Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Introduction: This is Werner Herzog's masterful look at the perils of unbridled ambition. This is a theme that he visits in many of his films, but no matter how many times you hear him say it the message isn't any less profound. Plot Overview: Francisco Pizzaro (Alejandro Repulles) has been traveling with thousands of soldiers on a mission to find the lost city of El Dorado in the Amazon jungle. Unfortunately, the journey has been more difficult than he imagined, and he orders a small group to raft down a river to look for it. He appoints the honest Don Pedro de Ursúa (Ruy Guerra) to lead the mission with the more seedy Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) second-in-command. After a raft consisting of 1/3 of this party is stuck in an eddy and local Indians have killed them, Ursúa is ready to turn back to Pizarro. However, Aguirre has his mind set on great riches and convinces the others to share this vision. He commits mutiny. He nominates a dummy emperor of the New World Don Fernando de Guzman (Peter Berling), thus abandoning the Spanish crown. This group continues to float down the river --- they battle the elements of nature, the sometimes-hostile natives and (worst of all) themselves. Commentary: It's amazing how utterly watchable this movie is. I've seen it twice now, and it's engaging from beginning till the end. It helps that Herzog knows how to position a camera and capture the soul of his characters. Klaus Kinski is a fantastic performer who is instantly memorable in every movie he ever starred in (although that's mostly due to his unconventional looks). He does seem to spend an awful lot of time "looking around," which I might imagine would make for some entertaining amateur DVD commentaries. This is usually considered a "minimalist" movie although I don't think that's such a fair description, because it's so rich with emotion, adventure and flavor. The "minimalist" description comes into play when you consider that there's a less-than-average amount of dialog (favoring the natural but beautiful soundscape of the Amazon jungle) and the awesomely "minimal" progressive rock music from Popol Vuh. The lack of dialog is especially a benefit to non-German speakers who don't like to read subtitles. The best part about Herzog's directorial decisions is that he keeps a sense of humor about it. He doesn't seem to treat his characters seriously, who are clearly treating themselves seriously. The gluttonous and vain dummy emperor hasn't a clue how ridiculous he looks. Aguirre's unbridled ambitions are so daft and over-the-top (played to perfection by Kinski) that it's difficult to not break down laughing. (On second thought, you won't laugh if you have a heart, because Aguirre is such a tragic figure.) Part of the monologue at the end of the movie says it all about Aguirre: "I, the Wrath of God, will marry my own daughter and with her I will found the purest dynasty the world has ever seen. We shall rule this entire continent. We shall endure. I am the Wrath of God!" This is a beautiful movie and one that is deeply profound. I actually prefer a startlingly similar movie that Herzog directed in 1982 called Fitzcarraldo, which you might consider to be Aguirre on crack. Concluding Remarks: This movie is an art-house classic. It's stirring, profound and thoughtful --- the way cinema ought to be. Date reviewed: April 6, 2007 FINAL SCORE: A
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