Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Aguirre: The Wrath of God has earned itself a reputation of greatness since its release back in 1972, and represents the first teaming of German director Werner Herzog and the infamously crazed actor Klaus Kinski. Astoundingly, the film was produced and created independently - utilising stolen equipment and some 400 stolen squirrel monkeys. I had a lot of high expectations for this film before watching it but rest assured, I found it to be suitably excellent.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God is extremely loosely based on the doomed travels of the rogue Spanish conquistador, Lope de Aguirre, and his questing for the fabled city of gold, El Dorado. The film begins with a 1000-strong Spanish expedition venturing into the difficult and unforgiving jungles of the Amazon... they are in search of El Dorado, a city that does not exist, spurred on by own greed for riches and glory. As the expedition travels further into the remote rainforest the hardships they face become too difficult... a smaller party is sent on ahead to find food for the massive group, and when they too fail against the obstacles of the wilderness it begins to seem that they will all have to turn back. But the conquistadors don't figure upon the presence of Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), one of the more senior soldiers in the food party. Aguirre, refusing to turn back from the road to El Dorado, leads a mutiny against their leader, Ursua (Ruy Guerra), and then presses on along the river... declaring independence and abandoning ties with the larger expedition and even Spain itself.

The landscape of the South American jungle is as much a character in this film as anyone else, and it gets plenty of attention from Herzog - making for a wondrously picturesque backdrop seldom featured to such an extent in cinema. It's also a starkly un-Hollywood adventure, opting to tell the story mostly via body language and action as opposed to unnatural exposition. The depiction of the conquistadors is also refreshingly impressive in it's realistic display of the attitudes of the time, completely unadultured by modern revisionism and politically-correct sentimentalism. Indeed, one of the most fascinating aspects of the film is its commentary on colonialism and imperialism... the ridiculous European attitudes of the Spanish invaders are completely out of place in this landscape. Women ride in sedan chairs through barely traversible rainforest and swamp, the conquistadors make valiant and mostly unsuccessful attempts to transport cannons through the terrain, and - in one wonderful and ludicrous scene - an official trial is held in the depths of the jungle to ensure that Spanish justice is properly carried out. The damnation of European imperialism is hardly a new theme in film, but never before has it been shown so unambiguously in such a subtle and objective fashion.

It's easy to see how Kinski's acting prowess gained such a reputation after this film too. Initially Aguirre waits on the sidelines, but he slowly works his way to power within the group of soldiers as they become more and more cut off from civilisation... his immorality and lack of compunction are no small companion to his ambitions, and it comes as no real surprise when he eventually reveals himself to be absolutely insane. Aguirre pulls the group further and further into their own greed, obsession and lust for glory... and eventually, via a communal descent into delusion and savagery at the hands of starvation and hostile natives, he drags them into hell. The end shot is a marvellous piece of work, the camera circling endlessly around the ruined raft full of damned and fallen souls, Aguirre the only man left standing tall, ranting and raving to an army of monkeys about his plans for a new world.

It's a very visual film and I've always held a kind of romantic interest in the Amazonian jungle and remote wildernesses in general. Just from watching this film it looks like it would've been very hard to make - owing to the location and positioning of certain scenes. This alone is an admirable achievement - nowadays a director wouldn't bother, probably opting to use CGI and other modern techniques instead. I could watch this film a lot.

DIRECTOR: Werner Herzog
WRITER/SOURCE: Werner Herzog, based on historical events.
KEY ACTORS: Klaus Kinski, Helenas Rojo, Peter Berling, Ruy Guerra, Del Negro

RELATED TEXTS:
- The same story was also told in the 1988 Spanish film El Dorado.
- Herzog and Kinski would team up for four further films; Nosferatu, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde. Their collaboration is also covered in Herzog's documentary, My Best Friend.
- Films influenced by Aguirre: The Wrath of God include Apocalypse Now, The New World, The Mission, The Man Who Read Love Stories and pretty much any other post-70s film set in a jungle/wilderness.