Burden of Dreams

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ArtystaPisarz P From what I heard about the troubled production of “Fitzcarraldo”, this documentary doesn’t cover even half of it, which seems incredulous, as it covers such a large amount of crazy stories of film-making brave-to-a-fault that it can make your head spin and go dizzy. This is a necessary companion movie to Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo” and may even convince its viewers that somehow the insane story of how this epic movie was made is even more interesting and improbable than the plot of the movie itself. Still, it is a very old-fashioned documentary, as I feel it, with a seemingly omniscient narrator that is so rare in the current movies of this genre. So, though I quite enjoyed “Burden of Dreams”, I cannot but feel that there is even more material here. Maybe someone should make a non-documentary movie about how “Fitzcarraldo” was made? That would certainly be a stranger-than-fiction film I would want to watch! Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 04/27/24 Full Review dave s Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo was a film about, among other things, the will of the human spirit. Burden of Dreams, Les Blank's documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo, is about, ironically enough, the will of the human spirit. The central story thread of Herzog's film is the main character's obsession with physically carrying a large steamboat over land to an adjacent river. The documentary focuses primarily on Herzog's actual attempt to film a cast of hundreds actually transporting the boat over a mountain pass. It's all pretty riveting stuff, but one can't help but think that Herzog himself was responsible for the majority of the misfortunes experienced while making the original movie, his own ego being the cause of his grief. While it's unfortunate that more time wasn't spent with his infamously prickly star Klaus Kinski, it remains a fascinating examination of artistic passion and the madness that often comes with creativity. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review georgan g Not very impressed. In fact, maybe I've just seen too many Herzog movies & watched the supplemental material. Whatever the cause I didn't learn anything new about Herzog. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member It was an astounding film and this documentary shows just how ludicrous a directorial effort this was. How Herzog persevered and achieved this picture is beyond me. Can't have been many films as difficult to pull off as this. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member The conclussion of the documentary (as twisted as one of Herzog's movies) is that Herzog is as crazy as Fitzcarraldo and tried the same thing. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review david f The story of the making of Fitzcarraldo is fascinating and even more bonkers that Fitzcarraldo. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Burden of Dreams

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