|
| The White Diamond | 
| Director: Werner Herzog
Studio: Fox Lorber
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.88
You Save: $8.07 (40%)
New (33) from $11.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 52983
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), German (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Running Time: 90 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 5469
UPC: 720917546926
EAN: 0720917546926
ASIN: B000AQ68XC
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Release Date: October 25, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Five Star Seller!!! New, factory sealed US Region 1 DVD. Item is 100% guaranteed not to be a bootleg or import. Item is shipped directly from our warehouse. Easy exchange if item defective or damaged in shipped.
|
| Customer Reviews:
with werner in guyana January 24, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A documentary by director Werner Herzog (cf. Grizzly Man) is never as simple as its plot and subject first suggest. In 2004 Herzog joined the quixotic British aeronautical engineer Graham Dorrington who traveled to remote Guyana in South America to fly his two-seater contraption over the rain forests, ostensibly for scientific research. But filming that quest is really a side show to Herzog's broader interests. He pokes and prods at the eccentric Dorrington, especially the guilt he tries to assuage over a fatal accident that killed his friend Dieter Plage in Sumatra in 1993. He trains his camera on the spectacular scenery, especially the thousands of swifts who nest there. In one phenomenal close-up of a single tiny rain drop he captures the reflection of the thundering Kaieteur Falls in the distance. Like an anthropologist he explores the lives of the bare foot Guyanan locals who slop through the mud to help Dorrington, like Mark Anthony who loves his pet rooster and epitomizes Rastafarian harmony. In other scenes we see the appalling environmental degradation of the diamond mines, a teenage boy beside the Falls moon-walking to the reggae from his boom box, and Dorrington's tear-dropped dirigible meandering over the river and forests. Herzog demonstrates how even the simplest plot lends itself to rich explorations.
 more like a poem than a documentary November 27, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
***1/2
In "The White Diamond," famed documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog has fashioned a quirky, visually beautiful tribute to all the risk takers and dreamers who make exploration and discovery possible.
Herzog has chosen for his subject Dr. Graham Dorrington, an aeronautics engineer who has invented a small, helium-powered airship that allows him to fly over and into the canopy of the South American rainforest in order to study the richly varied life forms that inhabit that hitherto unexplored area of the planet`s biosphere. Dorrington, who comes across as part humanitarian scientist and part lovable crackpot, is nothing if not eager to share his adventures with Herzog and his crew of brave filmmakers.
Even though there is much of interest in the setting-up stage of the experiment and the short history of aviation Herzog provides at the beginning, the movie itself is almost so lackadaisical in its approach that it often feels unfocused and devoid of passion, but once Dorrington and Herzog himself are airborne, with the camera moving in for unbelievably tight close-ups of the creatures living within the soaring treetops, the movie becomes a treasure trove of rare and wonderful sights that even the least nature-oriented among us will find impossible to forget.
This is one of the least flashy documentary films you will ever see. For despite the very real risks to life and limb involved in the project, this is a work that finds its beauty and drama in the serene majesty of the setting and the elegant simplicity of the airship itself. More mood piece than scientific document, "The White Diamond" should appeal as much to the poet as to the adventurer in all of us.
Of artificial madness and self-aware obsession August 9, 2006
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
The plot of "The White Diamond" won't surprise anyone who is familiar with the works of Werner Herzog. The film is about a mad visionary who is driven to extremities by an obsessive quest for perfection. His grand ideas cause him to ignore his own safety, as well as the safety of others around him.
In this particular film, the visionary is a professor of aerodynamics at a British university. His obsessive quest is to build an airship, like the Zeppelins of old, only better. He dreams of flying like a bird, and he is truly happy only when he is soaring above the treetops in his latest airship. He has been working on this for years. At one point, one of his closest friends died in an accident that occurred because of a malfunction in one of the flying machines. Herzog, ever the adventurer, interviews the professor and accompanies him to a jungle in South America, where they test the professor's latest creation.
So far, this is all very similar to any number of Herzog's other films, from "Aguirre, The Wrath Of God" to "Little Dieter Needs To Fly" and "Grizzly Man." Even the setting recalls Herzog's other trips to South America. The jungle seems to attract him like a siren. But it is here where Herzog's grand worldview begins to look a bit laboured.
