Review of Burden of Dreams (1982) by Jonathan H — 22 Jul 2012

Plenty of documentaries are made about the art of filmmaking, but very few capture the drive/lunacy it sometimes takes to realize a vision like Burden of Dreams. Les Blank's film, in my opinion, does a better job of portraying the insanity and spirit of Fitzcarraldo than the eponymous film itself. The similarities between the character Fitzcarraldo and Herzog himself are endless. Despite Blank's poetic filming of the amazon jungle, despite all of the conflicts the cast and natives encounter, and despite the documentary footage displayed, the heart of this film is the essence of cinema. This movie is about film-making and the art of it; its passion, its plight, its entirety. Herzog closes the film by stating, "It's not only my dreams, it's my belief that they are yours as well, and the only distinction between me and you is that I can articulate. And that is what poetry or literature or film-making is all about. it's as simple as that. I make films because I have not learned anything else. And I know I can do it to a certain degree. and it is my duty, because this might be the inner chronicle of what we are, and we have to articulate ourselves, otherwise we would be cows in the field." If you really let those words sink in, you truly begin to understand this man, this film, and really, cinema itself.

PS: If I ever make a tribute to the bat shit crazy Werner Herzog, I will definitely call it "Overwhelming Fornication.".