In 1979 Werner Herzog set out to make
Fittzcarraldo, a story about a caucho era rubber baron who tried to pull a steam ship over a mountain to bring opera to Quito. This a documentary about that shoot.
With everything from native indian attacks, wild accusations about Herzog executing workers en masse, less than competant engineers, last minute recasting, screaming fits from the lead actor, and cost overages, the last thing Herzog had to worry about was actually pulling a real boat over a real mountain. Yet, he achieved that, and finished his film to boot.
Burden of Dreams is a window into the mind of a mad genius. Herzog is shown as an artist so clear about his art that he will literally and metaphorically push himself, and those around him, to the brink of destruction. Director Les Blank's camera finds him at the production's most honest points. He chooses to focus on the lives of the natives that have come to take part in the film, as much as on Kinski and the director. What develops is a film that is more than a making of, more than a portarit of an artist at work. What emerges is a story as engaging as Fittzcarraldo. Herzog and his main character have fused into a single being. It is no surpruise then, that the task of pulling the ship over the mountain is not only completely real, but also more difficult than what was done in events that inspired the film. The real Fittzcarraldo disected the ship into hundreds of parts to be reassembled on the other side of the river. The film and necessarily the ship wrenching act itself have become almost an obsession. As Werner states in the documentary "I live or die with this film."