Werner Herzog's The
White Diamond, a documentary about the exploits of Dr. Graham Dorrington,
an engineer at St. Mary's College in London, England, might have been called
"Little Graham Needs To Fly". Dorrington is a solitary dreamer who is eager
to explore wilderness areas and tropical rain forests in a helium-filled
airship. In particular, he wants to explore the rainforest canopy of Guyana
and Werner Herzog brings his camera and his best narrative voice along
for the ride. The film is both the story of a man and his dreams and an
ode to an unspoiled wilderness that has so far withstood man's insatiable
need for "progress".
Like other Herzog films
I have seen recently, there are moments of involving action pitting man
against nature along with stretches of dullness and sudden outbursts of
enormous beauty. Just to watch the flocks of swifts fly in formation above
Kaieteur Falls, a waterfall four times the height of Niagara, backed by
the cello of Ernst Reijseger and the chorus of the Tenore E Cuncordu de
Orosei, is an experience in itself worth the price of admission.
The film begins with a
brief overview of the history of flight including scenes of the horrific
crash of the Hindenburg Zeppelin in Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937, a tragedy
that ended the dream of travel in lighter than air vehicles. The film then
shifts to Guyana where Dorrington is in the process of assembling a two-person
airship to help him make his journey and confront his past demons. Dieter
is a thoughtful man though given to childlike outbursts of enthusiasm.
He dreams of "drifting with the motors off in the peace and quiet, quietly
floating above these forests in the mist". Though Herzog seems to want
to portray all his protagonists as slightly mad, Dorrington appears too
grounded to fulfill the director's wishes. His purpose contains elements
of both inner and outer exploration. He wants to move on from a tragic
accident that occurred eleven years ago when his friend and companion Dieter
Plage was killed while flying one of his airships.
Dorrington is reluctant
at first to discuss Dieter and his tragic end, but later recounts in agonizing
detail the precise details of the accident for which he blames himself.
In a scene later revealed to have been staged, Herzog and Graham argue
about whether cameras should be allowed on the test flight of his airship
christened The White Diamond, but Herzog prevails because he fears
that it may be the only flight that will take place. We sense throughout
the early part of the film that any flight is dangerous and extreme precautions
are taken to ensure safety. There are other peripheral characters that
we have come to expect from Herzog.
A young cook does a Michael
Jackson dance to hip hop music while standing on the edge of a cliff and
we meet Mark Anthony Yhap, a diamond miner whose eloquent philosophy contrasts
sharply with the more inner-directed Dorrington and he waxes poetic when
talking about his beloved rooster. Yhap is a Rastafarian, an African religion
that believes that Haile Sellassie is the living God. Yhap wants to fly
so that he can visit his family in Spain whom he hasn't seen in many years
and his contact information appears in the credits. All this is peripheral
to the main event, however, and as we soar over the rainforest, we forget
Herzog's description of nature as "a brutal place full of murder and cruel
indifference" and simply bathe in its majesty.
GRADE: A-
Howard
Schumann