Review: Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes (Aguirre: The Wrath Of God, 1972)

I knew, just knew, there was a reason I stayed away from rivers and barely held together rafts!

Written By: Werner Herzog
Directed By: Werner Herzog

It’s all in the eyes, those terrible eyes. Klaus Kinski as Aguirre is truly frightening and possibly the most perfect example ever of madness on screen. His blue eyes should be an ocean of understanding and warmth, and they appear inviting, but once they draw you in they turn on you like a coiled snake. Slowly devouring you in the insanity that envelops Aguirre to his very soul. The mere act of looking into his eyes is a scary prospect, with nary but a glance he commands the rest of the men in the party to vote for a new leader. With one look into his eyes you know what fate befell the men on the raft caught in the eddy. Kinski is awe inspiring in his performance, equal parts devastator and macabre madman. Even at the end when all is lost and no one but the rabid monkeys remain to hear his words he rails on about conquests to come, the height of madness still pulsing from his eyes.

Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes is my first exposure to Werner Herzog. I will admit to having mixed feelings going in, because I had heard both great things about the man and some not so nice things as well. With Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes, Herzog delivers a masterpiece. It isn’t a drama in the typical sense, not by a long shot. What Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes is at first is not what it ends up being. Just like the eyes of Kinski, Herzog lulls you into a comfort zone with the typical trappings of a heroic journey only to pull the rug out from under you and deliver a statement on the folly of man, the power of madness and the futility of life. Herzog pulls this off because of an almost other worldly sense of how to frame scenes. Nothing better encapsulates that fact better than the aforementioned raft scene. Even in other films that take the same tone that Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes does they would have handled the raft scene far differently. The peril of the soldiers would have been shown up close and personal, their deaths most likely documented as well. Herzog expects us to be smart enough to know what brought them to their fate and he doesn’t want to cheat the viewer by bringing them up close with those soldiers and creating a fake sense of suspense. Herzog does none of those things, rather he takes the hard road and makes the smart choices to ensure Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes ends up the masterpiece it should be.

Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes does look splendid, the costumes are authentic, the rafts are as worn down as could be. The Indians are the savages the white men would see them as, and they look quite visceral to boot, but what grabs you throughout Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes is the music. It is a haunting score, put together to sound natural at times and artificial and scary at others. The music becomes so much a part of the movie that you view it just the same as any character taking a breath or the river turning the rafts in a different direction.

Herzog has plenty to say about man and how stupid he can be in his bravado and pride. When all is lost and the men know they are on their way to certain death they still write down land acquisitions on paper and kill each other and their chance at a weeks worth of meat. Man can control his own destiny, but that destiny isn’t always great, sometimes it can be a destiny of ruin such as the one seen in Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes. That destiny can lay in the mouth of madness, and it can be attained because of man’s inability to do what is right or because of man’s ability to kowtow to a stronger force. Herzog also goes to great lengths to try and present a different image, a tougher and harder edged one, of both the religious aspect of the colonizers and the journey itself. Too many movies show a sterilized journey, with beautiful horses and easy travels where the religious men are always nice and forthright. That is not the case with Herzog. The religious men go with whichever way the tide is turning and the journey is ugly, perilous and disgusting.

Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes is an impressive film, an excellent entry into the annals of the film medium. It’s the rare film that makes you think but isn’t heavy with it’s messages, metaphors and themes. It is also highly interesting beyond the meta aspect, drawing you into the basics of the journey and the inevitable outcome the men face. It’s pointless of me to recommend Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes, I enjoyed it and consider it one of the finest films ever made, there’s nothing else I can say beyond that.

Rating:

****

Cheers,
Bill