Aguirre, The Wrath of God

In an attempt to free himself from stereotype as perhaps not the most appealing director to work with, Werner Herzog decided to stage an adaptation of man finding peace and harmony within nature. After realizing that such a vision would not earn him legendary status, however, ol’ Herzog scrapped those plans and headed into the Peruvian jungle to piss off a lot of locals, expose his crew to various illnesses and epidemics, and liberate monkeys. And really, what self-respecting blog is complete without a film liberating monkeys?

Which bring us to Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972), Herzog’s epic about Spanish conquistadors hunting down El Dorado. Such a journey antagonizes the local slaves that have been captured en route and endangers the Spanish crew, as the wilderness and those that lie in it, both nature and man, threaten to pick the men off before such a conclusion can be reached. While not initially in charge, Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) manipulates his way into the symbolic head of the expedition, killing those who oppose him while making sure others bear the literal title of leader so that if anything goes awry, they absorb the vengeance and the blame rather than him.

This is a film that examines the singular focus of a narcissistic mind that dreams of an empire. El Dorado forces Aguirre headlong into a grandiose vision as projected liberator, losing himself in ideals even as his men threaten mutiny. Yet Herzog’s overwhelming thesis states that even though man has the power to silence others into obedient submission, man cannot silence the stoic and resolute eye of nature. The greed of Aguirre’s perception only blinds him to the inconsequence of his expedition against the more dominant force of the land itself which denies him comprehension. Thus, his conceited envy can only extract empty pleasure of ownership over a raft that is swiftly losing its membership.

Few images possess the stark humanity of the women slipping off into the jungle and, eventually, into the throes of death, so that Herzog subverts Aguirre’s mission to devalue the project of the expedition itself. As a result, Herzog leaves the viewer with that masterful rotating 360 shot around Aguirre as the raft is overrun with wild monkeys and drifts slowly, inexorably downriver with one last madman standing. But he too will soon fall and nature will consume all of man’s precious wanderings.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God: 10/10