I'm happy this exists even if there's not even close to enough eating of shoes for my taste

Those who know of Werner Herzog and his film work know he communicates with seriousness and intensity. Every sentence is a deliberate act of poetry. Herzog has no interest in wasting time saying anything that is not important.

In case it isn't obvious from the title, this movie is literally about Herzog eating his shoe after losing a bet. The levity and absurdity of this act is only amplified by the seriousness and intensity with which he approaches it. He must prepare the shoe as one would prepare a last meal, or prepare a body before burial.

If you haven't seen anything by Herzog before, don't bother just yet. If you have, I hope you laugh and cry as much as I did.

Entertaining, funny, and oddly thought provoking 20 minute short, in which, quite literally, director Werner Herzog eats his shoe.

He does it in response to a bet he made with then budding, but procrastinating film-maker Errol Morris. He told Morris that if he ever finally got a feature finished, he'd eat his shoe. And so he does, after cooking it, in front of a live audience before the local premiere of Morris' great first feature 'Gates of Heaven'.

As enjoyably silly as it all is, Herzog also makes some real points about needing to be willing to do foolish things to encourage art and artists, and that only by risking being absurd can we have the hope of transcending.