Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

 Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, the Wrath of God"


Although there are aspects of Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" that are pulled from non-fictional accounts of the Spanish conquistador Lope de Aguirre, the film is mostly entirely fictional. Written by Herzog, the film follows Aguirre and a group of conquistadors as they traverse the Amazonian rainforest in South America in search of El Dorado. What makes Herzog's realization of his screenplay work so congruently with his themes is the documentary visual style - real, dirty, base-bones. 

The themes of the film reveal themselves pretty quickly. It doesn't take long for this group of Spanish explorers to descend into savage, unhinged behavior. This is especially true for Aguirre, who quickly assumes power through violence and insanity. In the pure wilderness, these humans are revealed to be depraved and just as savage as the natives who continue to sneakily attack them. These characters become naked humanity, full of delusions, bloodthirsty for conquest, idiotically plodding, and needlessly ineffective.

The documentary-esque visual style of the film allows for the viewer to become fully immersed in the story, as if we were the ones behind the camera. This also makes the period aspect of the film feel more connective. Visually, it looks as modern as ever, especially for those of us who see this visual style everyday on our iPhones. However, because we are seeing period-clothed characters through this modern lens, they feel less removed from us and more tangible.

This is the first of Herzog's films I've seen, but I am met with the initial feeling of nakedness, of bare-boned cinema that strips humanity of its protective layer of sensibility and slowly reveals the savagery, wickedness, and absurdity that connects us with the natural world. I thought "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" was a completely revelatory piece of art that both transports you, as well as reveals the layer of rotted earth beneath you. Thankfully, there are more of Herzog's films to come.



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