sol- 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.

kiwisago 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...

Roland E. Zwick 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.

dbborroughs I am a huge Werner Herzog fan. His early films filled me with a wonderful sense of what movies could do and so hooked me at a young age on the most powerful of all drugs, celluloid.More than his fiction films I am a fan of Herzog's documentaries. There is something about the way he sees a subject that opens your eyes to things other than the subject at hand. Often his documentaries are almost something else, his Lessons in the Darkness about the oil well fires in Kuwait is structured as an aliens arrival on earth. Its a haunting film that is more magical and informative than the similar IMAX film Fires of Kuwait.The White Diamond, is on the face of it the story of the building of an airship to study the canopy of the rain forests. It is also, as Werner Herzog tells it, the story of the search for absolution for the death of the inventors friend. I will certainly buy the first part, but I highly doubt the second.This is simply one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. The shots of the balloon in flight, the waterfall, the birds that live by the falls and the life in the canopy make this the first time I ever wanted to own the biggest and best TV ever made just so I could see these images. I doubt that other than on a rare occasion you'll ever have seen anything as beautiful.Herzog also introduces us to some real characters Dr Dorrington, the inventor of the airship is a man of great passion. Mark Anthony Yhap, a man hired to help porter materials is probably worthy a film himself. Also the rest of the crew are also intriguing characters for the brief period they cross the screen. It is the mix of people and image that make this film work as well as it does.The trouble is that the film almost doesn't work. As a narrative the film is sloppy and unfocused. We are told about the cave behind the falls where the birds live and where no one has ever gone.We see a camera lowered down to a climber so footage inside the cave can be shot, only to be told we will not be shown the footage. It is only sometime later that we are told why, what is in the cave is a legend and to reveal whats there could up set the belief of the population. Its an odd way round the subject and feels completely backwards. The real trouble with the film is the way Herzog hammers away at Dorrington about the death of a friend some years earlier when a ship he had made got caught up in the trees. Dorrington was in no way responsible for the accident of the death (other than he built the ship that was involved) but Herzog trumpets the point over and over in order to give some dramatic tension to what appeared to be a pretty straight forward test flight of the airship. It adds a false note that almost sinks the film...from which it recovers from when ever we see the ship in flight or get away from the morbid subject.Definitely worth seeing. Its a flawed masterpiece that's a must in High Definition or on a really good TV.