User Reviews

There may be better directors than German New Wave auteur Werner Herzog, but if viewed entirely in terms of how interesting they are personally, Herzog stands above all. His tales of working with deranged German actor Klaus Kinski are the stuff of legend: from filming deep in the jungle using real natives to pushing a ship over a waterfall for Fitzcarraldo to apparently earnestly plotting to kill his star. Or, more recently he saved Joaquin Phoenix from a car crash and then disappeared before he could be thanked. His personality even transfers over remarkably in this short film directed by Les Blank.

We learn that Herzog apparently was friends with Errol Morris. While Morris was still a struggling young filmmaker, Herzog had made a bet with him that if he ever got his film made, the former would eat his shoe. Well, in 1979 he finally does make a film, Gates of Heaven, and Herzog comes to live up to his promise. The film chronicles Herzog as he garnishes, cooks, and eats one of the shoes with some salt and garlic on stage during the film's premiere. This all happens and Herzog still has time to say things like how we must declare holy war on what we see every day on television, talk shows and Bonanza; and how it requires some self-degradation in order to be a director, all in 17 minutes.

So for a short film it works quite well at capturing his essence. It's also up on YouTube to watch for free and in its entirety. This is a good thing, as it is not even available on Netflix. So if you have 20 minutes to spare, it's well worth watching.

Entertaining, funny, and oddly thought provoking 20 minute short, in which, quite literally, director Werner Herzog eats his shoe.

He does it in response to a bet he made with then budding, but procrastinating film-maker Errol Morris. He told Morris that if he ever finally got a feature finished, he'd eat his shoe. And so he does, after cooking it, in front of a live audience before the local premiere of Morris' great first feature 'Gates of Heaven'.

As enjoyably silly as it all is, Herzog also makes some real points about needing to be willing to do foolish things to encourage art and artists, and that only by risking being absurd can we have the hope of transcending.

I'm happy this exists even if there's not even close to enough eating of shoes for my taste

Those who know of Werner Herzog and his film work know he communicates with seriousness and intensity. Every sentence is a deliberate act of poetry. Herzog has no interest in wasting time saying anything that is not important.

In case it isn't obvious from the title, this movie is literally about Herzog eating his shoe after losing a bet. The levity and absurdity of this act is only amplified by the seriousness and intensity with which he approaches it. He must prepare the shoe as one would prepare a last meal, or prepare a body before burial.

If you haven't seen anything by Herzog before, don't bother just yet. If you have, I hope you laugh and cry as much as I did.

This is a little documentary prepared by Les Blank about Werner Herzog's sort of bet to Errol Morris that he should make a movie, but if he did with the luck that he would need as a first time director, he would literally eat a shoe. Herzog adamantly says in the documentary that he's only doing it in support of Morris and his film (which at the time this doc was released didn't yet have distribution despite its great acclaim at festivals), though there's something sublimely absurd about it all, even through Herzog's deadpan/serious talks to the camera. He talks a bit about Morris and his film too, and his praise for it is all well and good. But it's even more interesting to see a) Herzog's views on commercialism and film-making and the lack of "adequate images", and b) director Les Blank's inventive cross-cutting between the on-stage eating of the show, footage of Charlie Chaplin doing the act in a silent, and Herzog talking to the camera. It's funny once or twice, perhaps unintentionally from Herzog's words (i.e. "it's not self-destructive to throw yourself into a pile of cactus"). But for the most part it's meant as a very serious act of foolishness not just for Morris but for filmmakers everywhere. If you can find it- and it's now available on free sites like you-tube- it's worth a look, especially if you're a fan of Herzog. And for Morris fans too there's a quick treat in an outtake from Gates of Heaven spliced in at one point. That song, by the way, of which I quote in the one-line summary, is awesome.

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.

Filmed in April 1979, the film features Herzog cooking his shoes (the ones he claims to have been wearing when he made the bet) at the Berkeley, California restaurant Chez Panisse, with the help of chef Alice Waters. (The shoes were boiled with garlic, herbs, and stock for five hours.) He is later shown eating one of the shoes before an audience at the premiere of "Gates of Heaven" at the nearby UC Theater.

This film is great because it connects three of the finest filmmakers of the era. Werner Herzog is a great documentarian and director, while Morris (just starting out) has gone on to become possibly the best documentary filmmaker in the business. And who should be filming this? Les Blank, the chronicler of America culture... quite possibly the best before Morris came along. All three being linked like this is a rare moment.

Werner Herzog has put his mark on the world of movies, even though you may not know the name right away- he made "Fitzcarraldo" the movie about the opera fan who halls a boat over a mountain. This documentary is shot by Les Blank and details a bet Herzog made to a friend that he would eat his shoe if his friend completed a film. Well, Herzog does have to eat his shoe. And it's very weird, but Herzog is a bit of an odd guy himself. It's a short enough documentary and fun to watch. This documentary is one of two about Herzog- the other is an award winning "Burden of Dreams" about the filming of Fitzcarraldo. I highly suggest checking it out if you enjoy this.

