Burden of Dreams [Criterion Collection]

Documentary filmmaker Les Blank followed director Werner Herzog around during the stormy production of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. The result was Blank's Burden of Dreams, which many reviewers found more fascinating than Herzog's effort. Lensed in Peru, Fitzcarraldo was the story of a single-minded man obsessed with the notion of introducing opera to the jungles of the Amazon. Les Blank's basic premise, that Werner Herzog became as obsessed as his central character, needs no underlining. This, however, does not prevent Blank from ladling on his thesis with a trowel at several junctures.