Theater Near YouRumsey TaylorNo description is necessary beyond the final line in the film: 'We've got a truck on fire. We have a man on the lift we're unable to find the switch to turn the lift off. We can't stop the dancing chicken. Send an electrician.' |
| Washington PostGary ArnoldIn some perverse way Herzog would probably prefer to see his despised and rejected characters remain despised and rejected, because it's their abject misery alone that seems to affirm their humanity in his eyes. |
| New York TimesVincent CanbyAmong other things, Mr. Herzog visually dazzles us while he's pulling the rug from under our feet. |
| El Pais (Spain)Ángel S. HarguindeyHerzog has made, in short, a beautiful song to utopia. [Full review in Spanish] |
| Spectrum CulturePat PaduaThe kind of unforgettable filmmaking that could only come from Herzog, even though it seems like the simple stuff of childhood dreams - or nightmares. |
| Planet Sick-BoyJon PopickWhen the film clicks, it's because Herzog has populated it with mostly non-actors he stumbled across in the midst of filming. |
| User ReviewJonathan BHerzog may have beat Hunter S. Thompson in exposing the hideous underbelly of the American Dream in this movie. Warning: Do not watch if suicidal. You may need several days of happy-happy-joy-joy in order to recover. But it will be worth it. |
| User ReviewCory RThe greatest film ever made. A brutal portrayal of a man who looses hope. |