Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

In a way quite similar to Scorsese's Taxi Driver, Aguirre, the Wrath of God is primarily about a ride straight into madness. In this case this is due to the obsessive nature of humanity and the indifference one has with other concerns when faced with a promise of riches.It is a colorful, yet eerie and haunting movie because of the eeriness of the soundtrack and the visual deterioration of the expedition ( aswell as the unseen natives picking them off one by one ) as the journey progresses. There is a constant suspenseful silent feel around the film which seems like anything could happen at any moment. In the end it is obviously about Klaus Kinski's character and his greedy psychopathic madness which causes him to keep going on a never ending quest for El Dorado, a mythical illusion symbolizing the emptiness of man's obsessive compulsion.Klaus Kinski is, ofcourse, excellent as the crazed 'Don' Aguirre. His facial acting screams out the word 'madness' ( Quite possibly so convincing because Kinski himself has been described as a madman in real life. ) and his path strays further and further from humanity as the film progresses, eventually even showing indifference to his daughter. Unfortunately none of the other characters are quite as fascinating as Kinski, which makes the film in turn revolve more around him, but he carries it with such conviction that this does not lesser the film's quality by that much. There is little dialogue, and there is a lot of silence throughout the movie, emphasizing the inner dilemma of the question whether 'El Dorado' is even real.The movie's on location shooting results in beautiful shots all the way through. The first one is obviously the greatest one. In the first shot of the film, we see a staggering view of the entire expedition making its way down the mountain, symbolizing how little we are in quest for riches beyond our belief. As a combination of movement and cinematography, the opening scene also has to be one of the greatest and most beautiful openings to a film ever made. One of the slightly lesser qualities of the camera work seems to be Herzog's tendency to film with a moving camera on things like the rafts or at the indian village causing it to become quite bouncy and difficult to see what's going on. This was probably implemented to improve the audience's immersion, but still widescreen shots still seem like the better way to go.It is in the end not about a quest for gold, but a study on how greed affects the obsessive nature of man and changes a man for the worst. This obsession causes man to develop illusions of themselves to neglect any kind of argument that it cannot be real, and this is displayed perfectly in the final stages of the film. With a masterful Kinski performance, excellent on location cinematography ( except for lesser handheld shots ), a great psychology on greed and obsession and a great moral dilemma ( Ursua being the voice of reason, and Aguirre madness ) it is a great film.

South America, 16th Century. Spanish explorer Don Lope de Aguirre leads an expedition down the Amazon river to find the fabled city of El Dorado. Beset on all sides by unfriendly natives, the journey will turn out to be a treacherous one. An even bigger enemy to the party is themselves, as they start to turn on each other. Even more problematic is their leader, who is quite oppressive and does not appear to be entirely sane.Brilliant movie, written and directed by famed German director Werner Herzog. Herzog slowly and deliberately ramps up the intensity and insanity. Plot starts conventionally enough but then as things get more intense, becomes more unpredictable, mirroring the mindset and actions of the protagonists. Powerful, profound ending.Excellent work by Klaus Kinski in the lead role. Role suited him perfectly, as he himself was hardly a paragon of stability. This would be the first of five collaborations between Herzog and Kinski.

Klaus Kinski turns in a fantastic performance in this film, and his helmet and piercing blue eyes combine for an iconic image. He plays a power-hungry 16th century rebel who is hell-bent on finding the golden city of El Dorado to achieve riches and fame. I love how director Werner Herzog filmed on a location and really 'took us there', not only to the Amazon, but to a doomed feeling of hopelessness as the raft the Spaniards are on drifts downriver on a fool's errand. On the other hand, it's a bleak tale, and one in which little episodes such as natives approaching in a canoe and the Spaniards burning one of their villages are stitched together somewhat weakly, with jumps forward in time. The screenplay and editing seem disorganized, and while that may add to an overall dreamlike (or nightmarish), chaotic feeling, which was perhaps the point, it also made it a little less enjoyable for me. There are certainly some great images in the film, bookended by a caravan traveling through the mountains at the beginning, to Aguirre raving delusions of grandeur on a raft overrun with monkeys at the end. For me it's a good film, but not a great one.

And really there is not much else to say. The power of vaunting ambition and personal magnetism in defiance of all reason. Seems like a highly apposite kind of film to watch in this era. "We will go on, we will persist, we will do this, we will make it happen against all possible reason."As regards the cinematography, yes it's kind of beautiful, yet it's also obviously realistic and plain and un-graded, not lush, not drenched in greenery or blue skies like you might expect from reviews mentioning how excellent it is. Do not expect Avatar style CGI because it ain't here. Herzog's Amazon is a world of brown mud and grey and very muted green.