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Director Werner Herzog wanted Mario Adorf as captain of the ship, but Adorf refused to do the takes that involved the ship drifting throughout the rapids. Eventually, six men besides Herzog himself volunteered to do it. Of the six, three were wounded; one had two broken ribs.
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Director Werner Herzog destroyed all the footage of Jason Robards and Mick Jagger (Herzog has said that he never keeps the outtakes and unused footage of any of his films). When he wanted to use some of that footage in his film My Best Fiend ("My Best Fiend - Klaus Kinski")), there remained only what had been included in documentarian Les Blank's film Burden of Dreams.
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A real 340-ton steamship was moved over the mountain with a bulldozer, without the use of special effects.
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Based on a true story. Carlos Fermin Fitzcarrald was a Peruvian rubber baron, the son of an Irish-American father and a Peruvian mother, who developed the Madre de Dios basin by portaging a ship overland. It was disassembled, however, not moved intact. The rivers connected by the Isthmus of Fitzcarrald are the Rio Mishagua and Rio Manu; the Ucayali was part of the downstream shipping route. Fitzcarrald died at age 35 when his ship sank.
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Spoilers
Fitzcarraldo's first scene is paddling in a small motor boat. His last scene is standing atop a 300-ton cargo ship.
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