Reviews
The Independent on Sunday
Laurence Phelan
“A gripping documentary – positively Herzogian in its wry examination of the borderland between quixotic obsession and insanity, and of the pitiless indifference of the natural world – it charts a 2007 attempt by Martin Strel to swim the length of the Amazon.”
06/09/2009
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The Daily Mail
Chris Tookey
“It's a memorable portrait of a genuine eccentric, which will remind many of Werner Herzog's films Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man. I was left unconvinced by Martin's claims to be an eco-warrior, and ultimately he comes across as an insane egotist, Slovenia's answer to Borat.”
04/09/2009
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Time Out
Ben Walters
“As the 70 days of the attempt unfold, Strel emerges as less exotic curio or eco-campaigner (despite the film’s attempts to frame him as such) than genuinely Herzogian obsessive, compelled to seek both unity with and mastery over nature.”
03/09/2009
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The Times
David Hayles
“It starts like Borat made by Werner Herzog; then turns into an unhinged downriver adventure. Strel doesn’t so much go native as animal — in the water he resembles a lithe hippo.”
05/09/2009
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The Sunday Times
Edward Porter
“It’s a messy film — a few scenes look to be reconstructions, and the lack of any interview with Strel himself is frustrating — but it certainly shows us a colourful part of life’s rich tapestry.”
06/09/2009
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The Mirror
Mark Adams
“Hilarious and compulsive documentary”
30/08/2009
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The Observer
Philip French
“The man is a mad obsessive and one is surprised that he hasn't ended up in the exotic trophy room of Werner Herzog, whose films Big River Man resembles. As if Strel were not enough, the expedition was accompanied as navigator by an American hippy, Matthew Mohlke, who makes Dennis Hopper's photographer in Apocalypse Now look like Al Gore and regards Strel as "almost Christ-like" and "the last superhero in the world."”
06/09/2009
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The Times
Toby Young
“Big River Man seems like a spoof at first.”
04/09/2009
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The Financial Times
Peter Aspden
“Big River Man is a documentary portrait of Slovenian extreme swimmer Martin Strel, and it follows his record-breaking attempt to swim the length of the river Amazon. Are we reaching saturation point for these poignant studies of excess?”
02/09/2009
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The Guardian
Andrew Pulver
“A bizarre, occasionally troubling documentary about marathon swimmer Martin Strel, the Slovenian who made headlines with his record-breaking swim down the Amazon river in 2007”
04/09/2009
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The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“Filmed by his son and assistant Borut, this chronicle of his swim is fuzzy and flaky: the implication is that Strel, exhausted and delirious from his efforts, suffered a mental breakdown. His story requires a comparable narrator: one wonders what Werner Herzog might have done with it.”
04/09/2009
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