Woyzeck

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A play (actually just a fragment) by Georg Büchner, who died in 1837 while working on it. Revolutionary for its time because up until that period, Tragedy as a genre was reserved for stories about the upper classes. Its companion piece is Büchner's play Leonce and Lena, which conversely is a scathing comedy about the upper classes -- a concept that was just as taboo.

Franz Woyzeck is a soldier with a child out of wedlock. To help make his living, he does odd jobs for his commanding officer and participate in "medical" experiments. He's gone completely crazy - seeing apocalyptic visions everywhere - but no one seems interested in that. When his wife, out of a mixture of boredom and hopelessness, begins seeing a Drum Major, Woyzeck lashes out.

In 1979, Werner Herzog had just finished filming a remake of Nosferatu. After almost spending a week without making a movie, he got to work on Woyzeck, which became one of his most beloved films.

Tom Waits and Robert Wilson have written a Rock Opera based on the play. Alban Berg also composed an Opera, titled Wozzeck.

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Tropes used in Woyzeck include:

The unfinished drama by Georg Büchner provides examples of:

• Ax Crazy: Woyzeck himself in the end.
• Character Filibuster: Every character agrees, being poor sucks! It probably works better on stage.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: The "fairy tale" the grandmother tells the children. You can listen to it here as part of a Youtube Poop, narrated by Tom Waits.
• Handsome Lech: Marie starts seeing a Drum Major. Bad idea.
• Humans Are Bastards
• Humiliation Conga
• Knife Nut: Woyzeck can't afford a pistol, you see.
• Mad Doctor: Woyzeck is going crazy partly because he volunteers for some very unusual medical experiments.
• Mildly Military: The military doesn't seem to do anything but drive Woyzeck crazy.
• Mushroom Samba: Described by Woyzeck and a big part of the actual case study.
• No Name Given: Drum Major. The Doctor. The Captain. The Workmen.
• Out, Damned Spot!: A fatal variety.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The grandmother's fairy tale.
• There Are No Psychologists: Woyzeck is clearly mad because of the abuse he's under, but no one seems to care least of all The Doctor. His best friend tries to get him to go to the infirmary to no avail. Justified in that psychology kind of didn't exist yet.

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The movie by Werner Herzog provides examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion: Actually expected in adaptations of Woyzeck, since the play was unfinished due to Author Existence Failure.
• Gorgeous Period Dress: Averted, but not to the point of The Dung Ages.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Woyzeck is Klaus Kinski. And how.
• Kick the Dog: The Drum Major beats up the tiny, underfed Woyzeck after he finds out Woyzeck knows about his wife's affair. And the Doctor throws his cat out the window to see how it lands on its feet.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: The Doctor:

Doctor: Didn't I tell you that the Urethral Sphincter is subject to the will!?.

• • Oddly enough, he seems to be the most cheerful of all the characters.
    • In Alban Berg's opera, he's listed as a buffo bass. Buffo.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: A string quartet plays the same song over Woyzeck's humiliating PT in the opening credit, Eva dancing with the Drum Major, and Woyzeck's murder of Eva.
• Typecasting: Just like in Stroszek, Eva Mattes plays a woman who temporarily has a crazy husband.

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The Waits/Wilson rock opera provides examples of:

• Belly of the Whale
• Everything's Better with Monkeys: The organ grinder's mechanical monkey, which sings "Misery is the River of the World". Facially, it's a character of Tom Waits, and was voiced by a recording of him.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: "Lullaby"
• Lyrical Dissonance: "Woe"
• Villain Song: "Another Man's Vine" for the Drum Major, "God's Away on Business" for the Doctor, and "Starving in the Belly of a Whale" for the Captain.