"Aguirre, The Wrath of God" - Film Review

I have to imagine that being part of the production on Aguirre, Wrath of God must not have been a fun experience. Set in the forests of the Amazon and on the river itself; the actors often seemed exhausted because the shooting was itself very exhausting. The film is short in length, at just a little over an hour and thirty minutes; but the film feels so much longer than that. It's languorous and sprawling. Often times it feels like very little in the way of plot is occurring; writer-director Werner Herzog wants to create an atmosphere to the story, and it is not the most inviting of tones he strikes. It's morbid and cynical and sad. Herzog drags his characters through the wringer, and it's clear from very early on that there's no way there's a happy ending to all of this. But a happy ending would be like a cop-out. This is not a happy or pleasant story. It's a story of the corruption of power and the obsession with fame and fortune.

Spanish conquistador Pizarro's journey through the Andes to discover the mythical city of El Dorado hits a roadblock. The tedious, difficult journey winding through the mountains has exhausted them and they've still yet to get any closer to their goal. Pizarro sends out a scouting party to get them resources and figure out their location. The scouting parties efforts quickly go south; they run into rapids and one of the rafts is caught in a whirlpool and all the people on it die. Aguirre seizes the opportunity here, playing off the frustration of the men to stage a mutiny. Another man, Guzman, is voted in as "emperor" but it's clear that the real power resides in Aguirre. But Aguirre's leadership skills prove to be bold, brash and self-destructive.

Everything from this point on goes downhill. The natives constantly attack and kill many; they run out of supplies. They eventually catch fever which only heightens their sense of despair and madness. The film slowly builds up a sinking sense of madness, and exponentially becomes more cerebral and surreal.

The film that bears the most resemblance to Aguirre is Apocalypse Now, which this film would influence and which tells a similar extended story about men heading downstream further and further into untamed, wild territory and continually finding themselves forced to confront their inner demons. They also both lavish in excess, turning their setting into a crucial piece for the mood and the tone of the film, and ultimately the film's power.    

This intention by Herzog is all well and good, but it often makes Aguirre a painful film to sit through. Large stretches feel like they're unnecessary and self-indulgent. The moments that are most effective are the moments where Herzog has the characters take action, and there's a real disturbing beauty to these moments, especially as they so clearly telegraph the growing madness of these people. Of course, these moments only get their teeth because they cut across the deliriously slower, languid stretches.

Stray Thoughts:
-Klaus Kinski is phenomenal in the role of Aguierre, giving the character an intense feral ferocity.
-The religious subtext (well, it's so incredibly overt that it really doesn't even qualify as subtext) is pretty hauntingly beautiful.
-There's some interesting use of minimalism in the film. It's historically based but also seems to be disinterested by this aspect of its story. The minimalism is contrasted with the lushness of the setting.
-That's one doozy of an ending. Whatever my problems with the movie were sort of retroactively sweeped over by that near-perfect end shot with Aguirre on the sinking raft, all his crew dead, and monkeys dancing around. It's chaos; it's death; and it's very fitting for what the rest of the film was attempting.   

Consensus: Aguirre, The Wrath of God is a methodical, sumptuous, dark film that's often powerful, but also slow to reveal itself which plays against its ability to really impact us.

Grade: B+