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.

'Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)' is not just about Werner Herzog eating his shoe, even though he does indeed do that. The promise of an acclaimed director literally dining out on his worn-out leather loafers (or whatever non-alliterative make they really are) is, essentially, enough to get anyone to watch, but I suppose that people popping this documentary on for its eponymous premise alone may, indeed, be somewhat disappointed, especially considering that the footwear feeding takes up perhaps less than half of its run-time (though, the idea of it dominates the entire piece) and that the actual eating isn't technically on-screen at all. I have no doubt that Herzog really did do the deed, especially since most of it takes place in front of a live audience, but the lack of overt cobbler chewing is certainly a missed opportunity in terms of comedy, cringe and intrigue. Still, all three of those things are here in spades. The spectacle of watching a man cook and eat his shoe because he said he would do so, presumably in the flippant way the expression is usually used, is undoubtedly real. It's also quite funny, especially since Herzog himself is so casual all the time - I mean, this is the man who would later just brush off a bullet wound because "it's not significant". Here, he's more occupied with monologuing about the current, clown-like state of film, his dislike of commercials and talk-shows, how he views a 'lack of images' as a real world-threat, the time that he jumped into a cactus to show his crew that he understood what they were going through and, perhaps most importantly, how fantastic his friend Errol Morris' new film is. Of course, it's the latter that got this flick made. The whole shoe-eating bet came about because Morris was complaining of a lack of funding for his eventual 'Gates Of Heaven (1978)'; Herzog's fulfilment of this bet was used to promote that movie at one of its pre-distribution screenings and this documentary, essentially, furthers that goal. So, despite Herzog's apparent dislike of commercials, that's all this basically serves as, aside from a comic curiosity and opportunity for Herzog to express his views. It doesn't feel like it's selling you anything, aside from when it overtly is (when people talk up 'Gates Of Heaven (1978)' presumably because they genuinely enjoy it), and it has enough flair to be enjoyable in its own right. It feels like the sort of thing you'd see on YouTube nowadays, a well-produced video more at home online than on the big-screen. It's entertaining enough and is fairly funny on occasion. Plus, some of the stuff that Herzog says seems pretty wise, resonating across the years to be just as relevant today (if not more so). If you know what you're getting into or are a fan of Herzog and his dead-pan nonchalance, I'd say that you'll enjoy this short film... I wouldn't bet my shoe on it, though. 6/10

Werner Herzog is a great example of someone to be trusted. Really trusted. Not only he encourages aspiring filmmakers to make their movies in any possible ways, inciting them to engage in passionate act as if it were a revolution to be made ("Steal a camera, steal raw stock! Break into a lab and do it!") but also he's a man who keeps his promises. Once he makes them (usually crazy ones), he's definitely gonna fulfill it. At one time he jumped on a cactus while filming "Even Dwarfs Started Small" just to entertain the dwarfs who survived the filming of his movie after many troubled incidents. He said he would jump on it if they managed to make the whole film and he did, carrying some scars from such act. And years later he would eat a shoe after making another absurd bet, this one more challenging to more people and more poetic in a way. He lost again and it was time to show and tell. Here's the living proof filmed by Les Blank in 1980.

The proposition was: Herzog convinced film student Errol Morris to make his first film, and if he succeed in doing so he would eat his shoes. Literally. Morris went on to make "Gates of Heaven", a documentary about a pet cemetery and its owners, which was acclaimed by critics and public starting a promising career of a future Oscar winner and a great documentarist. When the movie premiered in NY Herzog traveled all the way to pay his debts, set up a whole meal to go with his shoes - one to be eaten in front of an audience, the other one only if Morris film get a distributor.

A brave yet foolish gesture, very noble of Werner and whose purpose was exactly what he intended to do: to push Morris forward and go after his dreams. He truly believes in this human's search and conquest for their dreams, speaking of this with plenty of passion in "Burden of Dreams", also directed by Blank, where we follow Herzog's troupe while making the epic "Fitzcarraldo" and his almost impossible task of making a steam-ship crossing over a mountain among other difficulties. "Without dreams we would be like cows in the field" he says there. Combining both documentaries you have a full image of the director, a truly inspiring one, and if like he says that films can't cause revolutions but can cause some personal change, then his thoughts and acts in both films can cause a real revolution inside each viewer.

"Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe" isn't just the title, it's also about the man exposing his views on culture, television, holy war against Bonanza and commercials, and the lack of an adequate language in the media. Everything he said was truth back then and it's truer even now, more than 30 years later. Very insightful opinions. But of course, seeing the director of "Aguirre" eating the same shoes he used when he made the bet is priceless, adding garlic and tempers to make it tasteful, the audience watching him cook, laughing all the time, it's a humorous view intercut with Chaplin eating his shoes in "The Gold's Rush". I think the one thing that was missed in here was an interview with Errol Morris, he's nowhere to be found in the film, and his comments on Werner would be interesting here.

