10 Behind The Scenes Documentaries Even Better Than The Movies

Werner Herzog's movie, Fitzvarraldo, tells the story of an Irish rubber baron determined to move a giant steamship through the Amazon. Transporting it from one river to another over land, with nothing but man power alone, the task soon proves near impossible, driving the lead character to the point of insanity.

In true Herzog fashion, he wanted to capture the difficulties of such a task without the use of special effects. The director acquired the help of the indigenous people to pull the 320-ton ship over a vast hill.

The entire tumultuous ordeal is detailed in Burden Of Dreams, and is one of the greatest examples of life imitating art.

Like the movie's protagonist, Herzog become so obsessed with the task that he slowly descended into a kind of madness. Herzog's single-minded determination to complete the production resulted in many of the crew being seriously injured, and even lead to a death.

As well as the crew having to contend with Herzog's ill-advised and stubborn demands, the production was haunted by the wild and erratic behaviour of leading man, Klaus Kinski. He had such a hostile relationship with almost everybody on set, that one of the indigenous tribes people actually offered to kill him for Herzog. Seemingly this brought Herzog to his senses for a brief moment, as he refused the offer.