ridiculous rating

A Major Disappointment

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I think it wouldn't be unfair to describe The White Diamond as a fairly minor Werner Herzog documentary. The great German has made several truly excellent ones of course and while this one is still good by general standards, it definitely doesn't add up to as much as his better work in this field. Like many of his films, documentary or fiction, this one focuses on an obsessive eccentric, in this case Dr. Graham Dorrington who is a designer of experimental aircraft. We follow him as he attempts to get his new invention, a small mobile air balloon called the White Diamond, to navigate over the jungle canopy in Guyana and allow for the examination of this largely unexplored natural world.The narrative is underpinned by not only a dream but also a past nightmare. In 1992 Dorrington was involved in an expedition where the film-maker Dieter Plage was killed while flying one of his airships over a jungle in Sumatra. This event clearly still haunts Dorrington even ten years later and adds a layer of dread to the undertaking we watch unfold in Guyana. The scene where he recounts the events that led to Plage's death are haunting and hard to forget and do add some depth to proceedings. But the film is probably best when it focuses on the beauties and dangers of the Amazon jungle. Herzog has always had an ability at capturing nature in unusual, yet spectacular ways and here is no different with amazing footage of a massive waterfall and close-up shots of the almost alien-like creatures of the rainforest. Despite being quite a typical Herzogian character Dorrington is less eccentric than usual, the other key character is a local Rastafarian called Marc Anthony who assists with the expedition; while his diversions on topics such as healing plants, his lost family in Spain and his pet rooster all add colour, they also feel slightly like padding to a certain extent. The documentary as a whole is pretty unstructured and doesn't really have a proper ending in many ways so it does feel like a Herzog film which went with an interesting idea which ultimately didn't play itself out as was probably hoped. I do have to say that while I am being a bit critical it is only because Herzog is such a good film-maker and this one had the potential for more. Nevertheless, there is still much to appreciate here and while the sum of parts are greater than the whole; there are still many moments of genuine interest to be found. Despite a few drawbacks this still remains a film definitely worth seeing if you are a fan of Herzog's unique style.

A rather dire attempt at making a grand movie of what is essentially is just a test flight. The filming itself is beautiful. But I think the problem with the film really stems from a poorly drafted mission plan, in the end it is only Herzogs skill which pulls the thing together at all. The airship designer Dorringer is rather shallow his dialogue feels fake layered with intentional pauses to elicit some form of emotional response, this is not aided by Herzogs constant focus on the failing of his last air trip. Out of the few other characters in the film only local Rastafarian Mark Anthony stands out but he too feels slightly token-like, during particularly slow points in the documentary the focus is brought back to him in various roles, the native plants expert, the easy go lucky local, the hear-string plucker with his lament for his family in Spain and finally the rather odd rooster fanatic, each feels as manipulated as the last. Perhaps the worst part is that despite the documentary supposedly setting out to do this, no "canopy exploration" actually takes place. In the end what you are watching is a drawn out feature length doco about a test flight. This begs the question, why go to all the lengths transporting the whole affair to distant Guayana? In Herzogs closing scene Dorringers truly outdoes himself. When the local children do not appear awed by his landing in their little village this leads him to postulate that the aircraft must have been invisible to them due to its alien-ness. In an insensitive comparison, which smacks of white prejudice he tells Mark Anthony about the colonist fable wherein the New Zealand Maori are not able to see James Cooks ship because they had apparently never seen one before, a tall tale to tell about a peoples descendant form a long line of seafarers.

Werzog has made some good documentaries, I will not deny him that, but I couldn't help but feel that this film was just poorly made, and totally uninspiring (contrary to what people seem to think of it. The main protagonist (Graham Dorrington) is just unbearable to watch. Awkward, unprofessional and really annoying. Werzog is trying too hard to turn this into an inspiring, deep story, but fails on both fronts. The narration is bad (and often pointless), the story is actually quite boring, often lacked direction (the main focus of the film swerves from Graham Dorrington to Marc Anthony somewhere in the middle) and I had no interest by the time the film finished.I am so tired of people worshipping directors/filmmakers unconditionally based on one (or a few) good films. Werzog IS a good documentary film-maker, but that does not make this good.3/10

Werner Herzog follows a scientist down to South America to test a balloon, but when they get there, he encounters changing circumstances. He finds other things to film as well as his original subject, and so the film meanders along a satisfying route of nature, falling water, interesting humans (and birds), and pure visual joy.The sheer courage of Herzog in following this approach makes for a fascinating film. I saw it a few years ago, but my lingering impression is of a gorgeous, sensitively put together piece of film-making that made me feel like I had somehow become a little better for having seen it. As if Herzog had captured optimism itself on film, perhaps, simply by following inspiration wherever it leads...