The white diamond

Germany/Japan/Brit 2004

Dir: Werner Herzog

87 mins, English commentary and some subtitles

Cast: Werner Herzog, Graham Dorrington, Dieter Plage

Rating: PG

A superb portrait of the dangers as well as euphoria that can come from chasing one’s most treasured dreams, Werner Herzog’s The White Diamond vividly encapsulates nearly all of the director’s recurring thematic obsessions: adventurers plagued by past tragedies; the beguiling beauty of the untamed wilderness; the sacredness of the world’s age-old mysteries; and contemporary man’s simultaneously harmonious and dissonant connection to nature. Herzog’s doc follows Dr. Graham Dorrington, a University of London professor and scientist, into the depths of the Guyana jungle, where he’s committed to recording the Amazon canopy around the towering Kaieteur Falls from on high in a self-designed, balloon-suspended airship described by a local Rastafarian named Mark Anthony as a “white diamond.” The moniker is apt considering the area’s local diamond mining industry, though as Herzog’s journey develops, what results isn’t simply a vision of modernity coming into close contact with the ancient Earth but also a tale of spiritual desolation and attempted atonement involving Dr. Dorrington’s all-consuming guilt over the death of nature cinematographer (and admired friend) Dieter Plage during a similar expedition in 1992.

... Herzog’s ethereal and reverential cinematography is awash in gorgeous imagery, from a vision of the Kaieteur Falls reflected in a drop of water to that of Dorrington’s airship gently grazing a river before resuming its levitating journey. Yet the tale’s overwhelming majesty is derived not only from these stunning compositions but also from Herzog’s curiosity about the way in which daring ambitions such as Dorrington’s lifelong affinity for flight ... hold the promise for both irreparable catastrophe as well as exhilarating joy. ... Rapturous and haunting, The White Diamond finds Herzog once again journeying into a geographical and emotional heart of darkness, and returning with a quasi-mystical masterpiece.

Nicks Schager, nickschager.com

... Herzog balances what is shown and not shown, what is real and unreal in The White Diamond. Though documentaries often purport factual accounts, facts do not interest Herzog. The value of cinema—documentaries and fiction films alike—resides in expressive and aesthetic representations from which some measure of understanding or truth is derived. In both fiction and nonfiction, Herzog is a storyteller first. He believes in the power of cinema to create a greater understanding of the world, and for him, wisdom does not derive from facts but trying to see the world from other perspectives. “Truth illuminates,” he often says, and reveals “the ecstatic truth” about human beings. When The White Diamond finally captures the success of Dorrington’s scientific and personal mission, it illuminates how humanity is no different than a delicate piece of human technology standing before the transcendence of Nature. By association, the film also illuminates Herzog’s experiences and cinematic preoccupations in a perfect metaphor.

Brian Eggert, deepfocusreview.com