Documentarian Les Blank, who filmed Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, trained his cameras on Herzog again, as the eccentric German filmmaker made his epic, Fitzcarraldo, in the Amazon rainforest of Peru. Herzog's production is in trouble right from the start. He begins filming with Jason Robards playing the title role, and Mick Jagger playing Fitzcarraldo's sidekick, Wilbur. With 40 percent of the film shot, Robards becomes ill and goes back to the states, where his doctor will not let him return.
Because of the delay, Jagger, with album and tour commitments, is forced to quit the production. Thinking no one can fill the rock star's shoes, Herzog jettisons Jagger's role. He eventually casts his frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski as Fitzcarraldo and begins shooting again. Violent tribal disputes and unpredictable weather hinder the shoot, but the biggest obstacle is Herzog's own quixotic and dangerous determination to film one antique boat smashing down the Amazonian rapids, and the dragging of an identical boat over a mountain from one river to another. Blank interviews members of the cast and crew, including the impoverished Indian extras, and captures the troubles of the seemingly cursed production, but his interviews with Herzog are the focal point of the film. "If I abandon this project," Herzog explains at one point, "I would be a man without dreams, and I never want to live like that. I live my life or I end my life with this project." Herzog later made his own documentary about Kinski, My Best Fiend, which adds to the lore of this infamously difficult shoot. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
not only captures the dramatic moments where Herzog risks life and limb ... , but he includes small details that provide necessary natural respites from Herzog's 'madness'
Herzog here talks his way through the making of his movie with a remarkable self-consciousness, attuned to the effects of cameras on subjects even as he is such a subject.
Strangely, Burden of Dreams is a better film than Fitzcarraldo, if only because you get to see the fictional portions of the film along with the backstory
I am not fully on the Herzog train but I certainly admire his drive. And by drive, I mean his lunacy of course. I had always heard that Kinski was crazy, but just listening to Herzog's words and how he pushes on in the face of every momentous setback really showed me that Herzog may be just as mad. This film documents
not only the tumultuous production of his most famous film Fitzcarraldo, but also offers a look at how Herzog channels his madness into pursuing his dreams. It drags in some areas, but overall pretty fascinating for anyone interested in the man, the myth, the legend, Werner Herzog.
September 13, 2011
Reid Volk
Super Reviewer
An interesting documentary about the making of one of Herzog's movies, and about him in general. If you're a fan of his you will enjoy this more than I did.
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