Review of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) by Jason M — 25 Jan 2016

This is one of my favourite films of all time. It is on many top 100 list for greatest movies of all time. This is definitive Herzog and Kinski. The background music is haunting. It is a low-budget, foreign masterpiece of cinema, which highly influenced Francis Ford Coppola's production of Apocalypse Now, another of my favourite films of all time.

The journey of conquistadors as they search for the El Dorado, the fabled city of gold, wears on the viewer in a wy that it is supposed to have worn on the historical crew of Aguirre 500 years ago.

Klaus Kinski, somewhat of a nut himself, in real life, is one of the few actors who can pull off such a believable performance as Lope de Aguirre. The film is somewhat based on his supposed legendary journey.

This is the story of trailblazers into the nothingness of the South American jungle via the Amazon. The madness, loss of hope and mutiny that creeps over the expedition accelerates towards one of the greatest final scenes of all time. One that I must have watched over and over 10s of times, and consider one of the greatest scenes of all cinematic history.