Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)

Interesting facts

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe is a 1980 short documentary film directed by Les Blank. It depicts German filmmaker Werner Herzog living up to his alleged vow to eat his shoe if Errol Morris ever completed the film Gates of Heaven.

Development

Herzog said he made the vow to encourage Morris, who was then a graduate philosophy student at the University of California, Berkeley, to complete his film Gates of Heaven. At the time, Morris was having difficulty finding producers to fund the project. In Herzog on Herzog, he recalls telling Morris, "Stop complaining about the stupidity of producers, just start with one roll of film tomorrow.

Filmmaker Tom Luddy recalls Herzog making the bet in a less encouraging manner: "You'll never make a film, but if you do, I'll come and eat my shoe at the premiere." Luddy was then the director of the Pacific Film Archive at Berkeley and had become acquainted with Morris, a regular visitor. He introduced Morris to Herzog.

The nature of the vow has also been disputed by Morris, who has said that he does not recall the bet and that it was not what motivated him to complete Gates of Heaven. He also says that he asked Herzog not to eat the shoe. Nevertheless, he had originally planned to appear in the documentary, but decided against it after a flight delay. As a result, he was not involved in the project.

In an interview with filmmaker David Tamés, Blank recalled becoming acquainted with Herzog via Luddy, who had introduced his work to Herzog. Blank also recalled that Luddy told him Herzog was going to eat the shoe, which led Blank to seek permission from Herzog to shoot the film.

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