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Aguirre, the Wrath of God

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"Aguirre" (1972) is directed by Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo) and was filmed on location in the Peruvian rain forest on the Amazon River. The movie is loosely based on Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) who was involved in a 1560 expedition that left Peru to find the city of El Dorado. Herzog combined this story with another Amazonian journey of Gonzalo Pizarro in 1541-1542. In real life Aguirre was a professional soldier who decided he could overthrow the Spanish rule of Peru with the 300 men on the journey. Aguirre murdered Ursua and proclaimed Guzman the "Prince of Peru", and eventually also murdered Guzman. As with many of Herzog's films the actors were pushed to the limits in the filming of this movie as they had to climb up mountains, hack through thick jungle, and ride river rapids on rafts built by natives. During the filming a storm flooded the river and subsequently buried the film sets and destroyed the rafts. This flooding was incorporated into the movie. The film has a hypnotic quality that takes one down the path of madness and hallucination. Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film "Apocalypse Now" would be influenced by this film's visual style and narrative elements.

This particular version is in English or German, with English subtitles. The movie was originally filmed in English in mono, but the German soundtrack is superior in 5.1 Dolby Digital. The amazingly ethereal soundtrack is by Popol Vuh. This DVD's format is full screen 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

On the eastern slopes of the Andes during the Spanish expedition , Gonzalo Pizarro urges his men to continue through the thick Amazon forests despite the dangers within the dark and humid jungle. The tale of Pizarro's venture begins with an ominous warning as it is revealed to the audience that the only surviving evidence of the expedition is a journal kept by Brother Gaspar de Carvajal, a monk who travels to spread the gospel of Christianity. This bleak foreshadowing induces an inching uneasiness into the mind of the audience. This is enhanced by further looming incidents such as native slaves dying like flies from simple colds and food shortage. The low supply of food leads to a decision to split the group where one group should return for provisions and the other should continue searching for a gold shimmering city. This tale then follows the ill-fated who continue the journey for the legendary city as they are drawn deeper into the cruel world of the Amazon. Deaths of several men forebode the grim future of the expedition, which the leadership wants to call off and return to the safety of civilization. However, Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), a high ranking soldier, commands a rise against the leadership based on a proud vision of greatness and worldly riches beyond imagination that drives him to thrust deeper into the unexplored rainforest. Aguirre's vision draws the expedition into a personal realm of madness and destruction, which leads to only one certain fate.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God has a lingering effect on the audience as the eerie atmosphere created by Herzog persists from the initial shot to the final scene. There are several components that generate this bizarre ambiance of the story such as cinematography, idiosyncrasies, mise-en-scene, and performances by the cast. The cinematography is simple and sometimes documentary-like, which produces a real feeling. This real feeling together with the uncanny knowledge of the unavoidable doom enhances the extraordinary atmosphere of the venture. The complete portrait of the character Aguirre by Klaus Kinski is nothing but spectacular. Herzog's choice of mise-en-scene is delicately chosen as all the items had to be transported by the expedition. Each item within each frame displays a significant symbolism such as the horse and raft, which adds new layers to the unnatural atmosphere. Lastly, the performances by the cast are outstanding as it is not the dialogue that drives the story forward, but the visual manifestation of their being that elevates the outlandish impression of each scene. When Herzog combined all the aspects of film-making in Aguirre: The Wrath of God he left the world a brilliantly eerie cinematic experience that will leave several notions in reflecting minds.

Werner Herzog was in the seventies togeteher with the unforgettable Fassbinder, the alpha and the omega in the germany filmography of those film makers born at the end of the world war two.
Herzog has always been a high risk director. He liked to walk in the knife's edge in every film he made in those years.
But what Herzog got with this work fullfilled with superb cinematography, edition, casting, script, was something unbelievable.
In fact if you analyze carefully like me , that I 've seen all his following works, it's useless to state this is the masterpiece of Herzog, even Fitzcarraldo, filmed also with Kinski years after.
The powerful script with the Amazonas river as natural frame, the huge realism in that overpower sequence in the river with those men who are caught in circles night and day, that amazing answer who gives the priest as request to Don Pedr de Ursua when he repplies: You'll know that the church has been always with the power, such answer in the midle of the jungle, the trip around the river and the progressive growing of emotional euphoria, the madness, the sense of gretaness in the midle of nowhere, the slow decay of the reality and the final fall with monkees as his loyal servants, the work of camera , makes that film sublime, unique and one of the most supreme examples of how to make a film now and ever.
If you stiil haven't seen this movie, don't waste just any minute of your time and buy it. You'll see like me at least twenty five times and will get always something new, so typical of the masterpieces.
Kinski , in the peak of his craft. There were not enough prizes in the world enough worthy to gratify this performing.

