Burden of Dreams (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo depicts a man's grueling journey towards self-fulfillment and personal dreams. Burden of Dreams tells the story from behind the camera, as Herzog finds himself in an almost five-year long struggle to accomplish a dream that nearly broke him physically, psychologically, socially, and economically in the Peruvian jungle. Despite the many obstacles, Herzog eventually managed to create a brilliant cinematic experience, which now can impress present and future film aficionados. Yet, before viewing this documentary, the audience should consider two notions that support the idea of viewing Fitzcarraldo first. First, the final product raises the awareness of why Herzog pursues making the film, which also helps learning from the filmmaking journey. Second, this documentary would spoil Fitzcarraldo, as it depicts and explains several scenes from the film. It ultimately would reduce the element of surprise and drama.An interesting retrospective notion that comes to mind after the film is the comparable similarities that Herzog has with Fitzcarraldo who is the character that Klaus Kinski portrays in the film. They both have the desire to fulfill a dream to the level of obsession where both seem willing to risk it all in their endeavor. Herzog even mentions in the documentary, "I live my life, or I end my life with this project." This also suggests why Herzog believes that the film had to be done, as it provides a strong reflection of Herzog's own persona and his existential philosophy.Often the journey of reaching a dream drifts into oblivion when the aftermath surfaces. On the other hand, Burden of Dreams makes sure that the audience does remember the importance of the struggle for dreams through Herzog's numerous predicaments. For example, his initial problems include border wars, death threats, and the departure of leading role actors, which consequently makes investors nervous. After having been set back for over a year Herzog commences the shooting of Fitzcarraldo, as difficulty continues to haunt the filming with drought, tribal war, and a plane crash. He even believes that a curse rests over the film production. All of these delays begin to have their toll on him and the rest of the filmmaking crew, as he begins to drift into an angry gloominess blaming the ever so close jungle.All of the negative impacts that the film crew and cast experience are intensified by the Amazon jungle that surrounds them for thousands of miles. Originally, Herzog believed that isolation from civilization would bring out qualities in both the cast and crew that would heighten the cinematic experience. This concept had more validity than Herzog would ever have anticipated, as boredom begins to affect both the crew from the modern world and the natives who live by ancient traditions. Steadily morale keeps on sinking. Fortunately, a cure to the low morale rests within down-to-earth solutions. Yet, through the problems and the solutions Herzog begins to see the dark nature of the unforgiving jungle that seems to come closer and closer.The director Les Blank objectively captures the clash between ancient and modern traditions, as the natives and the film crew interact in the tropical rainforest. The audience gets to observe the making of the traditional masato, an alcoholic beverage made of yuca chewed and fermented with human saliva. There is a also a scene in Fitzcarradlo where Kinski is supposed to drink masato to seal an agreement between him and the natives, but in fear of infection, Kinski avoids it by drinking canned milk. Despite the troubles, the camera effortlessly flows with the fatigued crew of Europeans, Americans, and natives, as they all have to endure the burden of Herzog's dream - Fitzcarraldo.Previous documentaries such as American Movie (1999) and Lost in La Mancha (2002) offer similar experiences, but they do not achieve the anxiety that Burden of Dreams reaches. The forcefulness of the story rests within the topic, which in this case is Herzog and his desire to fulfill his dream. In many aspects, this documentary seems outlandish such as Herzog's idea of pulling a steamboat over a mountain and the abundance of problems that surrounded the making of Fitzcarraldo. Yet, it is within this madness, if you will, where Blank captures the power of dreams in a similar way that the bird Phoenix raises from the ashes.

This documentary proves that not only was the true story of Fitzcarraldo Sisyphean, so was the making of the film.I find it interesting that director Werner Herzog allowed a documentary film crew to be on location over the three years it took to make Fitzcarraldo. Perhaps he thought it would good publicity, and it's likely that he benefited financially. With all the controversy over Fitzcarraldo, it's almost requisite to watch the documentary after seeing it--or maybe before seeing it.During the shooting of Fitzcarraldo, there were two plane crashes, one death, and numerous critical injuries to the South American natives who signed on to play parts. Toward the end of this film, Herzog tells the interviewer, "I shouldn't make movies anymore; I should go to a lunatic asylum," and "It's just not what a man should do with his life." Is he being sincere? He continued to make movies, and he's still working today.Herzog is an obsessive auteur, so I understand why the story of Fitzcarraldo appealed to him. Of course, he exaggerated the facts. The steamship that was pulled over the mountain in his film weighed 300 tons. In the true story, it was 30 tons, and it was disassembled and transferred in parts to the other river. Artistic license, I guess, but the engineer whom Herzog hired to pull this off quit the film, saying that there was a 70 percent chance that people would be killed or injured. Herzog hired an another engineer to complete the film.To quell the "white man cometh" aspect of his undertaking, Herzog has several sequences in this documentary where he expresses his respect for the Peruvian and Ecuadorian natives, their culture, and their traditions. I find it a bit hard to swallow.Nobody will ever know the real story. It's a cinematic debate that will go on forever. Was Fitzcarraldo one of the greatest films of all time? Yes. Was it worth the cost in human suffering? I'm not so sure.Anyway, the uninitiated might want to watch this film before watching Fitzcarraldo. It's a great documentary.

This is a wild doc that lives up to it's legend. This reminds me of something John Waters said about Mommie Dearest in the dvd commentary. I am paraphrasing but it went something like this--"if you do not find this film entertaining you need to stop watching films". This applies to Burden of Dreams totally. Even if you are not into Herzog-which i find to be impossible- you will appreciate the struggle the whole film crew went through to make the Fitzgeraldo movie this doc is based on. While you may have differing opinions of Herzogs morals, if you view his mentality as persevering over a massive obstacle in life then you may find his will to keep going admirable. On the other hand by putting the villagers as well as crew directly in harms way you may think he had lost his mind. How he ever moved that ship up that hill is amazing. Talk about a determined director--most people would of re wrote the script.You get to see director as well as lead actor literally lose their minds during the shoot. This is a must have and a lot more entertaining than the movie the doc was about.

Excellent