Delayed Reaction: Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Premise: A group of Spanish conquistadors travel down the Amazon river in search of the fabled city of El Dorado.

My first thought while watching this was that it did Apocalypse Now in about half the time. The two are similar in a lot of ways. Both are about a long trip through the jungle, largely taking place on a river. And Aguirre is thankfully credited as an influence for Coppola's later film. Similar to Apocalypse Now, Aguirre is notable for the horrible shooting conditions. It's easy to believe that. Every frame of this movie looks miserable. I doubt there was a single happy person on that set. In other words, I'd call it a rousing success.

There's a story about how Brian Wilson heard The Beatles' Revolver and made Pet Sounds in response, only for The Beatles to follow up with Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. That basically caused Wilson to have a mental breakdown attempting to make the album Sunshine. It kind of feels like Werner Herzog and Francis Ford Coppola had a similar thing going on for troubled productions. Herzog made Aguirre. Coppola responded with Apocalypse Now. Not to be outdone, a few years later, Herzog makes Fitzcarraldo, a movie about dragging a stream ship over a friggin' mountain. Thankfully for all Hollywood craft workers, Coppola didn't decide to return the volley.

I appreciate this film being only a little over 90 minutes. That's plenty of time to capture the decent into madness. As Aguirre, Klaus Kinski is effectively insane. Herzog and Kinski famously clashed for several movies and I like to think that also comes through in this. I'll happily follow those two collaborators into madness for as many films as they made together.

And that closing shot is great. There's really not anything special about it. It's not even surprising. You can probably guess it midway through the movie. It's still quite satisfying though, perhaps because it doesn't try to zig or zag.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend