Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe

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

Development
According to Herzog, he made the vow to encourage Morris, who was then a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley studying philosophy, to complete his film, Gates of Heaven. At that 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. [...] And the day I see the finished work I am going to eat my shoe."

Filmmaker Tom Luddy recalls 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 at the time the director of the Pacific Film Archive at Berkeley, and he had become acquainted with Morris, a regular visitor. Luddy was the person to introduce 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. Morris says that he asked Herzog not to eat the shoe. Nevertheless, Morris had originally planned to appear in the documentary, but he decided against it after a delay in his flight. As a result, Morris was not involved in the project.

Regardless of the exact details of the vow, it was not Herzog's first unusual promise: after a series of accidents during the filming of his 1970 work Even Dwarfs Started Small, Herzog agreed to jump into a cactus patch if filming completed without further incident.

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

Summary
Filmed in April 1979, the movie features Herzog cooking his shoes at the restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He claims the shoes are the same shoes that he was wearing when he made the bet. Herzog was assisted by chef Alice Waters. The shoes were boiled with garlic, herbs, and stock for 5 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. He did not eat the sole of the shoe, however, explaining that one does not eat the bones of the chicken.

Interspersed into the film are clips from Gates of Heaven and Even Dwarfs Started Small. The film also includes clips from the 1925 Charlie Chaplin film The Gold Rush, which features a shoe-eating scene. Unlike the leather shoe eaten by Herzog, the shoe featured in The Gold Rush was a prop made of licorice.

Featured in the documentary is a comical polka tune about "old whiskey shoes."

Legacy
Blank went on to direct Burden of Dreams (1982), a feature-length documentary about Herzog and the making of Fitzcarraldo. Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe is included as an extra on the Criterion Collection edition of the Burden of Dreams DVD. It is also included as an extra in the Criterion Collection edition of the Gates of Heaven Blu-ray disc.

When Chez Panisse celebrated its 40th anniversary, a replica of the shoe was created, boiled, and eaten as part of the public anniversary celebration.

The Academy Film Archive preserved Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe in 1999.