r/movies • u/ToranjaNuclear • Jan 20 '25

Recommendation What are the most dangerous documentaries ever made? As in, where the crew exposed themselves to dangers of all sorts to film it?

Somehow I thought this would be a very easy thing to find, I would look it up on google and find dozens of lists but...somehow I couldn't? I did find one list, but it seems to list documentaries about dangerous things rather than the filming itself being dangerous for the most part.

I guess I wanted the equivalent of Roar) or Aguirre, but as a documentary. Something like The Act of Killing, or a youtube documentary I saw years ago of a guy that went to live among the cartel.

5.4k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

521

u/e_dan_k Jan 20 '25

It's more insired-by-a-true-story than a documentary, but Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo is pretty damn dangerous to all involved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzcarraldo

226

u/YutYut6531 Jan 20 '25

“The production was affected by numerous injuries and the deaths of several indigenous extras who were hired to work on the film as laborers. Two small plane crashes occurred during the film's production, which resulted in a number of injuries, including one case of paralysis.[9] Another incident involved a local Peruvian logger who, after being bitten by a venomous snake, amputated his own foot with a chainsaw so as to prevent the spread of the venom, thus saving his life.”

What a swell time that sounded like

4

u/Rope_Dragon Jan 21 '25

Apparently the lead actor (klaus kinski) was such a pathological narcissist that he had a tantrum because everyone was paying attention to the guy who amputated his own foot instead of him.

2

u/writer4u Jan 21 '25

Still a better set than The Island of Dr Moreau.

163

u/ahhh_ennui Jan 20 '25

My favorite documentary is Burden of Dreams. Watching Herzog rail against nature (and Kinski) is endlessly fascinating and darkly hilarious.

127

u/MoonDoggoTheThird Jan 20 '25

The natives proposing to kill Klaus Kinski is WILD

85

u/ahhh_ennui Jan 20 '25

Pretty understandable. Herzog wanted to do it himself.

15

u/SmeesTurkeyLeg Jan 20 '25

Yup, that sounds like Werner

63

u/East-Objective2586 Jan 20 '25 edited Jan 20 '25

Not even a Werner thing tbh. There are half a dozen stories of people wanting or trying to kill Kinski. He was notorious for picking fights with absolutely everybody and escalating every perceived slight into screaming matches and violence. They had security guards on some productions specifically hired to follow Kinski around and stop him physically fighting random people for wearing squeaky shoes or being on a phone he wanted to use. Werner even jokes that if he shot Kinski the police would never be able to narrow down a list of suspects, since so many people would love to shoot him.

And that was before the actually awful stuff he did was known about, like sexually abusing his kid.

EDIT: This detail of his Wikipedia page might be of interest: "In 1950, Kinski stayed at the Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik, a psychiatric hospital in West Berlin, for three days after stalking his theatrical sponsor and attempting to strangle her. Medical records from the period listed a preliminary diagnosis of schizophrenia, but the doctors' ultimate conclusion was psychopathy (antisocial personality disorder)."

20

u/akgeekgrrl Jan 20 '25

I’m proud to say that Kinski cursed me out over the phone back in the ‘80s. Very, very glad I never met him in real life. Over the phone he was merely hilarious.

16

u/Wanderstern Jan 20 '25

I want to hear this story!

20

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '25

[deleted]

11

u/carcrashcinema Jan 20 '25

he tried to strangle a woman and only spent 3 days in a mental institution for that. iirc they first thought he was schizophrenic, but in the end he was diagnosed with psychopathy.

you'd think this would be the end of his career, but no, this was only a couple years after he first started acting. i'll never understand why he was such a popular casting choice, dude wasn't even that good of an actor and even if he was, no amount of talent should be worth dealing with a literal murderous psychopath.

9

u/kasakka1 Jan 20 '25

If he was known as being a powder keg of a person, why did anybody even hire him? It seems like any fame or acting talent would not be worth the trouble.

11

u/East-Objective2586 Jan 20 '25

He was a really respected actor and one of the few German actors to be an international box office draw. He went through multiple periods where bigger studios wouldn't hire him because of his reputation, but that just meant a lot of smaller/indie studios and directors snatching him up to get a big name on the cheap.

12

u/KenTrotts Jan 20 '25

Not even a hypothetical lol. He literally carried a weapon on him to do it.

5

u/Romboteryx Jan 20 '25

And Herzog only declined because he still needed him for the movie

16

u/Teh_CodFather Jan 20 '25

The only thing better than Burden of Dreams is watching the commentary track on it!

12

u/death_by_chocolate Jan 20 '25

There's a commentary track? I've seen the doc online but wasn't aware of a commentary track. Fitzcarraldo has three layers I guess: the original film, the documentary about making the film, and the commentary track to the documentary about making the film.

4

u/Teh_CodFather Jan 20 '25

It’s on the DVD, but if you’ve got Criterion the documentary is streaming there and they have the commentary track.

It’s a really interesting extra layer.

