Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe1980

In 1979, Les Blank took a brief detour from his filmic path through traditional American music to film German filmmaker Werner Herzog honoring a vow he claims he made to Errol Morris, A Berkeley student, that he (Herzog) would eat his shoe if Morris ever got off his butt and actually made one of his films he was forever talking about. Stung into action, Morris directed GATES OF HEAVEN, a highly acclaimed film about a pet cemetery – and Herzog, true to his word, returned to Berkeley to consume one of his desert boots in front of a large audience at the UC Theater. The film reveals an obsessive, self destructive almost superhuman dimension to Herzog that people must have the guts to attempt what they dream of. Herzog adds comment on the value of cinema and the need for a new grammar of images. Definitely the strangest of Blank's love letters to food, and a major addition to the small shelf of films in filmmaking. The strength of this definitely unusual little film is Herzog eccentric brilliance which Blank captures as well as he did the singers in DEL MERO CORAZON. – Rick Chatenever, Santa Cruz Sentinel