Burden of Dreams Page #4

In one hour, it's absolutely too late.

It takes several days to film the scene...

especially since Herzog insists on shooting

during what's known as the "magic hour"...

at the end of the day as the sun sets

and the light turns warm and golden.

Timing is crucial, and Herzog spends

most of the two days waiting for the light.

Twenty arrows against a zoom, huh?

I'm afraid they'll get

more and more bored and suddenly shoot.

"Look at that big guy there

with the weird lens.

Think you can get him?"

"I'll get him.!"

"No, you won't get him.

You're shaking too much. "

"But I'll get him. "

Get the camera and film that.

- No, it's too dark now.

Come on. It'll still work.

It'll still work.

"It'll still work. "

You can't see anything at all!

David, the canoes should stay here.

On the riverbank.

In this case, we will probably have

one of the last feature films...

with authentic natives in it.

They are fading away very quickly.

And it's a-a catastrophe

and a tragedy that's going on.

And we are losing

riches and riches and riches...

and we lose, uh, cultures

and individualities...

and languages and mythologies,

and we'll be stark naked at the end.

We'll end up like all the cities

in the world now...

with, uh, skyscrapers and-

and a universal kind of culture

like-like the American culture.

I don't feel like

doing a documentary on- on the Campas...

and it, uh-it should not end up

as a ethnographic film.

I also stylize them,

and I have them in the film...

as they probably

are not precisely in their-

in their normal life.

They do things

that they normally would not do.

They act in that film...

and that interests me even more.

Yet they have an authenticity

of their culture...

and their behavior,

their movements...

their language in it that, uh...

will just, uh, disappear

from the face of this earth.

I don't want to live in a-in a world

where there are no lions anymore.

Or where the are no people like lions -

and they are lions.

Well, these people are,

uh, watchmen for the night...

because we have, uh,

had an incident with a man who was...

attacked by arrows.

That means there were three people.

His wife, the man and another young man.

And further up that river

you can see here...

and only two hours

by speedboat from here...

this attack occurred, and the man was hit

with an arrow through the throat.

And on the leg.

And his wife was-

was hit three times.

I have not seen her yet.

But apparently here in the hip...

and a little higher.

And that was in complete darkness.

And they were lucky that they had a-

a doctor here and a very good paramedic...

who, uh, operated them immediately.

They will do a raid upstream now, and...

I hope they don't make any contact.

Because if they make contact...

and if something is going on there...

we will probably have a raid

of the Amahuacas down here.

And it's all because the river

is so unusually low.

You can see all these riverbanks. Sometimes

the water went all the way up to that camp...

about six, seven yards higher-

about 20 feet higher or so.

And now, uh, turtles come

to the sandbanks and lay their eggs.

Uh, and the Amahuacas come

very, very far down to dig for turtle eggs.

And that's why this clash came.

But I have also asked for the assistance

of some of the Campas...

which is very unusual because, uh...

Machiguengas here in this area

were afraid of the Campas.

There's always...

a feeling of terror when you speak

about the Campas of Gran Pajonal.

I can't stop them here.

It would be impossible.

I would interfere in their-

How do I say?

In their habits, or in their space of living...

if I kept them back.

And if I let them go - as it has happened

I couldn't stop them anyway-

there might be

a - a more serious incident, and...

it will be all on my shoulders.

I can foresee-

I can foresee a lot of trouble.

And we've had enough-

We've had enough trouble.

I'm - I'm run -

I'm running out of fantasy.

I don't know what else

can happen now.

While the raiding party is away...

Herzog films the traditional game

of arrow catching.

But he fails to get what he wants...

because the best arrow catchers

are upriver with the raiding party.

Aim directly at the head.

Use more force.

Those are the arrows the doctor gave me.

Uh, this one struck the woman here.

It's more or less intact.

She, uh -They are very heavy.

And this point here is damaged

because it hit her here in the hip.

And the arrowhead broke...

and here it cracked open

a little bit on impact.

And that's the arrow -

This is the arrow

that hit the man through the throat.

Here. That came loose.

It's very big feathers.

I think it's, uh, vulture feathers.

And, uh, the arrowhead -

It is very sharp

and very, very-well-pointed.

And there's still some blood on it.

So. They are -They are

some gruesome weapons.

Are you gonna keep the arrows?

Well, yeah. Maybe for my little son.

He will be excited to know

that this went through a man.

But I don't know.

A week later the raiding party returns.

They have made a successful

show of strength without bloodshed.

Life in the camp returns to normal.

Were you

afraid of the gringos when you came here?

No, I wasn't afraid...

because I understood

what they were doing.

My friend Walter

told me it was all lies.

What did they tell you?

That the gringos

would take off your face?

Yes, they'll take off your face...

and use your fat for airplanes.

We're not like theJivaros

who shrink heads this small.

I told him...

I'd rather get out ofhere...

before they do that to me.

When my friends arrived and saw the camps...

they were really afraid.

I told them,

"Don't be afraid. "

They said,

"They're all just waiting to kill us. "

"No, they've been waiting for you. "

Atalaina told them...

"The doctor will give you an injection

and take your blood...

"and put poison in your veins.

You'll die by the time

you get back to your village. "

They were so afraid.

That's not true.

And, " Don't eat too much

of what they offer.

"They give you this much.

Don't eat it all...

because they'll fatten you up

to kill you. "

Eating pork fattens you up.

Not at all.

This scene is the first real contact

between Fitzcarraldo and the natives.

Afterwards, the Indians agree to pull

Fitzcarraldo's ship over the hill.

In Herzog's screenplay,

they think he's some kind of white god...

a kindred spirit who believes,

as Herzog puts it...

that everyday life is only an illusion...

behind which lies the reality of dreams.

Okay.

Everyone can cough now.

Oh.

They're hanging around

like a bunch of chickens...

but they're trying to do a good job.

Very good.

Why did you decide to have two, you know,

clearly marked off separate camps...

between the cast and the Indians?

Yeah, there was, um-

There was long discussion about that-

how we should handle it.

And my feeling was

that we should not involve them...

in the kind of problems

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