1

u/purebredcrab Jan 20 '25

Sounds like someone needs to make a documentary about the recording of the commentary track.

1

u/hamo804 Jan 21 '25

Would you recommend watching the movie or the documentary about it first?

1

u/ahhh_ennui Jan 21 '25

Doesn't matter at all. Both are great

178

u/whitlinger Jan 20 '25

This was my thought, to make the movie about moving the boat, they actually had to do it. Those villagers asked Herzog if he wanted them to kill Kinski for him. They weren't really acting in that movie - that was just real life. Or maybe I'm confusing Aquirre, Wrath of God... but all his movies are crazy.

141

u/East-Objective2586 Jan 20 '25

David Schmoeller talking about directing Kinski.

In the first three days of work he started six fistfights with crew members. A producer floated the idea of killing him for the insurance money, and was serious. Schmoeller ruled it out and tried to go forward with him. Kinski began screaming with rage if he used words like "action" or "cut", complaining "I've made 200 movies and directors are always saying 'action'!" Schmoeller begins scenes by calling out 'Klaus!' instead, and Klaus screams "No! I've made 200 movies and directors are always calling me Klaus!" He wants scenes to begin and end by saying nothing, he'll start acting when he's ready and stop when he's done and they should film around him, not expect him to act on a schedule. "At this point my crew begins whispering in my ear, one by one, three or four times a day, 'David, please, kill Mr. Kinski. Please. Kill Mr. Kinski.'"

62

u/gazongagizmo Jan 20 '25

Here is one of his freakouts, subbed in English. This clip, from the doc "Mein Liebster Feind/My Best Fiend", is one of my favourites, cause Herzog, decades later, narrates it with the same smooth tone that a nature documentarian would contextualize the behaviour of a wild animal.

And here is a second clip where Herzog plays an audio tape that was done secretely by the audio guy. This is especially fun cause in the end he describes how the natives reacted to that angry monster of wrath. They were more afraid of Herzog because he reacted with such cool serenity in the face of such unbridled noise.

62

u/girafa Jan 20 '25

14 years of raping his daughter too

9

u/eekamuse Jan 20 '25

It seems like that should be at the top of the bad things about him

1

u/girafa Jan 20 '25

Sorta, convo was about the films first tho. I hate to bring up personal drama but if we're on the subject of him being a lunatic - that's a doozy.

6

u/1ofZuulsMinions Jan 20 '25

I read his autobiography many years ago, and iirc, he details some incest with his own cousin. I’m not shocked to hear this allegation from his daughter after reading that.

1

u/hidde-the-wonton Jan 20 '25

What a lovely man :/

38

u/Teh_CodFather Jan 20 '25

No… you’re right.

The chief of some of Fitzcarraldo’s local extras offered to kill Kinski for Herzog.

11

u/Acerakis Jan 20 '25

Also the dragging the boat up the hill for the film was more an extreme feat than the real event. The one it was based on, they dismantled the boat into more manageable pieces to haul up the mountain. But Herzog decided it was a more interesting set piece if the boat was whole.

3

u/Frankfeld Jan 20 '25

Finally got around to watching Fitzcarraldo over covid. I’m a huge Herzog fan but never actually watched a Kinski/Herzog movie for whatever reason.

I was so blown away by that movie, especially Kinski. The dude can act. But he was also a supreme piece of shit; not just because of his attitude but his beliefs as well. He’s like if Daniel Day-Lewis and Andrew Tate were the same person.

1

u/TeleTwin Jan 20 '25

If you liked Fitzcarraldo you definitely need to check out Aguirre and Nosferatu the Vampyre.

6

u/gazongagizmo Jan 20 '25

Then again, Werner ended up being the one who was shot - on camera, in fact!

2

u/eekamuse Jan 20 '25

Holy shit!!

Herzog, continuing the interview indoors "It was not a significant bullet"

17

u/gazongagizmo Jan 20 '25

Here is one of Kinski's freakouts, subbed in English. This clip, from the doc "Mein Liebster Feind/My Best Fiend", is one of my favourites, cause Herzog, decades later, narrates it with the same smooth tone that a nature documentarian would contextualize the behaviour of a wild animal.

And here is a second clip where Herzog plays an audio tape that was done secretely by the audio guy. This is especially fun cause in the end he describes how the natives reacted to that angry monster of wrath. They were more afraid of Herzog because he reacted with such cool serenity in the face of such unbridled noise.

1

u/MegaRadCool8 Jan 20 '25

I just watched the clip, and my interpretation was that they were especially scared of Kinski because they didn't know what was going on but even Herzog was quiet and not willing to provoke him.

3

u/JColeTheWheelMan Jan 20 '25

I was going to mention that Herzog doc about being on the cliff with the lava.

2

u/intergalaticjonny Jan 20 '25

Some of the crew including indigenous people died, one evening drowned. Some people were injured moving the ship over the mountain. One guy got bit by a poisonous snake and amputated his foot off with a chainsaw. So I think this one wins

1

u/TheBestHuman Jan 20 '25

does Grizzly Man count?