Movie #39 Burden of Dreams

It's Doc time.  Yet another documentary in my quest for 365 films a year.  This time it is a film that is directed by Les Blank.  The director of the film isn't as important as the director in the film.  Burden of Dreams is a doc that follows and chronicles of German director Werner Herzog's production of his film Fitzcarraldo.

Fitzacarraldo is a movie about a down and out rubber baron in the amazon jungle.  He dreams of bringing an opera house to his remote village.  In his attempts to fund this insane project he is trying to deliver rubber on the river at a cheap rate.  He has an idea to use the natives to help pull a three story massive steam boat over a mountain in order to shortcut the trade route.  The plan is to up root the boat from one branch of the river into another without going around.  As if pulling a boat of that size over a mountain isn't enough of a challenge, the boat will be dropped off at the preface of the most dangerous rapids the Amazon has to offer. 

Burden of Dream follows the brilliant / mad Herzog as his production is threatened by feuding governments, rival tribes, torrential down pours, cast and crew rebellions, and so forth.  It has been said that Herzog makes things unnecessarily difficult for his teams of  film makers.  He believes that the struggles will lead to a better picture.  This is the man that just last year shot a doc in Antarctica and has worked with Klaus Kinski on numerous times, including the title character of the films Fitzacarraldo.

Did I mention that there was no computer effects used in post?  Did I mention that they actually hired Amazonian natives to pull the freaking boat over the freaking mountain?  Well, that is all true.  Everything that could have gone wrong with the production pretty much did.  Diseases, budget problems, food/energy/facility shortages you name it.  But it all worked out and made a fantastic film.  I guess you could say it made for two fantastic films.

Burden of Dreams is a fantastically shot film considering the conditions.  The camera was right where it needed to be when it needed to be there.  Even if sometimes it wasn't in the perfect location.  Les Blank knows his subjects and he lets them tell the story.  His voice over is nice and not a distraction at all.  Over all I give Burden of Dreams a 3.5/5 stars.  I will say that you should watch Fitzacarraldo first.  You will have a better appreciation of the doc.  I would give Fitzcarraldo a 4.5/5.  Check out the link below for the trailer.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMqjAnMn_RY