Blood River
A Slovenian gentleman with a beer gut and a drink problem decides to swim the length of the world's greatest river. Documentary filmmaker John Maringouin (Running Stumbled) finds out what happens when Fitzcarraldo-style psychosis comes to fruition in the real world
Meet Martin Strel, ultra-marathon swimmer and Slovenian national hero. With his sizeable belly and bizarre, booze-based training diet, Strel isn't your usual athlete. But then there's nothing especially everyday about the feats he sets out to accomplish. From conquering the Danube and the Mississippi to swimming the entire length of the Yangtze, Strel's achievements will leave you wondering what you could do on two bottles of wine a day. In 2007, Strel set himself another unlikely challenge - to swim the Amazon. Not that he would approach so hare-brained a scheme alone. No, Strel would take his son and right-hand man Borut with him, together with trolley boy-turned-chief navigator Matthew Mohlke and filmmaker John Maringouin. Strel would also be accompanied up river by a support vessel described as "the worst boat in Peru", and a craft from which buckets of blood would be thrown into the river to distract the local fauna (piranhas, crocodiles, anacondas, those parasitic fish that swim up your old chap) and allow him to swim unimpeded. A burly, larger-than-life figure, an utterly demented endeavour - Big River Man is the sort of film Werner Herzog might have pitched had he gone through with killing Klaus Kinski and then hooked up with Oliver Reed. While the jungle setting and insane task afford easy comparisons to Fitzcarraldo, there's no denying the similarities between Strel's quest and the infamous voyages of Herzog's Brian Fitzgerald and of Marlow in Joseph Conrad's 'Heart Of Darkness'. Since Strel looks rather like the gone-to-seed Marlon Brando, there are also Apocalypse Now similarities to be seized on. Indeed, when Strel's insanity starts to infect navigator Matt Mohlke, the mild-mannered kid from Wisconsin is transformed into a cross between the Russian from Conrad's novella and his Coppola counterpart, Dennis Hopper's raving photojournalist. With Strel either catatonic or so wired he self-administers shock treatment and Mohlke as unable to articulate himself as he is to shut up, the situation resembles Herzog's original vision for Fitzcarraldo, where the burden of dreams crushed original cast members Jason Robards and Mick Jagger. When material's as meaty as this, no embellishment is necessary. It's a shame then that Maringouin and co-director Molly Lynch can't leave well alone. Jazzy visuals, clearly staged scenes, a score that dominates rather than compliments - none of this stuff cripples the picture but it does prevent it attaining true greatness. It's also a pity that, while in, say, Herzog's Grizzly Man, we were only invited to laugh at Timothy Treadwell when viewing footage he'd shot of himself, here, especially in the early stages, Strel Sr seems more like a stooge in a series of sketches rather than a - highly unusual - modern-day hero. Still, when it's not telling you what to think or feel, Big River Man is up there with the very best modern documentaries. Having demonstrated his ability to handle difficult subjects in his previous picture, Running Stumbled, John Maringouin doesn't let a sizeable language barrier and a potentially fatal journey inhibit his filmmaking. And while we might object to some of the elements imposed upon us, Maringouin is far too intelligent and courteous to answer the only question worth asking: why does Martin Strel do it? There is, however, a final sticking point. In interviews, Maringouin has frequently mentioned that Big River Man is as much a film about him as Strel. From reading around, it appears that this is how many documentary filmmakers feel upon completing a picture. However, it seems a daft thing to carp on about when one's own difficulties are as nothing compared to those of your subject. So, yes, John Maringouin had a trying time with his family, but to paraphrase the psychiatrists in 'Fawlty Towers', you could devote an entire conference to Martin Strel. Verdict Gotta see the Big River Man. |
