The White Diamond (2004)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

People are voting emotionally.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Hoping to fly a helium airship over the rainforests of Guyana, scientist Graham Dorrington is convinced to let Werner Herzog film his airborne journey in this curious documentary from the acclaimed director of 'Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes' and 'Where the Green Ants Dream'. The beauty of untouched natural landscapes are a focal point in Herzog's fiction films and the shots of the rainforest are a clear highlight here, with extreme close-ups on the native flora and fauna. Only a handful of minutes are spent on the beauty of the rainforest though, and the rest of the film is uneven as Herzog flicks back and forth between Graham's passion for air travel, the hopes and dreams of a local diamond miner and Graham's fears of tragedy in-flight. Much of the film, in fact, pivots around how Graham attempted the voyage earlier, also with a cinematographer, and how the cameraman died in an accident while aboard. Herzog never really captures the risks involved with his daring decision to accompany Graham (after all, he survived to make this film and others) but it is pointed how Herzog crafts the doco around Graham not only capturing unchartered territory but also atoning for past mistakes and feelings of guilt. One's mileage with the film is likely to vary though depending on how one engages with this back-story. The rainforest shots are great, but they are just a small part of the overall product here.

This is a lyrical film more than anything. Herzog refuses to classify his documentaries as "documentaries" which I respect. Truthfully this isn't a straight forward documentary even if it does follow one man's quest to get his air ship to float above Guyana.Herzog is an observer more than anything and we see that in how his documentary is assembled, he does not force anything and he will leave his camera on people for longer than you would expect so that they will feel compelled to say something else.A random man will come up and start talking and Herzog will focus on him for several minutes. This film goes alongside Herzog's other films that represent men with near impossible dreams.

Grizzily Man was not even considered for the Oscar nominations in documentary for a reason. This was simply because it was not included on the ballot paper. This was Werener Herzog's choice. He has no time for playing the Hollywood game. Though it would've been wonderful to see him win it, you've got to admire the man's integrity. He remains one of the greatest and most original film makers at work today. The White Diamond is no exception. It starts out almost like a typical BBC documentary, but it quickly becomes apparent that this man is no ordinary professor, but yet another human being with obsessive drive of dreams and vision. Where does Herzog find these people! May he continue to illuminated us.

This documentary is filled with beautiful scenery and some delightful music, and lots of tedious technical information about the history of airships, but it ultimately fails because of a lack of focus; Herzog just couldn't seem to decide on the subject of his documentary. With the opening footage we're led to believe it's about airships, but then we're taken to the laboratory of Dr Dorrington who gives us an animated, and technically interesting, description of his wind tunnel and the effects of boundary layers on laminar air flow over airships. At the end of the laboratory tour we hear Herzog's voice somewhere off stage asking Dr Dorrington to tell us about what happened to his hand. We see the hand, missing two fingers, and then Dorrington begins to tell us about his youth and his interest in rockets and how he could have lost his life but instead lost the two fingers. And then we're transported to South America. Well, we eventually get to see the beautiful scenery in the rain forest and we hear about the ghosts of Dorrington's past but we never understand just what it was that's been documented here. It could have been shortened by 30 minutes and made into an interesting film. But it's definitely worth sitting through to see the (all too brief) footage of the Cliff Dance, accompanied by Sric Spitzer's and Lisa Stern's beautiful music, as well as their second song played over the end credits. But the film as a whole just doesn't work.