Herzog's loose adaptation on an obscure 16th century Spanish expedition that disappeared in the Amazon basin in search of the legendary city of El Dorado. Filmed on location near Machu Pichu with locals as extras, the merit of the film goes into the direction and the acting as opposed to film quality. Produced and directed on a college-level budget (Herzog actually had to steal his alma mater's filming equipment for this film), the film quality is somewhat coarse and similar to cameras and film used for documentary footage. Another drawback is that it's only in mono and has no dolby or other stereo sound options. Despite these technical limitations, Herzog's choices of scenes, pacing, and editing, along with Kinski's superb acting, result in a brilliant film. The theme of unchecked ambition leading to madness and eventual oblivion is beautifully carried by the plot's depiction of how the overconfident explorers, led by their greed, drift, fight, and decay ever further into the wilderness. With King and Church far away, Aguire's promise of gold and power leads a small group of deluded followers to mutiny and eventual oblivion. As their voyage progresses and the further the characters are removed from any shred of civilization, madness seems strangely sane and the unending lust for power somehow satiable. Also visible are the thematic parallels with the megalomanic rise and inevitable destruction of Nazi Germany. The synthesized droning background music adds to the sense of delirium and to the film's dreamlike qualities.

Called "A breathtaking journey into the heart of darkness."

The cinema tail of the conquest of Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) and how it might have been as they traverse the Amazon river (Filmed in Peru) in search of the mythical lost City of Gold.

Some see it as real others see holes you can drive a truck through; Any way you see it this is a good place to start in the New German Cinema movement. A good choice of actors and great visuals. This is also an intense way to learn some German. The victim on the raft is full of arrows and he gets kicked before the revealing statement "er ist tot"

I am new to Warner Herzog, and "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" is the 2nd of his films that I have seen. Like many directors with strong artistic visions, I have found his style a bit hard to adapt to but I am appreciating it more and more. The grotesque colors he uses are particularly noteworthy, lending a feeling of unreality that contrasts with the naked realism of his films. The visual images are haunting, and linger after the film is over. The Wrath of God and 400 little monkeys...

"Aguirre: The Wrath of God" is by no means an easy film to get into. The characters are brutal and uninviting, and it is impossible to sympathize with their plight, the conquest of the native peoples. Like the river they travel on, the armored conquistadors move slowly but relentlessly forward, pieces of their humanity and sanity falling off along the way. At one scene in particular, the soldiers dispassionately watch their fellows trapped in a river eddy, discussion whether or not they should attempt a rescue with no more urgency or care than wondering if they should have coffee or tea. The peruvian natives are equally unsympathetic, picking off the soldiers slowly from the jungle, invisible and dangerous. One can see the influence it must have had on"Apocalypse Now."

People call this film dreamlike, and that maybe, but it is also brutally realistic, dirty and harsh. There is a sense that this is exactly what it would be like. There is a definite sense that animals were harmed during the filming, and that people were harmed as well. No camera trickery or artistic license is taken. All deaths are ignoble. Klaus Kinski, as Aguirre, is an uncharismatic Richard III,. slightly hunchbacked and ugly, leading his followers down a mad path that can have only one destination.

Wraith of God was actually made in 1972 in German and got its US debut in 1977 and provided Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) with a vision. The film is pure art through and through using the Amazon River as a backdrop for the epic tale of Spanish conquistadors finding themselves abandoned in South America on a quest to find the legendary city of gold 'El Dorado'. Set a few decades after the Inca Empire has fallen in the 16th century, these troops of Spanish explorers have been selected by the head explorer for the region, and founder of Mexico - Pizarro, to find the lost gold. Within a few days of being on the Amazon the conquistadors are split on the rapids. Soon there is a mutiny, murder, revenge and betrayal as the dreams of vast wealth and power drive all of them to their doom.

The combination of Kinski and Herzog is electric. Here, on a shoe-string budget, they make mountains out of nothing as Tarkovsky did on 'Stalker'. The costumes and sets are all obviously mostly made by the actors and whatever film crew that would actually risk hanging around Herzog and Kinski for the gung-ho shoot. This is kino-art's rendition of Hearts of Darkness. The actual suffering of the film crew (and some cruelty to animals - several horse falling scenes, the pillaging of a village with an attack on pigs and a monkey being thrown aside) is clearly visible in the narrative which borders on extreme adlibbing most of the time as well as hard labour (moving a cannon on a small wagon around the jungle, building rafts with a toilet on board and living off the land). The improvisation though is classic in every sense of the word making Herzog and Kinski instant important additions to the world of high profile art film makers. The cinematography is spot on. The majority of it is hand-held but the images of the jungle are striking and the final shots of the circling raft are sublime. Seeing Kinski chasing monkeys around the raft is also some of the most memorising and breathtakingly remarkable scenes in cinema. The film is one of the most unusual you have ever seen and becomes psychotic towards the final stages showing the craziness of our characters search for the gold - a reflection of the exertions of the crew and actors. Kinski is outstanding as the deranged Don Lope de Aguirre who trying to follow in Pizarro's footsteps even manages to take his family into hell with him. There is an excellent plot element involving a mock trial with a monk as a judge and the crowning of a pseudo-king that will have you in disbelief. The film is so lucidly insane that it will captivate you within the first few minutes. By the time the credits role you will have experienced an epic completed with a few actors, a raft, some animals and natives and yet have witness something as grand and epic as 'Spartacus'. Herzog is a crazed genius and the world is his strange colloid laboratory.

