Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4994 in VHS
• Released on: 1995-02-20
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Subtitled, Import
• Original language: German
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Synopsis
Disturbing story of a young man's experiences following his imprisonment since birth. German dialogue with subtitles.

Customer Reviews

Possibly one of the most subtly beautiful films ever made
Also titled "Every man for himself and God against us all" Herzog's masterpiece focuses on the true story of a boy, discovered in Nuremburg in 1828, unable to speak or walk. The film follows him as a philanthropist attempts to integrate him into bourgeois society. Herzog convincingly attacks the stultifying practice of "culturing" the young. The film is neither sentimental nor callous, but seems at every moment beautifully poignant. In my opinion, Herzog is one of the greatest directors of the 20 th century, his eye for a perfect image and the strength and certainty with which he uses a camera marks him out for a genius.

This is, of course, highly debatable, many people find Herzog's arrogance as a director (in that he is obviously uninterested in how the audience will react) impossible to stomach, and also become impatient with the unhurried silences that make up much of the film.

However, I believe this to be one of the greatest films in the history of cinema, you need only watch the opening scene of a huge, rippling, field of corn backed by the sound of Pachelbel's Canon to decide whether you agree or disagree.

Existentialist classic from eccentric director Werner Herzog
'The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser' is, quite simply, incredible. It tells the story of Kaspar, who is found in Berlin, unable to walk or talk, holding a note, having been imprisoned since birth. He arouses the curiosity of the people who attempt to teach him how to life in the outside world.

But Kaspar's problem is that, although he eventually learns how to function physically, he has no grasp of human morality. Religion seems to him ridiculous, etiquette a pointless irrelevance. This is what makes Werner Herzog's film so hard-hitting and so touching. Bruno S. turns out a wonderful performance as Hauser, and his struggle with the absurdity of the human world will make you laugh, cry, but most of all, think; the film challenges institutions and social laws which most of us take for granted, and by stripping them down through Kaspar Hauser, shows them to be absurd.

All the best movies should challenge a viewer, and Herzog's 'Enigma of Kaspar Hauser' certainly does that. Consider this film in the same way as you would a novel by Camus, Sartre or Mirbeau and you will take an awful lot away from it. Those who sneer at subtitled films are really missing out ... but they probably would have entirely missed the point of it anyway.

Every man for himself...
Every Man For Himself and God Against All aka The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is a prime slice of pre-nutter-in-the-jungle Werner Herzog and makes an interesting companion piece to Truffaut's L'Enfant Sauvage/The Wild Child. Where Truffaut used his true story of a foundling more animal than boy as proof of the human soul, Herzog uses the real-life mystery of Hauser as a means of showing that society's accepted way of looking at the world may not necessarily be the most valid - as demonstrated when Hauser's contention that apples are tired is seemingly proved by the inability of his guardian to demonstrate that they are inanimate objects subject to man's will.

Thanks as much to a truly alien performance from Bruno S. in the lead role - he really does seem to have suddenly fallen to Earth and not recovered from the shock - as to Herzog's unique mixture of the restrained and the hypnotic in his approach, the end result is one of those films that's definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

Extras include a fine audio commentary by Herzog, production notes and trailer.