A while ago I got the Werner Herzog-Klaus Kinski DVD Boxset. I had already seen Aguirre and Nosferatu and these movies made me want to see the other three collaborations between these two mad geniuses. So over the next few weeks I will review the five films in the Herzog-Kinski boxset and the documentary film included as a bonus, My Best Fiend. This week, their first effort together:
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Film, 1972
Director: Werner Herzog
The Story
It is 1560. Spain has established an empire in the New World and has just recently conquered Peru. An expedition is sent into the Amazon from the Peruvian mountains to find El Dorado, the legendary Lost City of Gold. An advance scouting party is sent ahead of the main group to determine the terrain and the location of the lost city. This group, led by Don Pedro de Ursúa soon falls to a mutiny led by Ursúa’s second-in-command, Don Lope de Aguirre. Aguirre spurs the band of explorers further and further down the Amazon river to find El Dorado and eternal glory. As the opening text explains, the conquered Indians invented the story of El Dorado as revenge against the greedy Spaniards to lure the White Man to his death in a fruitless search for untold riches. From the moment the movie starts you know these suckers are doomed.
Review and Analysis
Wow. Most movie directors, when given the task of making a film about doomed conquistadors in the Amazon would probably just go to Hawaii and shoot the jungle scenes there while filming the raft scenes inside a studio in front of a projection screen or something. Werner Herzog is not most movie directors (note to self: just made understatement of the century). He actually went to the Amazon, built some rafts and filmed the whole thing with just one camera. And everything you see in the resulting cinematic masterpiece is real. Okay, well except for the people dying. But I wouldn’t put it past Herzog. The man is supposed to be insanely dedicated to making movies. The famous legend about the making of Aguirre is that Herzog threatened to kill Klaus Kinski when the volatile actor threatened to leave the shoot. That’s how devoted the director is to his craft: you are not going to stop Werner Herzog from making a film. Period. But putting aside the whole crazy thing, the way this movie was shot really makes a difference. Since Herzog really is shooting on the Amazon, the actors’ performances are going to be different from if they were shooting in a soundstage or something. The actors really are suffering: the Amazon is one of the biggest Hells on Earth. It’s hot, unbearably humid and every living thing in the jungle is trying to kill you. So the reactions of the actors to the discomforts and dangers of the Amazon river basin that you are seeing on the screen are probably real.
Speaking of performances, it is of course impossible to talk about Aguirre without talking about the performance of its lead, the infamous Klaus Kinski. This was the role that made Kinski famous internationally, and I can see why. Kinski may have been an unpredictable egotist with a thermonuclear temper, but he was also one of the greatest actors who ever lived. Watch him in this film, he’s amazing. He is both violent and passive, kind and hateful, thoughtful and brutish, sometimes all in the same scene. And he is intense, both loudly and quietly. Again, sometimes all in the same scene. In fact Kinski is the most intense actor I have ever seen. The only actor I think I have ever seen that even comes close to Kinski’s raw power is Toshiro Mifune. Certainly no one alive today is even in the same league.
This film is gorgeous. Herzog has a great eye, and just about every shot in Aguirre has something interesting in it, even if it’s not something conventionally interesting. Even when little is happening you can’t help but watch, entranced. The opening is a prime example: nothing but Spanish soldiers and Indian slaves making their way down the mountainside while music by Krautrock band Popol Vuh plays in the background. Yet it is hypnotizing, in part because the scenery is gorgeous and also because the ominous music lends to the mystery of the Amazon and lets you know somehow exactly what is to come. You know right from the start that this expedition is doomed to failure and possible death. The jungle is too mysterious and the Spaniards too greedy to allow even smallest hope of success. Aguirre is destined to mutiny against Ursúa because of the inherent nature of the journey: to find nonexistent riches in a city that never was. The course of the film itself is set along with the rafts of the conquistadores: forward, ceaselessly forward into the jaws of Hell and damnation. Greed for gold destroys all and warps the minds of men who should know better. It is interesting that Herzog posits at the beginning of the film that El Dorado is in fact a tale made up by the Indians with the express intent of taking revenge on the Spaniards for conquering them, using the greed that had led to the Conquista in the first place to lure them to certain death. This serves to partly make the film a study on racism and colonialism: seeing the way that the Spaniards treat the native Indians and their own slaves makes one see the bigotry and arrogance inherent to the European conquest of the Americas (being a student of history I already knew this however). One can’t completely hate the Spaniards however: there is still an indomitable human will that seems to fuel their journey down the river in search of something they will never find. Though not sympathetic, you can’t help but be impressed by the relentless drive of someone like Lope de Aguirre, even if that drive leads to complete ruination.
Well, enough analysis lest this start to sound like some high-minded college paper. Does Aguirre, the Wrath of God have anything in it for people other than the art-house crowd? Hell, yeah! In Aguirre you will see:
-a dude get his head cut off!
-Cannibals!
-Our Heroes strip their black slave near naked and drive him in front of them to “frighten the natives!” And I had always thought that the tactic of using a Big Scary Black Man to frighten the populace was invented by American politicians!
-actors eating river algae!
-Klaus Kinski punch a horse!
-Klaus Kinski chuck a monkey into the drink!
This classic film can be recommended to just about anyone. It has great photography, very funny dark humor and an excellent performance by one of the greatest actors ever. It can be slow, but that is not damning it all, in fact the slowness is one of its strengths. If you ever have a chance to see Aguirre, do so.
Screenshots
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| Klaus Kinski as Aguirre. His eyes will burn holes into your soul! |
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| Come on, Mr. Monk! You’re a member of the Catholic Church in the Age of The Inquisition! Condemning a man to death in a show trial should be as natural as picking spinach out of your teeth! |
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| Yay, dysentery! |
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| Yay, dysentery! |
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| In case you are wondering: yes, they really did put a boat up in the trees. I told you: everything in this movie is real. |
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| Okay, kiddies, puzzle time: how many things can you spot that are wrong with this picture? Ready, set, go! |
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| Chuck the monkey, Klaus! Chuck the monkey! (He does.) |
The DVD
The DVD in the Herzog-Kinski Collection is pretty basic. It is also the exact same as the previous single Anchor Bay release. Extras include a trailer for the movie and commentary by Herzog (which I still haven’t listened to but want to). Languages included are German and English. As I had seen the German dub before this time I decided to go with English for this review. Interestingly, the film was shot in English; reportedly it was the only language the entire international cast knew in common. The German dub was post-synched later. This shows in the performances: the acting is good enough but I could tell that some of the actors were not that comfortable speaking lines in English (simply knowing a language and being fluent enough to act in it are two different things). This doesn’t detract from the film however. The picture on this DVD is very good considering Aguirre is a European film made during the 1970s. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (it was not shot in widescreen, despite what some people think. The one and only camera used to film the movie was an old standard 35mm camera – that Herzog had stolen from film school. Of course).
Next Week: Nosferatu, Phantom Der Nacht
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