Bruno S., Burkhard Driest, Clemens Scheitz

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5,529 ratings

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12 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 48 min.

Directed by: Werner Herzog

Release Date: January 12, 1977

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DVD Release Date: January 8, 2002

Stats: 367 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (367)


  • October 2, 2009
    A bleak but beautiful film by Herzog. Bruno S is quite mesmerising to watch, it?s amazing that he put himself through really considering that the film is mostly autobiographical! I think Ian Curtis missed the point really (He watched this film just before he hung himself), there ...( read more)is a lot of good to take from this film. Bruno S. is actually a good example of how things can turn out for the best. Anyone else notice the nods to Herzog?s previous films? Great film but if your unfamiliar with Herzog?s work I wouldn't recommend watching this one first!
  • July 20, 2009
    Downright brilliant tragicomedy from one of the masters when it comes to capture unconventional people chasing illusions.
    Bleak, offbeat and funny as hell.
  • November 18, 2008
    On the evidence of this movie, the topical practise of banks lending huge sums of money to people with no earthly hope of paying it back began in 1977 Wisconsin, with three misfits, a mortgage and a mobile home! Bruno (Bruno S), a street musician with a history of institutionalis...( read more)ation, his prostitute girlfriend (Eva Mattes) and their eccentric elderly neighbour escape Berlin and a pair of thuggish pimps for a new life in the United States, but when his girlfriend gets itchy feet and he finds himself up to his eyes in debt, Bruno begins to despair. My only criticism of Stroszek is that the off-the-cuff, episodic script does not take enough time to establish Eva's malaise, thus her eventual betrayal of Bruno feels a little out of character.

    Herzog's use of music - Sonny Terry via Chet Atkins and Beethoven, Bruno's oompah-pah accordion playing and a close-to-muzak version of By the Time I Get To Phoenix - is exemplary, and the film looks great too. One shot I especially liked, featuring an obscenely large static caravan being towed into position, for some reason reminded me of the famous opening of Star Wars, where the Star Destroyer drifts onto the screen and seems to go on forever.

    There are some great lines: "Eva? What kind of a country would confiscate Bruno's mynah bird?" I've no idea what the infamous dancing chicken is all about but it encapsulates the mood of the film perfectly: funny on the surface, tragic beneath. Joy Division's Ian Curtis is supposed to have watched this movie and listened to Iggy Pop's The Idiot prior to hanging himself in 1980; one wishes he'd watched Blazing Saddles and listened to Rock 'n' Roll with The Modern Lovers instead.
  • September 29, 2008
    Imigrants come to the u.s. and watch their American dream spin down the toilet.
  • February 5, 2007
    A great oddity of a film based around an alcoholic and his two companions being displaced to rural Wisconsin. Herzog keeps to his standard of not delivering a Hollywood-style payoff and that is one of the things I liked about this film, and all of his movies I've seen. I wonder i...( read more)f this film had any influence on Win Wenders' Paris, Texas - because a lot of the later stages of Stroszek seemed almost a prelude to some of the images Wenders used in that film. A good film with an ending that is a theatre of brilliant absurdity that just has to be seen.
  • November 27, 2009
    Succeedes where a film like Dancer In the Dark fails miserably, it gives a fair, realistic & relentless portrayal of a man's downfall, Evil is everywhere & yes when you're falling no dream or illusion will save you
  • November 25, 2009
    How sad it is to be left out, by fate, by chance, or by any means of the ones you love and treasured the most in your life? Ironically, it is so funny how life turns out when we least expect things to happen. Harmonies continue to play, even in our darkest days, in the oddest of ...( read more)events.

    Stroszek is a 1977 German new wave film directed by Werner Herzog. It is a story of an ex-prisoner named Bruno Stroszek who had just gotten freed from jail. Before his release, he was requested to take no more alcohol and beer because his alcoholism made him do things out of his own league. Right then, he was on his way to having his life renewed. That was what he did; he made his life turn into something better. He lived at his relative?s flat with a friend and his girl. That girl he met on a coffee shop being battered by a bunch of gangster. Out of pity, he let her into his house and settled in for good. Since then, Stroszek?s life had never gone better. He kept playing music like he had never played before. He composed songs for her loved one.

    But bad guys kept looking for Stroszek for trying to steal their girl. There came times when they would bully Bruno coming to his house and battering him. To compensate from that, Bruno with her girl and friend went to the United States and lived there. They owned a house there and found out how complicated life really is. Eva who a waitress by then prostituted to earn more money for their daily expenses. Scheitz, Bruno?s said friend was becoming a little unusually weird searching new discoveries about animal magnetism and whatsoever. Bruno worked in a nearby farm. Life got too messed up for all of them. Eva left Bruno when she got to know a bunch of truck drivers who happened to be her customer in the coffee shop. Bruno begged her to stay but he did not succeed at all. Scheitz and him got involved in a series of crime to survive the life in America.

    What?s most amazing about this film is its appeal to humanity. One scene in this film really made me want to cry. That is when Bruno was walking his way home wandering through the streets when Eva was gotten by the bad guys in the restaurant. There is so much emotion in that scene that I believe is one of its strongest parts. Camera angles and lighting are excellent. The preciseness of every shot, long or short added quality to pictures. The seventies feel is really there. First, I thought it would be a boring one, but discovering Stroszek?s life is somewhat similar to stepping onto the shoes of ordinary people who struggle for survival in this rude world. The music in this film is eerie. Mostly are piano and lyre sounds but the use of source music added spontaneity and darkness.

    The photography are beautiful and I captured some of them. In that last set of photographs, we see Bruno standing at front of their old house watching it being moved by a vehicle. What does it signify? We see him in his plainest grief as his dreams of simple life went by slowly. But behind these facts of rude life, there is always a horizon that awaits our coming. In a place of dreams and eternal sunshine.
  • November 1, 2009
    Oh Bruno Stroszek what a life you have! It really made me feel so terrible about life in general. It's such a sad film, and yet it has an uncommon sense of simplicity that makes it all the more affecting and hard-hitting. The ending is perhaps one of the greatest endings to a fil...( read more)m I have ever seen. It's so triumphant in such a bizarre way. Just see this film! You won't see anything else like it! You might not like it when it ends, but the more you think about it the more it WILL grow on you!
  • October 19, 2009
    A REAL good film Im glad I got to watch
  • August 2, 2009
    Mostly non-actors used, pretty anti-American stance. Herzog uses his oddball potential to make a good film here, unlike in crap like Aguirre, where it just goes wasted.

Critic Reviews


July 19, 2002
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

We watch with a kind of fascination, because Herzog cuts loose from narrative and follows his characters through the relentless logic of their adventure. full review

View more Stroszek reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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Stroszek Trivia


  • Werner Herzog originally planned to shoot Stroszek with Klaus Kinski in the starring role, but later decided Bruno S. should do it.  Answer »
  • Which of these Werner Herzog movies does not star Klaus Kinski?  Answer »

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