Hands On A Hard Body Movie Analysis

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Hello and welcome back! I missed you. In case you're new, you can find the first part of this article here. For the initiated, let's get right back to it! Here they are, the rest of the 25 Greatest Documentaries of All Time. 12. Hands On a Hard Body (1997) Source: Legacy Releasing Corporation source: Legacy Releasing Corporation Directed by S.R. Binder Hands On A Hard Body is like a Seven Samurai of misplaced hope; the old geezer, the seasoned veteran, the young buck, the girl, the token black guy etc. are all brought together not to defend a poor farming village, but for the opportunity to win a brand new pick-up truck. The catch? In order to win, they must stand upright with at least one hand on said truck longer than any of the other…show more content…
Chronicling the production of Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo, Burden is unique because of Herzog's career long fascination with blending documentary and fiction; he insists there be actualities depicted in his scripted films (as well as some staged moments in his documentaries), thus making Blank's film a doc on a doc of sorts. Though generally about the shooting in Peru as a whole, the film's main focus is on the logistics of one scene in particular; the pulling over a large hill of a full-sized steamship at a relatively steep grade. To achieve this, Herzog enlists the help of the local Machiguenga tribe to power the ship's monstrous ascent. Caught between the natives, the sweltering heat, his disillusioned crew and the oppressive untamed jungle, Herzog throughout the film appears to tread the line between being totally in control and completely losing it. From balancing that line, Herzog ruminates on his shoot from a place of a calm, yet precarious, fervor and with a perspective gained only through both extreme hard ship and devotion. Interestingly then, the central metaphor of Blank's film becomes the same as that of Herzog's entire body of work: the futility of the struggle of humanity in the face of nature. Those interested in an even more detailed account of the making of Fitzcarraldo are encouraged to check out Herzog's book Conquest of the

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