Review of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) by Chris H — 26 Dec 2008

Beautifully and eerily photographed, austerley performed, but thwarted by a pointless story of the vanity of greed and megalomania unfettered. Herzog, though, paints his scenes with bewitching artistry that makes one happily allow such lack of inspiration in the story, the slow pacing, and Kinski's monotone (despite that note being well-struck) performance.

Mauch's cinematography and Vuh's music swirl together with Herzog's direction with inexorable haunting, and while his subject has potential, he never brings any profound or equally grand meaning to it.

From the opening sequence to the end, one instantly sees the legitamacy of Herzog's renown as a director, at least in style. One hopes that an artistic vision of this caliber finds, in at least some of his other films, a thematic import to its equal.

The failure in even this most important aspect of film is not enough, however, to blunt the genius in its other aspects and should still be seen by earnest film-lovers. The slow pacing, though, and doomed anti-hero as the central character with no mitigating storylines may be too much (quite understandably) for those who want more meaning from their art or entertainment than real life often provides. In this way, Aguirre IS a ferociously honest piece of art where to some standards it may abdicate its responsibility as art, to others it, in fact, embraces it.

Whichever your view, Aguirre should be seen by those who view film at least in part as art and avoided by those who seek only entertainment from the medium.