Aguirre: Wrath of God

Werner Herzog's, Aguirre: Wrath Of God  on the surface  is  a statement on the ineffable horrors  found in the ubiquitously terrifying South American jungle. The film and raft so prominently displayed is driven by Aguirre a man hounded by the goal of finding the lost city of El Dorado and finally conquering South America in its entirety. He does so at the behest of his own maddening delusion, even while protest from his dwindling crew ring in his ears. The jungle around him is assailing and suffocating, the danger of native tribes always on the mind and on tips of poisoned darts;  in this world, Aguirre will stop at nothing to succeed.


The cinematography is beautiful; vivacious colours bounce out of screen from the first shot as the conquistadors and their slaves emerge from a misty mountainside. Their tale is told in various handheld shots, the camera manages to continuously move throughout the film, even if it is a minor change. The sense of uneasiness with this is then increasingly noticeable. The use of nature against our marauding conquerors is done to an increasingly terrifying level. For example, the water gets calmer as the film goes on, seemingly the dangerous and swift rapids in the early portions of the film possess our conquistadors and cause them to become temperamental and go insane. Every pore of their being has been infested by the unknown terrain as it laughs at them from every position.  The unrelenting sun, the dense and near impenetrable foliage, to even the monkeys found in the films climax. They constantly serve as a reminder as a loss of control  to the individuals on the boat, and laugh at them every change they get.

Klaus Kinski does a phenomenal job as Aguirre, as a friend noted before I had seen any of his films, his presence is measured by his eyes.  He manages to convey multitudes of maddening stages just by the opening of the iris or eyelids, this acting experiment is quite amazing and terrifying to look at. Additionally his movements are beautiful, feral and manipulative, he maneuvers around as if her where a snake, slowly tricking and poisoning his boat. Like the snake in Eden's garden he tempts and destroys paradise for those around them, his own selfish  goals the only thing left. It was smart of Herzog to portray the character as this and not as the insane unhinged maniac that Kinski wanted to display himself as.

Although the film has moments of quietness, and instances where very little happens, the boat drifting or them walking, the only moments punctuated with melodramatic insanity is through Aguirre. The conquistador himself has ravaged and upset the balance of nature and thus things most be restored.

Aguirre: Wrath Of God is a beautifully shot film, carried by an incredible performance by Kinski and reflective directing by Herzog.  Aguirre additionally is a surprisingly funny film in parts, one particular scene where a man after being shot in the leg with an arrow retorts how, "The long arrows are becoming fashionable" in a very dead pan manner.  Another fascinating scene is when the native encountered by the conquistador's his killed for blasphemy. His own innocence at taking the bible literally as the word of god and thus question why it does not speak, is uncomfortably funny. However, this misunderstanding and duality in cultures and thus the hostility that occurs, seems to be a prevalent theme throughout the film.