Aguirre, the Wrath of God

source: Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Trailer—Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes

Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes

Stunning, dreamlike film documents (in a somewhat documentary style), the story of Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), who leads a group of Spanish conquistadors into the depths of the jungle in search for El Dorado, the mythical city of gold. Beautiful cinematography and locations place the viewer into the heart of the jungle, where they witness firsthand Aguirre's descent into madness. Continually interesting and exciting, it features some of the greatest images ever committed to film, most notably the opening and closing shots of the movie.

Some movies can be summed up with one perfect scene, performance or even line. Think Warren Oates ranting at the head in the bag in "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia". Or "Easy Rider"'s 'We blew it'. Or Divine chowing down on a dog turd in "Pink Flamingos". In "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" it's the sight of the hopelessly insane Klaus Kinski floating to oblivion on a raft covered with monkeys. You'll remember it always. This movie takes you where few dare - to beautiful, damned madness. Herzog is a genius (I don't throw around that term lightly) and Kinski (Rutger Hauer from hell?) his best actor. Anything either did is worth checking out, but together they always surpass themselves. "Aguirre" is their greatest collaboration, and one of the most unforgettable films of all time.

This is impossible to forget this film once you have seen it. There were not so many about Conquistadores; I know Carlos Saura's EL DORADO and ORO, a Spanish movie made in 2017. Klaus Kinsky is totally into his character, some kind of Joseph Conrad's atmosphere, where audience can feel sweat, fear, danger, gold fever, the slow but sure descent towards the abyss which you can not get back from. Fall to oblivion. This is an awesome but oppressive topic, very discomfortable, disturbing adventure drama. An actor involved into such a feature can't stay psychologically unscathed after the shooting. Which was maybe more terrible than the true story of those men from Spain.

... in his pursuit of the gold of El Dorado while exhibiting incestuous thoughts towards his daughter and a belief he is god - with a supporting cast of treason, mutiny, murder, slavery, cannibalism and monkeys: you consider yourself fortunate not to have been part of the Spanish, or indeed any countries ruthless empire building in the past. You are however grateful, for the vision and inspirational insight brought to you by Werner Herzog, leaving you transfixed by the pioneers plight, surroundings (visual and audible), naivety and ignorance in their futile quest for immortality and riches. When you couple all this with the challenges of the films gestation, the time of its inception and the instability and unpredictable nature of Klaus Kinski; that it was ever birthed in the first instance turns it into a treasure worth discovering, or rediscovering if you've mislaid your ability to explore new cinematic horizons.