Review of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) by Dan M — 30 Mar 2015

This is the movie that really made me appreciate Klaus Kinski as an actor. No wonder Herzog made so many movies with him. I'm not sure if this is based on a book, but I'd love to read it just to see what his character is thinking through the whole voyage.

I also love this movie for all the images that are disturbing but you're not really sure why. Like the scene of the men dressed up in armor and fancy clothes pushing the cannon slowly through the dirty swamp, and the two women being carried over the swamp. It's like these people value cleanliness and looking like royalty and they're fighting against nature trying to pull them down in the dirt. To me the whole journey scene symbolizes the struggle to hold onto our humanity when isolated from civilization.

But the most disturbing scene is where they push the horse off the raft and in one scene it's fighting and making a noise, and then everything goes quiet and the horse is like a statue staring at them. Very spooky. Great movie.