Here's a 'must-see' film, which after a long-awaited but anticlimactic screening I would rebrand as 'see if you must'. The one awe-inspiring fact about Werner Herzog's much-admired 'Aguirre, Wrath of God' (1972) is that it got made at all.
As messianic as the maker himself, the film charts an ill-fated 16th Century Spanish Crown expedition to Peru and the Amazon in search of the fabled gold of El Dorado.
Tranquil wide shots belie the true nature of the place. The heat stifles, the raging river demoralises, the paucity of food consumes. The nobility are quickly overpowered by the unforgiving environment.
Capitalising on the band's resignation from their quest, a rebel soldier, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), inspires a mutiny and assumes leadership. He pushes the men to their limits, forcing them to go further, faster. Meanwhile the 'Indian' slaves free themselves of servitude and periodically resurface to arrow their former captors to death.
The expedition doesn't enervate Aguirre as it does the others. It enlivens him. As his sanity declines, he declares that he will marry his daughter before conquering other places and then overthrowing the monarchy.
Kinski was one of those die-for-your-art actors. Steely-blue eyes set among an intense, rough face gave him the look of a noble hobo. He might well have come closer to the crazed characters he played than any other international star. Herzog often used him, though theirs was love-hate relationship, and their fights are the stuff of legend.
There are many memorable moments in 'Aguirre'; indeed I best remember it as a series of quite dazzling set pieces. Take the raft scene where a horse loses control and dives into the river. Or the superbly edited shot of a head being lobbed clean off. Or the final scene, featuring an army of common squirrel monkeys.
The opening long shot remains the most breathtaking: the entire crew slowly snake their way down an imposing mountain; a visceral metaphor reflecting their insignificance – a sequence that would only be done with CGI today.
Throughout, the film is visually arresting and remarkably static, except for occasional paroxysms. It's an arduous watch and I think overrated, but you may genuinely not see anything quite like it – except for other Werner Herzog films.
As messianic as the maker himself, the film charts an ill-fated 16th Century Spanish Crown expedition to Peru and the Amazon in search of the fabled gold of El Dorado.
Tranquil wide shots belie the true nature of the place. The heat stifles, the raging river demoralises, the paucity of food consumes. The nobility are quickly overpowered by the unforgiving environment.
Capitalising on the band's resignation from their quest, a rebel soldier, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), inspires a mutiny and assumes leadership. He pushes the men to their limits, forcing them to go further, faster. Meanwhile the 'Indian' slaves free themselves of servitude and periodically resurface to arrow their former captors to death.
The expedition doesn't enervate Aguirre as it does the others. It enlivens him. As his sanity declines, he declares that he will marry his daughter before conquering other places and then overthrowing the monarchy.
Kinski was one of those die-for-your-art actors. Steely-blue eyes set among an intense, rough face gave him the look of a noble hobo. He might well have come closer to the crazed characters he played than any other international star. Herzog often used him, though theirs was love-hate relationship, and their fights are the stuff of legend.
There are many memorable moments in 'Aguirre'; indeed I best remember it as a series of quite dazzling set pieces. Take the raft scene where a horse loses control and dives into the river. Or the superbly edited shot of a head being lobbed clean off. Or the final scene, featuring an army of common squirrel monkeys.
The opening long shot remains the most breathtaking: the entire crew slowly snake their way down an imposing mountain; a visceral metaphor reflecting their insignificance – a sequence that would only be done with CGI today.
Throughout, the film is visually arresting and remarkably static, except for occasional paroxysms. It's an arduous watch and I think overrated, but you may genuinely not see anything quite like it – except for other Werner Herzog films.