Stroszek Similarities

Last week I briefly discussed Werner Herzog and one of his many films, Stroszek. Last week I had seen majority of the film with commentary. This week, I viewed the film in its entirety without any commentary. It had a different affect, however, I couldn’t help but remember side notes the director said in the commentary when I was watching the film throughout. The ending of the film was quit clever to say the least. The impact that Herzog left on viewers, both American and to other’s worldwide was out of the ordinary. It was far from horrible, but not necessarily your “fairy tale” ending. I say this is brilliant because of a few reasons. Americans are known to be accustomed to the “happy ending syndrome”. We love it when two people fall in love and live happily ever after, like in Notebook.

We admire films when fathers are willing to sacrifice their life to stand up against the system like in John Q.  

What Herzog said was, No! America is not all peaches and cream. Sure, it is the land of the free, and the perfect place to go from “rags to riches”, but life does not always happen that way.

In my project, I can relate to the message that Herzog was trying to convey. Gentrification is a serious issue, but some do not look at it as such. People have certain ways of thinking that tearing down buildings and homes in poverty stricken areas is a good thing because the new buildings will help those communities. That is not always the case. Building new buildings and raising taxes creates the issue of people not being able to afford their homes, and being evicted. Some people get a little money from the government, but that money is only going to go so far.