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.