There's only one person who I can believe we'll keep his promises and that's Herzog. Many people can say many times that things will get better (when life doesn't go our way) but if Werner says that it will, then I have to believe. Why? Because he promised. And this film is just an example of someone who respect his promises, even the weirder ones. 10/10

A short little film, where Herzog eats his shoe, although in reality he just eats the leather part of his old shoe after boiling it in water. But still the principle of the whole thing is humorous, Herzog promised to do this if a filmmaker would actually just make the film they were always dreaming of making.

Errol Morris accomplishes this and so Herzog submits to it. Les Blank also did this documentary on Herzog "Burden of Dreams" so I think if I recall some footage of that is intertwined into this story.

Herzog should constantly have a camera on him, he strikes me as very interesting, I don't always love his films but he is always worth hearing from.

The beginning of the film may seem like it gets of on the wrong foot, but it is more than that.

While this film may seem like a silly creation that Wener Herzog made due to a lost bet, it actually speaks to me on a personal level. It shows us that life can be fun and serious at the same time. We see the Herzog tearing and devouring his show which shows us how life can be so simple, as represented by the shoe, only to be destroyed by another being, in this case the director. While I cannot pinpoint the make of the shoe, I do know that the shoe type is a classic style showing that in life it can be classic, same as the previous but still extremely interesting as it doesn't lose the good features. I hope that when you're watching this you also see a positive message similar to mine.

This is not a film to shoe away, as this film about shoes has a soul

And can you really ask for more? No, no of course not

Before Errol Morris made his first documentary film, famed German director Werner Herzog apparently said that if the film ever got released, he'd eat his shoe. And, this is where Les Blank got the title for this short.

"Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe" is a film that is not for the average viewer. First, you need to know who Herzog is (and most Americans don't). Second, it would be best to know who Errol Morris is. And third, it would help if you have a lot of patience, as the shoe-eating makes up only a tiny portion of the film. Like Les Blank's other documentary about Herzog ("Burden of Dreams"), he allows Herzog to just talk and talk and talk and only a tiny portion of this has anything to do with eating a shoe. The rest just seems like random rants about the evils of TV, other film projects, his philosophy about documentary films, etc.. If you adore Herzog and would love to just listen to him talk, then this film is for you. Otherwise, you have have trouble sticking with this one.

This was such a nice burst of pure, unadulterated Werner Herzog at his most Herzogiest. It was a story I'd heard of many years ago, but had never gotten around to actually watching the short documentary that depicts this tale for the ages. Basically, Herzog told fellow filmmaker Errol Morris that if Morris was able to complete his feature debut, Herzog would eat his shoe. Gates of Heaven came out, and Herzog stuck to his word by eating his shoe.

I have to admite Herzog for not backing out, and I similarly admire him for his odd sense of humor, his unique way of seeing the world, and his dedication to continually doing extreme things. The world will be an emptier place once he's gone, but I do also feel like his very best works will live on forever. Also... granted, he didn't direct this one (Les Blank did) but it's got Herzog's personality front-and-center, and feels distinctly Herzogian, if that can be a word.

It's at its best when Herzog is preparing, cooking, and then indeed eating the shoe. Other highlights included him talking about the pieces of cactus in his leg that can't be removed but don't bother him anymore, and when there's some more sincerity in parts where Herzog inspires aspiring filmmakers in similar positions to Morris'. It's just an all-around good documentary short, and essential viewing for anyone who considers themselves a fan of Werner Herzog.

Werner Herzog Talks About Eating His Shoe

This is not a spoiler. It is a fair warning to minimize your expectations as far as the working title goes. They slyly edit out Werner ever actually consuming said leather. It is only alluded to, discussed, etcetera. As far as innovatively preparing a shoe to hypothetically be eaten, it is all here. As far as several wise philosophical quotes from the great German director, yes. As far as him waxing poetic regarding following your dreams and doing what it takes to overcome obstacles to pursue your goals in life, check. Plenty of cameras shutter clicking, interview questions being thrown his way to distract from any actual eating, check and check. Charlie Chaplain doing his version in black and white, got that.

At best we have something akin to a clever child supposedly eating his abhorred vegetables. The brush sprouts are pushed around the plate, tomatoes are patted flat, peas are rolled around, they make dinner table small talk, they point to the beautiful day or moon outside. But was anything actually digested?

Excessive amount of time is spent cutting the food into miniscule pieces. One might be slipped into the mouth. A great show of chewing. More chatter. The five hour slow roasted leather shoe looks like the same size, except now in pieces. We are distracted by his charm, though. Alas, dinnertime over. Showtime over. Did he eat even one miniscule piece? Probably? No matter, though, say most of the audience. We got his intellectual insight.

False advertising. Call me a stickler. I do not deal well with dashed expectations.