Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)

A short documentary in which directors Werner Herzog and Errol Morris make a bet which results in Herzog being forced to eat his own shoe.

Director:

Les Blank

Writer:

Werner Herzog

Stars:

Werner Herzog, Tom Luddy, Michael Goodwin

Cast

Credited cast:
Werner Herzog	...	Himself
Tom Luddy	...	Master of Ceremonies
Michael Goodwin	...	Driver / Interviewer
Alice Waters	...	Assistant Cook
Chris Strachwitz	...	Dwarf Voice (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Phil Harberts	...	Himself

Storyline

A passionate cook, acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog stuffs some culinary aromatics into his shoe and uses the laces to truss it like a chicken, before he sticks it into a pot with water and duck fat to stew it. It is so that he can bring the stewed shoe to one of the first screenings of Errol Morris' debut film Gates of Heaven (1978) to eat it. This act will fulfill his loss of a bet to Morris, who he met as a student filmmaker, that he would never be able to make a movie. The bet was not Herzog's attempt of a jab against Morris, but rather to support a struggling but gifted Morris in his quest to do whatever was required to finance a movie project. In the process of eating the shoe, Herzog wants to encourage other aspiring filmmakers, and to set an agenda of increasing what he calls adequate images as a true reflection of the world.

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Plot Keywords:

shoe | bet | director | promise | eating leather | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Short

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

October 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe

Filming Locations:

USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Flower Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

20 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The woman who helps Werner Herzog cook his shoes is the famous chef Alice Waters. The shoes were cooked in the kitchen of her restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. There are shots in the film of Herzog entering the restaurant wearing his shoes, and leaving it barefoot.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Werner Herzog: If we speak of television it's just... ridiculous and destructive. It kills us. And talk-shows will kill us. They kill our language. So we have to declare holy war against what we see every single day on television, commercials and... I think there should be real war against commercials, real war against talk-shows, real war against Bonanza, Rawhide or these things.

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Connections

References Bonanza (1959)

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Soundtracks

Old Whisky Shoes
Played by Walt Solek Band
Courtesy of Starr Records

User Reviews

Funny

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)

*** (out of 4)

Funny short has director Werner Herzog eating his shoe after losing a bet to a friend. The documentary does a nice job building up tension and there's some nice side talk about the importance of film.

Burden of Dreams (1982)

**** (out of 4)

Incredible documentary from director Les Blank about the making of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. The Herzog film is one of the most amazing films I've seen and it's rather shocking, due to that film's troubled history, that a documentary was being filmed on it. In the Herzog film you realize that the main character played by Klaus Kinski was crazy because of what he was trying to do. In this documentary, you realize that Herzog was crazy for even trying to make this film.