Les Blank’s 1982 documentary Burden of Dreams arrives in a 4K UHD + Blu-ray special edition from The Criterion Collection, featuring a new 4K digital restoration with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio. The film chronicles the grueling production of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, capturing the obsession, danger, and audacity behind hauling a full-size steamship over an Amazonian hill.
Film Info
Country: United States, Germany
Year: 1982
Runtime: 96 minutes
Color | 1.33:1 | English, German, Spanish, Indigenous Peruvian
Spine: #287
Special Features
4K UHD + Blu-ray special edition features:
- New 4K digital restoration supervised by filmmaker Harrod Blank with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio
- Alternate uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring Les Blank, editor and sound recordist Maureen Gosling, and Fitzcarraldo director Werner Herzog
- Interview with Herzog
- Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980), a short film by Blank
- Deleted scenes
- Behind-the-scenes photos taken by Maureen Gosling
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation and English SDH
- Plus: an essay by film scholar Paul Arthur and a book of excerpts from Blank’s and Gosling’s production journals
- Cover illustration by Richard May; design by Martin Ogolter
Release Date
The Criterion edition of Burden of Dreams releases on November 11, 2025 and can be pre-ordered here.
READ MORE: Criterion, Burden of Dreams (1982)
