Burden of Dreams Page #7

Besides, it's a three-story boat.

Who could push such a big ship...

when we can't even pull a canoe?

Are you afraid

something will happen to you with the boat?

They're afraid of losing their lives.

If we have to push the boat...

the owner should be there

behind it too.

If we die, he should die too.

Why should we die

and not the owner?

Jorge, some people are missing!

Everybody out of here.

Quick! Quick!

Out of here! Get them out of here!

Quick! Come on!

Out! Out!

Give it a go!

Pull it.!

Try again!

It works.

It works!

It works!

- But it didn't work.

- Something broke.

What everyone has feared has happened.

A massive metal coupling

has snapped in half...

and the ship slides back

to where it started.

- It fell?

- Yes.

Right here.

Look at him.

What do I do now? Jump in the water?

Yes.

Yeah.

Then get some lunch.

Wash yourself off a little.

Herzog is stranded in thejungle

with a 300-ton steamship that won't move...

and time is running out.

He needs money to move the ship,

but no one will invest unless the ship moves first.

Behind his back, some of the actors are talking

about getting out while the getting is good.

Only a few of the cast, crew and Indians

believe in his dream anymore.

Even Herzog is beginning to wonder.

Of course, we are challenging nature itself...

and it hits back.

Itjust hits back. That's all.

And that's grandiose about it.

And we have to- to accept that

it is much stronger than we are.

Kinski always says it's full of...

erotic elements.

I don't see it so much erotic.

I see it more full of obscenity.

It's just-

Nature here is vile and base.

I wouldn't see anything erotical here.

I would see fornication

and asphyxiation...

and choking

and fighting for survival...

and growing and...

just rotting away.

Of course, there's a lot of misery.

But it is the same misery

that is all around us.

The trees here are in misery,

and the birds are in misery.

I don't think they- they sing.

They just screech in pain.

It's an unfinished country.

It's still prehistorical.

The only thing that is lacking is-

is the dinosaurs here.

It's like a curse

weighing on an entire landscape.

And whoever...

goes too deep into this...

has his share of that curse.

So we are cursed

with what we are doing here.

It's a land that God,

ifhe exists...

has-has created in anger.

It's the only land where-

where creation is unfinished yet.

Taking a close look at -

at what's around us...

there - there is

some sort of a harmony.

It is the harmony of...

overwhelming and collective murder.

And we in comparison to

the articulate vileness...

and baseness and obscenity...

of all this jungle -

Uh, we in comparison to that

enormous articulation -

we only sound and look like...

badly pronounced

and half-finished sentences...

out of a stupid suburban... novel -

a cheap novel.

And we have to become humble...

in front of this...

overwhelming misery and...

overwhelming fornication...

overwhelming growth...

and overwhelming lack of order.

Even the- the stars up here

in the-in the sky look like a mess.

There is no harmony in the universe.

We have to get acquainted to this idea that...

there is no real harmony

as we have conceived it.

But when I say this, I say this all

full of admiration for the jungle.

It is not that I hate it.

I love it.

I love it very much.

But I love it against my better judgment.

Once again, Herzog pushes on

in the face of disaster.

Leaving a small crew

to work on moving the ship up the hill...

Herzog takes the second

look-alike steamship...

a full day's journey downriver

to the Pongo de Manique...

the most dangerous rapids in Peru.

In the film,

after the Indians pull the ship over the hill...

there's a giant drunken party...

and Fitzcarraldo passes out

in his cabin.

While he sleeps,

the Indians release the ship.

They have a dream of their own...

in which they sacrifice the ship

to the river gods.

Fitzcarraldo stumbles on deck

to find himself crashing through the rapids.

His dream is shattered.

Beautus, look here.

This is how you can stop it again.

It must play in the beginning

so that the scene starts with music.

Is that a gramophone needle?

No, it's a regular old sewing needle.

What else can you see?

You can't get a sound

out of it anyway, Klaus.

- Paul.

- Yeah.

- Good luck.

- You too.

If you fall, I'll catch you, Thomas.

Let's go. Let's risk it.

Everyone ready?

The engine.! Cholo.!

Klaus, come over here.! It was okay. Watch out.

It really came up fast.

The background went by incredibly fast.

- I'm afraid he ran out too soon.

No, the background went by too fast.

- Klaus, come on.

- The engine.! Cholo.! The engine.!

We have to bandage Thomas up.

Okay, we have someone here to do it.

It's not that serious.

Did you hurt yourself?

Your temple is cut open,

and your hand too. Believe me.

You have my best blood.

It's too bad, Klaus...

that you ran away before it hit.

But that was the whole idea!

I'm not an idiot!

It flew forwards and the lens -

Look, the lens flew off!

That was the whole idea!

The rocks came closer and closer...

And in the panic I screamed-

"The engine.! The engine.!"

Then there was a crash,

and the lens flew off...

so it isn't a question of timing.!

Before Herzog can

get the ship back to camp...

it runs aground on a sandbank.

He can't film the final scenes in Iquitos

without the ship...

so he has to wait for the rainy season

to flood the river and lift it off the sand.

But as month follows month

in the longest dry season in recorded history...

the ship remains stuck.

The other ship is stuck too-

at the bottom of the hill.

In fact, the whole film is stuck.

If I believed in the devil,

I would say the devil was right here...

and is still right here.

It becomes very questionable

because, uh...

people have lost their lives.

People have been in a plane crash,

and five of them in critical condition -

one of them paralyzed.

And those are all the costs

that you have to pay.

It could have hit me...

or anyone.

And one starts to question the -

the profession itself.

What are your plans when this

movie's all over? What are you gonna be doing?

I shouldn't make movies anymore.

I should go to a lunatic asylum right away.

But I don't know.

It's, uh -

Very much of it is - is too crazy

and too, uh -

Just not - not what a man

should do in his life all the time.

And I feel, uh -

If- Even if I get that boat over the mountain

and somehow I finish that film...

anyone can congratulate me

and talk me into finding it marvelous.

I - Nobody on this earth

will convince me to be happy about all that.

Not - Not until the end of my days.

Herzog's film ends with Fitzcarraldo

achieving a victory of sorts.

He sells his battered steamship

and makes just enough money...

to bring a small-time opera troupe

to Iquitos for a single performance.

In the end, Herzog won

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