Featured Audience Ratings

• _kelly .

  
  This is an astounding film that truly brings you into the world of this unique character, who was indeed a real person. You can easily wiki Kaspar Hauser to read the different articles for yourself, but the story goes that a teenage boy was abandoned to a soldier with a note stating… More
  This is an astounding film that truly brings you into the world of this unique character, who was indeed a real person. You can easily wiki Kaspar Hauser to read the different articles for yourself, but the story goes that a teenage boy was abandoned to a soldier with a note stating that he had been kept inside since infancy and taught some basic things, but now could no longer be cared for and that he should be made a soldier or hanged. Werner Herzog takes some great liberties with the story, as most films do, to acheive a higher resonance of theme. In reality, Hauser was believed by many who took on his case to be a fraud, liar, manipulative, and general hustler. In this Herzog version, he is the innocent, he is the man-babe that has never seen fire, and it is fascinating. The cinematography is consistent and beautiful; it could be watched for its images alone. This is a fantastic outsider film that examines some greater philosophical queries along the lines of "blank slate". Why are so many people marking "Not Interested" for this film? Is it Herzog bias? Is it Cannes scorn? (this did win Palm D'Or in three categories)

• Anthony L

  
  A Herzog classic. A wonderfully thought provoking true story of Kaspar Hauser played brilliantly by Bruno. S. The script is to die for, great, great cinema!

• Robert C

  
  A slow methodical look at the story of this mysterious "foundling" of German folk lore. A man (I believe the real Kaspar was only 17?) who having been raised entirely in a small cell with no outside contact, is "released" into society, only to find society to be… More
  A slow methodical look at the story of this mysterious "foundling" of German folk lore. A man (I believe the real Kaspar was only 17?) who having been raised entirely in a small cell with no outside contact, is "released" into society, only to find society to be far more constrictive and detrimental then the most solitary of confinement. As usual Herzog tells his verson of this story in a seemingly simple format and style, that (below the surface) is FULL of deep introspection, passion, pain and heartache. And he does so by filling the screen with actors and locales that make you feel as if you are watching a documentary and not a scripted film. Herzog's work may not be for everyone, but for those who enjoy taking a thought provoking journey via the mind (and eyes) of an often unconventional journeyman...ENJOY!

• Tsubaki S

  
  The stars alone are for Bruno S and his extraodinary performance as Kaspar Hauser. A man raised in a prison, just to be released to the big prison that is society. Herzog watches this man not with pity, but with admiration.

• Elvira B

  
  I am officially a Herzog junkie. That said, here's my totally elated review of The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. The story here told is true, and that alone makes for a fascinating film. Herzog's characteristic contemplative-documentary style of narration, especially evident in… More
  I am officially a Herzog junkie. That said, here's my totally elated review of The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. The story here told is true, and that alone makes for a fascinating film. Herzog's characteristic contemplative-documentary style of narration, especially evident in 'Aguirre', allows the story to be told as objectively and precisely as possible despite some random, lingering takes -a WH signature. I've never understood what he uses these for, but they work. They highlight the beauty of what he films. And KH is a very beautiful movie. The dialogue is appropriately scarce, and the cinematography is appropriately ethereal as usual, a sort of mystic fog settled over the town. The reason of this movie's existence, I believe, is the amount of questions that it poses. We are told the story of a man isolated from the world until quite late into his 20s or 30s. He is uncorrupted, unprejudiced, and overall uneducated. His life is a mystery. You have no idea how many times I felt the urge to just pause and think throughout the movie. Werner Herzog wrote hardly any words for the characters to speak, and yet the questions that he aks jump towards your face unexpectedly. Faith, instinct, fear, thought, death, what is the root of it all. Or, what's even better, when Kaspar says that life in his cave was better than life outside. Is it? And yet, even though it's such a deeply philosphical movie, it never falls into pretentiousness or self-importance. Finally, nobody, I believe, could've played Kaspar as well as Bruno S., a street musician that Herzog saw in a documentary. There's an amazing purity to his expression, and in accordance to the narrative style, he seems as though he could've simply been the real Kaspar. Not my favorite of Herzog's movies I've seen, but a fascinating one nevertheless. If you like Herzog, don't miss it. If you don't, approach it with nothing but interest on the story and it won't disappoint.

• Marcus W

  
  Think Edward Scissorhands without the fantasy or love story and you're halfway there. I'm also no fan of Philosophy, but the discussions in the latter half of this film make Waking Life look (even more) stupid. Hauser's logic defies rationality and yet it works. Bruno S… More
  Think Edward Scissorhands without the fantasy or love story and you're halfway there. I'm also no fan of Philosophy, but the discussions in the latter half of this film make Waking Life look (even more) stupid. Hauser's logic defies rationality and yet it works. Bruno S may not be an actor, but he's brilliant in the title role.

• Ivan D

  
  Looking at the plot, it's certainly a theme that can give way for some usual "spirit-soaring" cheesy melodrama. Or may have been twitched a little bit to become a story of an "unexposed man making an intellectual and emotional difference". But Herzog, always… More
  Looking at the plot, it's certainly a theme that can give way for some usual "spirit-soaring" cheesy melodrama. Or may have been twitched a little bit to become a story of an "unexposed man making an intellectual and emotional difference". But Herzog, always the daring auteur, chose not to delve much in such artificial displays, but instead transformed the camera as a mere observer of the real-life parable unraveling on celluloid, without raising any judgments, or taking sides. The film's solely about Kaspar Hauser, but although it's a specific film tackling a specific person's life, the story also hits wider nerves, especially of those concerning the issue of isolated existentialism. But although its a film not mainly in-touch with its artificially dramatic side, there's a scene that has no doubt, touched my heart, and gave me a genuine feeling of Kaspar's naive, yet penetrating knowledge. It's a conversation between Kaspar and a professor, with Brigitte Mira of "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" fame sandwiched between the two. It's a logic test for Kaspar, which he managed to answer with such innocence that it's really quite amazing for a person of his intellectual capacity to even mutter. The professor, of course not showing his shame, blabbered more about logical technicalities, which made him even more laughable in the face of a person who should have been nothing more but a study. Snob intellect defeated by simple, open-minded counter answer, a thematic element delicately integrated in between Herzog's trademark imagery, and his very original "footage storytelling" that continues on through his wide filmography. All of these converging flawlessly to form once more, a true work of art . If "Stroszek" is about alienation on a foreign land, "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" is about detachment from the rest of the world; indeed a social extremity transformed into subtle beauty.

• Emily B

  
  Is it wrong to say I prefer this to both Aguirre Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo?

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