Burden of Dreams Review: A meta-commentary on the weight of filmmaking ambitions!

In this review, cinetasticc aka Yash gives his take on the restored classic Burden of Dreams.

Burden of Dreams (1982) is a documentary about the making of the film Fitzcarraldo (1982), directed by Werner Herzog. Fitzcarraldo is a film about a man who dreams of organizing an opera in the Amazon jungle. He tries to make money by constructing a railway track through the jungle, but the project fails, and he has to abandon it. He then insists on getting a boat across the river and over a mountain—literally pulling it up the hill—to set up a rubber plantation on the other side. It is a dream that sounds ridiculous and unachievable, just like making this film, leading to Werner Herzog becoming the Fitzcarraldo of this documentary.

I watched Fitzcarraldo two weeks ago so that I could catch up to Burden of Dreams, hailed as one of the best documentaries about filmmaking. The minute I finished watching Fitzcarraldo, my first thought was that this film is about the filmmaking process—living out a vision far removed from reality and creating an illusion, both for ourselves and others. But having finished watching Burden of Dreams now, I am absolutely convinced and validated for my thoughts! The challenges faced by the crew and Herzog were more pitiful than admirable. It’s as if Herzog was creating a loop of suffering around him. At one point in the film, he’s asked what if he cannot finish this film. He replies, "Then I'll be a man without a dream."

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As a filmmaker myself, the process sometimes overwhelms me, and most of the time, it scares me. It takes a lot of fire to put our own vision in front of so many people and then convince them to trust our instincts and work according to that. In a sense, this documentary then is an extraordinary filmmaking masterclass where the illusive world of a filmmaker who, despite any setback, keeps on pulling the boat of one dream atop a mountain knowing it could literally be the end of it all. Herzog himself comments that once he’s done with this film, he will stop making films and admit himself to a lunatic asylum.

Les Blank directed this film masterfully, covering every aspect, from the Amazon jungles, the Indigenous tribal people, and the accidents to one of the most intriguing themes of the tortured artist. The camera takes us among the people and the conditions they’re facing, empathizing with them through some brilliant close-ups. Herzog was accused of exploiting nature and the tribal people living in the jungle. Some of the accusations were false, but most are clearly visible in the film, and at some points, his actions seem more ignorant than courageous. He later acknowledged the challenges they faced and paid the tribal leaders for acquiring land rights.

Ultimately, the film becomes a meta-commentary on Fitzcarraldo, where Herzog embodies the character and sets out to challenge nature to accomplish a dream far more extensive than himself. As he describes it at the start of the film, “Fitzcarraldo is able to turn it into some kind of victory, a harrowing one, and that’s basically the story of the film.”

Burden of Dreams had its Indian premiere at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival this year! 

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