Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Herzog)
1972 BFI Blu Ray and 4K UHD
The on-location stories of Werner Herzog’s clashes with Klaus Kinski on Aguirre, The Wrath of God, have passed into cinematic legend. The most alarming being Kinski wanting to leave the film after Herzog refused to dismiss one of the technical crew, for at this point Herzog is supposed to have made Kinski act at gunpoint.
True or not, the chemistry between them was wild. Yet somehow or other Herzog was able to control and restrain the incendiary Kinski, who smoulders with a barely containable rage. “The birds drop dead for me. I am Aguirre, the wrath of God!” he declares to anyone daring to defy him and you feel it’s true whether you’re an actor playing their part or taking a break from the shooting of this arduous, Peruvian shot film.
Kinski’s mad persona proved perfect casting for the part of the megalomaniacal second in command Lope de Aguirre. Much of our continual fascination with Aguirre, the Wrath of God is observing Kinski’s extraordinary performance tensely competing with the film’s tale of a mission fated to be a destructive folly.
It’s 1560 and Spanish conquistadors and their slaves descend the mountainside into the Amazonian rain forest in search of the fabled El Dorado. They build rafts and scout down the river. One of the rafts gets caught on an eddy. Aguirre has their cannon blow it up. Other rafts are swept away by the rising river. The commander Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra) wants to return to Pizarro’s group. Aguirre leads a mutiny against Ursua, telling the men of the fabulous store of gold that awaits them in El Dorado. The expedition, on a sole raft, continues downriver.
Herzog shot the film in chronological order. This appears perfectly correct to depict the gradual effects of each stage of the voyagers’ physical pain, mental discomfort and moral collapse. From the superbly shot opening images of the party arriving in the jungle to the 360 degree tracking shot of the drifting raft, with Aguirre still fixated, in a Nazi dictatorship fashion, to achieve his goal, the film conveys a visionary, dream-like state that’s hypnotic.
I loved the symbolism of the scene where Aguirre shows his teenage daughter a baby sloth. “It sleeps its life away, never really waking up.” says Aguirre of this South American animal living, mostly hanging upside down, in the trees of the jungle. For the rebellious Aguirre many of the people with him are unimaginative and slothful, failing to respond to his ambitious dream of getting to El Dorado, reminding them that Herman Cortes won an empire in Mexico by disobeying orders.
But Herzog doesn’t allow Kinski to dominate the film. Herzog’s meticulous direction, the magnificent photography of long time collaborator Thomas Mauch, the editing of Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus and the haunting music of Popo Vuh also beautifully collaborate. And finally the geography of the river and the jungle are an awesome presence in a fiction about hubris, obsession, ambition and the crazy dream of a crazed adventurer (Either Herzog the filmmaker or his creation Aguirre, you decide which was the madder!). The result is a cult classic and a great film.
Alan Price©2025
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Herzog)
1972 BFI Blu Ray and 4K UHD
The on-location stories of Werner Herzog’s clashes with Klaus Kinski on Aguirre, The Wrath of God, have passed into cinematic legend. The most alarming being Kinski wanting to leave the film after Herzog refused to dismiss one of the technical crew, for at this point Herzog is supposed to have made Kinski act at gunpoint.
True or not, the chemistry between them was wild. Yet somehow or other Herzog was able to control and restrain the incendiary Kinski, who smoulders with a barely containable rage. “The birds drop dead for me. I am Aguirre, the wrath of God!” he declares to anyone daring to defy him and you feel it’s true whether you’re an actor playing their part or taking a break from the shooting of this arduous, Peruvian shot film.
Kinski’s mad persona proved perfect casting for the part of the megalomaniacal second in command Lope de Aguirre. Much of our continual fascination with Aguirre, the Wrath of God is observing Kinski’s extraordinary performance tensely competing with the film’s tale of a mission fated to be a destructive folly.
It’s 1560 and Spanish conquistadors and their slaves descend the mountainside into the Amazonian rain forest in search of the fabled El Dorado. They build rafts and scout down the river. One of the rafts gets caught on an eddy. Aguirre has their cannon blow it up. Other rafts are swept away by the rising river. The commander Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra) wants to return to Pizarro’s group. Aguirre leads a mutiny against Ursua, telling the men of the fabulous store of gold that awaits them in El Dorado. The expedition, on a sole raft, continues downriver.
Herzog shot the film in chronological order. This appears perfectly correct to depict the gradual effects of each stage of the voyagers’ physical pain, mental discomfort and moral collapse. From the superbly shot opening images of the party arriving in the jungle to the 360 degree tracking shot of the drifting raft, with Aguirre still fixated, in a Nazi dictatorship fashion, to achieve his goal, the film conveys a visionary, dream-like state that’s hypnotic.
I loved the symbolism of the scene where Aguirre shows his teenage daughter a baby sloth. “It sleeps its life away, never really waking up.” says Aguirre of this South American animal living, mostly hanging upside down, in the trees of the jungle. For the rebellious Aguirre many of the people with him are unimaginative and slothful, failing to respond to his ambitious dream of getting to El Dorado, reminding them that Herman Cortes won an empire in Mexico by disobeying orders.
But Herzog doesn’t allow Kinski to dominate the film. Herzog’s meticulous direction, the magnificent photography of long time collaborator Thomas Mauch, the editing of Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus and the haunting music of Popo Vuh also beautifully collaborate. And finally the geography of the river and the jungle are an awesome presence in a fiction about hubris, obsession, ambition and the crazy dream of a crazed adventurer (Either Herzog the filmmaker or his creation Aguirre, you decide which was the madder!). The result is a cult classic and a great film.
Alan Price©2025
By Alan Price • film, year 2025 • Tags: Alan Price, film