'Aguirre' is up there with the ranks of 'Andre Rublev' and 'Apocalypse Now' however Kinski and Herzog did go one better when they made 'Fitzcarraldo'(they tow a steam ship up a mountain... really!). The aspect ratio of this film is 1.37:1 meaning that it is not in widescreen or letterbox, but it was originally filmed as a square almost (fitting television perfectly). The transfer is extremely good although I believe that this is not a new transfer and was probably encoded from a very good master video tape (Beta SP) for German television broadcast and not from a 35mm film print. No one is complaining though because the quality is extremely good. The extras (documentaries, commentaries) are a must. By the way you can get the Kinski/Herzog box set of 6 films for a few quid extra than this stand alone DVD. Go look for it.

"Aguirre, The Wrath of God" is one of director Werner Herzog's most memorable movies, and was written in 2-1/2 day and shot in five weeks. He was 28 years old when the movie was made in 1971 on a budget of $360,000. The film includes one of the most spectacular opening and closing scenes in film history.

Shot in a hand-held documentary style with a stolen 35mm camera (that was used to make 9 movies) there are many catch-as-catch- can takes or extended shots, as well as some stylized, almost still-life shots. Truly impressive cinematography by Thomas Mauck. The film was shot on location is South America, partly near Macchu Picchu (for the dramatic opening), and subsequently takes place on wooden rafts going down the river on an expedition by Spanish conquistadors.

----> WARNING - SPOILERS

In the movie, one raft and some men are lost in the eddy of a river, and more rafts are lost as the river rises overnight. The party divides alliances, and Klaus Kinski, as Aguirre, takes over. They continue down stream in search of food, which they can not find in the flooded jungle. They raid an abandoned village, then continue down stream. At one point, Aguirre rants and raves, then turns and gestures at a horse on the raft, making it collapse. Aguirre orders his opponent killed out in the jungle, and subsequently that man's wife simply walks away into the jungle rather than stay with the rest of the men. Aguirre officially takes charge of the remaining men with a brazen speech involving threats to cut deserters into 198 pieces, then trample them until they can be used to paint walls. Continuing their merry way down river, the men begin to get shot at by spears and arrows from the edge of the river. Eventually Aguirre's 15-year old daughter gets shot and dies in the cleanest, least painful death you will ever see on film. Aguirre finally goes completely off his rocker and annouces to the only living beings on the raft - 400 small monkeys - that he will marry his daughter and start a dynasty to take over the continent.

This is but a brief synopsis of the movie, obviously. It is pretty slow going, but never boring. The location itself is incredible, and Kinski is his usual blustery powerful self. Unusual score, too. In German with substitles, or dubbed in other languges including English. A bit pricey, and not for action-movie afficionados, the DVD has an excellent commentary by Herzog and another film buff.

"If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees, then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of God!"

I don't want to get into the details of this film,read other posts.I just wanna say WERNER HERZOG is the one the world's greatest,boldest,visionary film makers.I put him up there with KUBRICK and KUROSAWA.I think he's a real poet.I Suggest seeing all his films.He's my favorite of the German Cinema Big Three,(FASSBINDER,WENDERS AND HERZOG).Mr. Herzog is a unique and fascinating artist.

Enough has been written here of the movie's virtues, of its subtlety and gloomy charm. I just want to share the memory of the very last scene, the scene any viewer will find unforgettable: the ragged raft on the brown Amazon; the lush, green indifference of the jungle bordering it off; a swarm of tiny monkeys scuttling over the rusty cannon, between languid corpses and strewn, broken junk; a transcendent blue sky; and the lonely, so very lonely-hopeless-defiant silhouette of Aguirre wandering and stumbling in circles with his purple shirt sleeves dangling and an absurdly large rapier on his belt, the hilt level with his chest. He is the last man on this earth. He wanders, and wanders, and wanders...

See the film.