Burden of Dreams is necessary. This is a story that needs a good telling and Les Blank was there to capture it. It was obvious to Herzog, who was willing to play Fitzcarraldo himself if necessary, that Fitzcarraldo is the director of an experience. Kinski and Bruno S. have both played Herzog stand-ins. It's always interesting to hear Herzog speak. He is sometimes wise, sometimes full of bluster. An authentic person always.
Here the pithy moment comes when Herzog pontificates about the transposition of dreams. He creates a dream on film hoping that it corresponds to the dream we are having. Despite his own vehement denial of Freud and introspection and deams themselves, he sees at the core of art this attempt to express a collective mythical experience. He imagines himself a sort of midwife fulfilling the dictates of something he refuses to look at. He is not the sort to really break it down for you in an interview. He is a man of action. A do-er.
Whatever you might think of Herzog (I see the tag MAD-MAN, which is one way to look at it I suppose), he has accomplished something great here. Purposefully challenging so as to capture himself the difficulty of the task. It's easy to conceive of Herzog as Fitzcarraldo. It is hardly worth talking about. Seeing the production shows just how seamless the experience is.
The oft-mentioned Kinski blowups are downplayed in Burden of Dreams, but it is not hard to see the necessities of the role. Kinski must internalize Herzog while taking his direction. Kinski is Herzog is Fitzcarraldo. It is no surprise that they would conspire against one another. They are conspiring against themselves in the process. This is perhaps the central meta-story of the whole endeavor. Herzog is dragging Kinski up a mountain as well.
So what is it? What is the whole thing about? The burden of dreams is a telling title, but that just transposes Herzog for Fitzcarraldo. What was the whole exercise about? Herzog is trying to give us in images what he thinks is latent in us to begin with. This desire to surmount nature. The confrontation with the rawest force of nature, the jungle. All the fierce engine of life pitted against itself for the epic gesture. And the acknowledgement that it is only just a gesture. Man is dragging himself over a mountain. Forcing all his cultural baggage into the heart of nature. There is something absurd about the endeavor. Something skewed and a bit mad perhaps. And yet we do it all the time.
I am a big fan of Riding with Robots. I watch these images come in from all the various probes, filtered down for me by a worthy eye. We want to see the cataracts of death. We want to reach out with our steamships to inject ourselves into those inland rivers, to bridge those impossible gaps. We do transpose our dreams.
The kicker is that the Indians sacrifice the ship to the river. It is they who were always in control. These lions of men. It is they who are struggling to appease tyranical forces. In part this is about the loss of lions. Despite his absurdity, Fitzcarraldo is a lion as well. Perhaps he is no different than those native peoples. Perhaps Herzog is no different. And perhaps he is reaching out to the lions within us. To unleash us.
Fitzcarraldo has not just the boat to drag, but Caruso, who is almost a character himself. Caruso, a lion as well. And thus the culture of western man. Caruso is the infection. The boat is the infection. The river is the blood stream of the earth. Fitzcarraldo and Caruso ride the ship into the cataracts of death. Behind the scenes, Herzog is there on the ship as well. As well as a camera. Herzog is dragging a camera over a mountain to show us what we are.