At one point in the film, there is a conversation between Herzog and the professor. The airship is ready to fly, but the professor wants to perform the first test by himself, flying alone. Herzog categorically disagrees. He says that the first flight should have a camera on board, and that the professor has no right to fly by himself. To do so would not only be unsafe, it would be a "stupidity" that would deprive the world of the images that Herzog can capture with his camera. Herzog wants to accompany the professor and share the risk, all for the sake of the film. Finally, the professor agrees.
The thing is, this scene is totally fabricated. It is obvious from looking at Herzog and the professor that the conversation is scripted. In a later interview with the BBC, the professor (who is, in fact, an active researcher at his university) confirms this. Apparently, Herzog insisted on filming this scene, with dialogue that he wrote, and sticking it into the film.
And now, it is pertinent to ask why he bothered. What was the point of making up this conversation? Is it just to reinforce Herzog's idea of the professor as a mad genius who doesn't care about other people's well-being, and thus allows an amateur to take part in the first flight?
But then, what is the point of Herzog's deliberate replies to the professor? And why is it so important that Herzog himself participate? He doesn't really step in front of the camera much throughout the film. Yet in this scene, the focus is entirely on him.
Could it be that the great cinematic visionary Werner Herzog simply wants to engage in self-aggrandizement?
Maybe. The way the scene is filmed, it serves to underscore Herzog's heroism. The director is so dedicated to his quest of capturing great images that he bravely risks his own life, putting it in the hands of the professor who is so dedicated to his own quest of building airships that he doesn't care about anything or anyone else. Herzog even takes the camera away from the cameraman and does his own filming.
Now, if Herzog made up this scene, why couldn't he have made up everything else? The professor's BBC interview doesn't give a big impression of insanity. On the contrary, the professor seems to be a pretty level-headed fellow. He wonders, in a bemused way, why Herzog made him look like a lunatic. On his website at the university, there's a list of his research interests and publications. The list provides evidence that his work is serious (he has grant money, after all), and based on motivations other than a crazed desire to fly like a bird.
Well, there's nothing wrong with that. Herzog often admits to exaggerating or fabricating certain aspects of his stories. He disdains the "accountant's truth" contained in the facts of life, and searches for the "poetic truth" that is buried far beneath the surface. Here, he just selectively emphasizes those parts of the professor's work that support his own vision of obsessive quests. Big deal.
But what is the poetic truth in this particular film? Could it be that Herzog built up this image of the professor as mad genius, solely in order to place himself alongside the professor and thus reinforce his own image as a great man in search of poetic truth? What about his earlier film "My Best Fiend," where his praise for the talents of Klaus Kinski also seemed like it was designed to direct attention to his own talents? Was Kinski right when he wrote twenty years ago that "nothing interests [Herzog] other than his lousy career as a so-called film-maker"?
Well, I don't know. And maybe it doesn't matter even if it's true. No matter what, Herzog is a powerful speaker and storyteller, and he always finds compelling imagery for his films. In this film, for instance, he shows how a giant waterfall is reflected in a drop of rain, and then how a champagne glass attached to a balloon is sucked into the falls and destroyed.
And after all, this wouldn't even be an issue if Herzog was making a feature film. I can raise these concerns only because this is a documentary. Maybe I'm too much attached to the notion that a documentary should depict factual events. But after seeing that scene, I can't shake the feeling that Herzog's glorious ideas have been a little bit tarnished.
 Captivating July 24, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Although I am not attuned to the background history of the film, the visuals are captivating enough to hold anyone's interest. I have visited the site of the film, and the footage comes as close as possible to capturing the magnificance of the rainforest, the Potaro River and Kaieteur Falls. The scenes with the locals are right on.
Beautifully photographed April 1, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
A bit slow, but so lovely to see. BEST of ALL is the soundtrack - but why can't I find it on Amazon?
|
|
|
Wildlife, nature and the Environment
Sponsored Links
Learn how to get your own Amazon Book shop | |
