Review of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) by Guy G — 09 Jul 2011

[100/A+] An incredible hallucinatory dream of a movie, based upon real historical events and people, documenting the insane ambitions of a megalomaniacal conquistador to discover El Dorado down the Amazon River.

Klaus Kinski is completely frightening as the title character, whose tempestuous and ruthless demeanor as a sub-commander of the expedition flowers into serial murder and a psychotic obsession to achieve mastery at all costs. His terrifying energy leaps off the screen and grabs the viewer by the throat, dragging us willingly onto a nightmarish crusade that is as mesmerizing as it is repellent.

The movie's very spare plot and dialogue are almost submerged within the panoplies of sickly ambivalent, sumptuous Amazonian foliage (beautifully photographed under obviously difficult conditions) in which Aguirre's reckless passions are thrown into stark juxtaposition, the narrative dominated by a suite of dream imagery and depraved (though attenuated) violence that amplifies the psychological and historical aspects of the journey into something cosmically significant and disturbingly farcical.

Totally unforgettable and haunting. A film that truly feels like a sliver of wrath from some distant, pitiless god.