Review of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) by Jules E — 01 Apr 2011

This was absolutely wonderful. It's beautiful when you can feel the madness of a director just from what he is filming. Werner Herzog was a mad man, and love him for that. Many consider this to be Herzog's magnum opus. I don't agree. However, the film comes as a great contender and deserves the title of a masterpiece which I twas given the moment it was released. Everyone should be saluted for what they've done here. For me, is it an excellent film? No it's not. Maybe it's just like this for me, but still the film is one of a kind.

The film has an exciting premise which really got me excited about watching the film. Who wouldn't want to watch the quest of a mad man seeking a non-existing city. However, the film or its story didn't fulfill all the needs that were triggered by the premise. The film is more collective. Even though it's about one man but it never focuses on him. It's never his point of view that leads our attention. It's always collective, we follow the whole group. And this is what I found mainly lacking. I wanted to live more Aguirre's descent into madness. I wanted it to creep more inside of me. But still, the film has a great screenplay was a surprisingly excellent sense of humor and sarcasm.

The film criticizes and raises political question by mocking them. And it does it greatly. There's no film showing how people are controlled like goats as this one.

What the film lacked for me in content, Herzog covered it with style. He's just one hell of a genius mad man. Every shot he took was a haunted piece. It was extremely creepy and moody which was perfect for the film. He's one film maker who was crazy enough to deny difficult tasks as being obstacles and demand the impossible while filming and eventually achieving it. And what's always interesting in his films is that you feel that he is actually filming his process instead of the film itself. His films always imitate his current situation while filming. And well there's no question that the last shot in the film is something out of a nightmare that will haunt every viewer.

And what helped raise that tension and give the film that ghostly atmosphere was the excellent music score. It was absolutely hypnotic and it alone can transport you into a state of trance. How about it being along side Herzog's out of this world vision. Now this is a treat.

And of course, Aguirre wouldn't be the same if it weren't for the actor who would be Herzog's long time collaborator, Klaus Kinski. Well to begin with, it takes an even mad man as Herzog to play in his films, and well Kinski was that mad man. And you can just see it. Even though he was very theatrical in his performance yet it was perfect. Just the look in his eyes while he's declaring himself as the wrath of god is enough to give you the chills. I can say that the whole cast was good but let's face it, no one stood next to Kinski. He was a show stealer.