The White Diamond (2004)

A Disappointing Continuation

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Werner Herzog, as usual (considering the three Werner Herzog documentaries I have seen so far), narrates this one and he begins when the dream of the man of flying was only that, a dream. Now in Dr. Graham Dorrington we have a modern aeronautical engineer with a dream. Dorrington had in himself the dream of flying since long time ago, since he was a kid that stuff was in his mind and since then he knew the consequences. In the new "mission" of Dorrington Herzog was there…The film has like three sides; we watch the professional side with Dorrington and his team of course (and the people from Guyana) planning and checking every single detail of the airship and with Herzog himself. We watch a personal side of Dorrington with that chapter in his past and with the tragic thing that happened during a similar "mission" like 10 years before so right now like 14 years ago. And we watch the side of the film that has in the place and people the protagonists. Herzog and his team were there to capture the work of Dorrington but is obvious that once there they filmed some more fascinating material. Dorrington had one clear objective, to make work his new invention in that unexplored place, in Guyana. There were complications and we knew what was in Dorrington's mind every time he felt something was going to be wrong. And everything is about film-making; Herzog was filming a man who wanted to fly and film. And everything is about those brave filmmakers, a team filming impressive footage knowing that if the worst happens their way can be until there. Eventually the White Diamond flew and that image is nothing but just another of the many beautiful images that the film present to us. Apart of that we watch the interesting and touching story but not only the one of Dorrington. It is an encounter of different worlds, exactly as Dorrington said they were the ones with the professional knowledge and with the technology however nothing is comparable to the knowledge of a man like Marc Anthony Yhap who's home is that place. The White Diamond is a beautiful film and it is just another interesting and worth watching work from Herzog.

Once again, the most adventurous documentary film maker of our time returns to his most beloved subjects and his most beloved setting. The White Diamond is about an obsessed man who wants to conquer a relatively unexplored frontier in the South American rain forest. Yet this is no sequel or remake of the amazing Herzog film Aguirre. Rather, in The White Diamond, Herzog returns to his beloved rain forest to tell the story of Dr. Graham Dorrington's struggle to build and fly an ultra-light helium airship as a way to explore the resources and ecology of the South American rain forest canopy.Unlike many of Herzog's recent films, The White Diamond has an irrepressibly upbeat tone, as Herzog seems - as he can seemingly only do in South America - to celebrate the simultaneous absurdity and brilliance of the human spirit. Like Little Dieter, Fitzcarraldo, Rescue Dawn and Kaspar Hauser, The White Diamond is about remarkable people who do remarkable things. And like almost all of Herzog's portfolio, the photography and soundtrack are magnificent.Herzog appears quite often in this film, and, as he has done frequently in recent times, gives us a bit more of a view of his interior world. Unlike Grizzly Man, however, this is not the dark, constrained hostility of the great director's view of life, but rather the hopeful Herzog who is interested in what makes people tick. And, unlike many of his films, he seems to like what he sees this time.The White Diamond occasionally tangentializes away from the main story to talk to us about things that inspire the local inhabitants of the rain forest where the story takes place. A mysterious cave is explored, but the mystery is preserved in deference to the wishes of a local tribe. The poet philosopher of Dorrington's team is a local Rastafarian herbalist who finds tranquility and joy in everything, but whose rooster is his major inspiration. And then there are Herzog and Dorrington themselves, who are a whole different story. Some of Dorrington's incessant commentary can be a little annoying, but I believe Herzog left it in the film to give us a clear sense of the man himself - for which I can not fault the director.Literally and spiritually uplifting, The White Diamond is a truly lovely film which uses setting and story to create a lasting impression. Like most of Herzog's films, it bears intense, wide-awake, and repeated scrutiny, and is worth thinking about afterward.

Herzog loves to explore the nature within. He has been doing this ever since he started out as a filmmaker. Aguirre, Wrath of God is a good example. There nature mirrors what is happening with in the persons. He does that same thing here.A lesser filmmaker would only have concentrated on the technical marvel and the landscape. He/she would have overlooked the dreams and life of Marc Anthony Yhap (a hired hand) and Graham Dorrington's bleeding heart because of mistakes in the past. Inner landscape which are just as fascinating as the thousands of birds diving under the waterfall or the reflection in the raindrop.I thought this film was like a meditation on life, past, present, dreams, failures, cultures and harmony with nature. I loved how Herzog would keep the shots longer than most directors would have, like when Graham Dorrington puts on his jet suit and pretend to fly like superman. And the landscape pictures where just breathtaking.This is one of Herzog's best film, and that's saying a lot.

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.