Question regarding rapids

The short scene involving the boat going over the brink and down the steep cascade was done in miniature. This is why that scene looks like it does--it was shot in slow-mo and the water is just not to scale with the model surroundings. Slow-mo is used in such scenes quite often in an attempt to mask the look, but that is rarely if ever successful in doing so. As others have said, it just looks like "miniatures" footage that doesn't match the previous & succeeding scenes of the boat going downriver.

This specific scene and the miniature set was not mentioned in "Burden of Dreams", and there is no contradiction to anything Herzog said about the river scenes because he didn't mention that particular scene, and clearly Les Blank didn't get into it, either.

What was interesting in "Burden" was the revelation that Herzog had a substitute boat built just for filming a 'boat' going downriver with a camera mounted on the top deck. The 'stage' was much smaller than the real boats, but the deck on which the camera was mounted was made to look like the deck on the real boats, so when viewing those scenes the audience couldn't tell the difference. If nothing else, Herzog is clever in his use of trickery & illusion to shoot his films, using pragmatic, relatively simple methods to achieve his vision for this film. It appeared in "Burden" that this 'stage' boat was actually pushed by small motorboats--it had no power of its own. It was just a moving, floating platform for a particular camera shot designed to achieve a specific purpose.

Who'd have thought from just viewing "Fitzcarraldo" that a large bulldozer was used to pull the ship up the mountain slope?

It was amazing that Herzog was able to keep this production together long enough to actually finish it. I had the impression from "Burden" that Herzog did compromise on certain aspects of things he may have wanted for the final film, but just couldn't achieve properly if at all; and we may never know how close--or how far--the final film is from his original vision for it. It comes across as an amazingly difficult shoot. I had no idea about the Jason Robards/Mick Jagger involvement until seeing "Burden of Dreams".

Herzog was both clever and had a lot of perseverance to get this one made. I liked his comment in "Burden" when he said something like "Sometimes I just want to be in an easy chair with a cup of tea next to me." I hope he gave himself time to do that after finishing this bloody film!

It was interesting also, in "Burden", to see those scenes in which the cast & crew were just helping each other out, like when Kinski was putting a bandage on one of the crew who'd injured himself & was bleeding, and a few other scenes where the actual life in the production camp in the jungle was being shown.

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So much for that.

Neither would require "massive amount of FX", however a faked moon landing would have required a massive campaign of deception, for very high stakes. Someone would have talked, or the Russians would have cried foul. On the other hand, no-one really cares if a 10-second scene in an old art movie was a model shot or not. (And a model boat would obviously not cost "half again the budget" - I have no idea where you get that from. If there is one FX guy credited, I think we can safely assume he would have knocked the model up in his workshop for a few thousand pesos).

"Ecstatic Truth" by the way, is a euphemism for creative lying - here's a quote from a letter to Herzog by Ebert:-

I saw “Bells from the Deep,” a film in which you wandered through Russia observing strange beliefs. There were the people who lived near a deep lake, and believed that on its bottom there was a city populated by angels. To see it, they had to wait until winter when the water was crystal clear, and then creep spread-eagled onto the ice...You found that there were hundreds of “Rasputins,” some claiming to be Jesus Christ, walking through Russia with their prophecies and warnings...we talked for some time about the film, and then you said, “But you know, Roger, it is all made up.” I did not understand. “It is not real. I invented it.”

For what it's worth, I've seen more of Herzog's films than Ebert has, at least according to that letter.

I think the difference between us is that you've started by becoming attached to the idea that there is no model and adjusted your perceptions to suit. I really really want there to be no model, but all my instincts and common sense tell me that's what it is. Just look at the water.

Try showing the photos I linked to to 10 people who know nothing of the movie and see what they think. That should give you a more objective idea.


I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.