Aguirre: Wrath of God' | Critics' Picks | The New York Times

A. O. Scott reviews Werner Herzog's 1972 film about the brutality and indifference of nature.
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[@Fabian_C.]

Kinski makes Jack from the Shining look normal

[@Losrandir]

He does. There's something decidedly off with Kinski even when he's normal then when he goes loco it's just something else and it can happen in a fraction of a second. What I mean is some of his roles, but those who knew him have been saying the exact same about the person.

[@Brendissimo1]

Great film, but the analysis misses the mark. While you can certainly read Vietnam into this film if you want, that's just one of many contexts its themes could be applied to. The film is much more akin to "Heart of Darkness" than anything more specific. It's about obsession, quests for the unobtainable, and man v. nature. Those are all classic, well-trod themes that can fit any number of historical settings. Also, Scott asserts that Aguirre's character demonstrates how a civilization can destroy itself from within. This just befuddles me. The conquistadors are halfway around the world from Spain. This really has nothing to do with decadence or decline of a once-great civilization.

[@Journeyman107]

The scenes where their “emperor” is eating glutinously while his subjects suffer and starve could be interpreted as the commentary on the decay of civilizations that he speaks of, I think that that is a very valid reading.

[@bombsite1847]

The main reading I got from the film- which is just my interpretation- was Aguirre and the expedition was an allegory for Hitler and the Nazis, with Aguirre moving up through the ranks before taking total control and pushing the entire society towards his mad whims. The use of the German language and the Aryan appearance of Aguirre and his daughter, who he plans to mate with to create a superior race, and the fact that a German cast and crew of that time will have lived through Nazi Germany or seen the impact of it on their families, made me wonder whether the use of the Spanish conquistadors and the South American setting was a way to sugar the pill for a German audience, and educate an international audience about the mechanics of imperialism and totalitarianism. I don't think this is a definitive reading at all, and I think the film articulates so much about war, colonialism and dictatorships that you could take any era of history or the present and draw comparisons with Aguirre.

[@gregoryjones7712]

@@bombsite1847 Interesting Reading I understand it from the Hitler madman myth, the Movie shows that Aguirre is Not Crazed by showing how he does not fall to Delusions like his men do near the End. Aguirre also tries to raise his men morale through the Native music and telling them about fame and fortune. Aguirre is truly obsessed with solidify his name in history just like Hernan Cortez.

[@165Dash]

One of the best opening sequences in cinema.

[@msec109]

It is not a commentary on Vietnam war. but, Apocalypse Now was inspired by this film.

[@Lethargical]

msec109 *influenced

[@Kagemusha08]

It always amazes me how natural post-dubbed films can be when they're great. Normally you'd think it would detract from the movie, but films like this and those of Fellini suggest otherwise. Great filmaking is great filmaking, no matter how primitive the technology used is.

[@scopophilia79]

I beg to differ. How can a 1972 film about hubris and imperial conquest in the jungle not be a reflection on Vietnam at some level, regardless of Herzog’s intentions? Works of art aren’t created in a vacuum-they reflect the historical conditions in which they were made but not always in an obvious way. Scott’s point is spot on.

[@Losrandir]

Good point with "regardless of the intentions". It becomes a reflection once it's done, if you will.

[@lebooski6728]

Yes i agree with you accept, germany didn't fight in vietnam, not everything revolves around america, it is only connected to vietnam due to apocalypse now and their conradian similarites and the amazon 'jungle'

[@maxbla6513]

@@lebooski6728 Germans (especially left wingers) were obsessed with Vietnam in the 70s. The RAF (not the Royal Air Force, the other one) even cited it as the motive for bombing a US military base in 1972.

[@plasticweapon]

because it was based on a pre existing true story?

[@smackthatjerk]

Good insight, but step out of your USA perspective. The world had been spinning around before your country ever existed and therefore the strains exerted by other white nations in the world were ever more powerful than anyone from the US could acknowledge, including the Vietnam war. Herzog's intentions go way back to the way the first peoples felt, or what he tries to at least...

[@Alsemenor]

Not everything is centred around America...

[@hpdrinker]

Sorry A.O., but the film has absolutely nothing to do with Vietnam, just because it's 1972 would be an educated assumption by most, but Herzog doesn't align himself with politics or worldly opinions, he is his own soldier.

[@tuanjim799]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_the_Author

[@Losrandir]

Relevant link. The Vietnam thing to me (European, 2018) easily sounds over-empathized, thinking more about ALL the vast history of discovering & conquering, exploiting colonies & natural resources & jungles, but then again this was 1972.

[@skilldren]

@hpdrinker I agree. I just rented this and watched the entire film with commentary by Herzog and he doesn't mention Vietnam a single time that I can remember.

[@mizofan]

all the same, fitting analogies can be made

[@dubbedcrazy]

this is one of the best films ever...a cinematic masterpiece. i did not find the german language distracting. klaus kinski's performance is brilliant.

[@chuexsy672]

the epitome of film making.

[@mgrsdgfsdafsdgrsdgfsdg6980]

Actually, Lope de Aguirre was a Basque conquistador.

[@VITOLLFOTOGRAFIA]

@hpdrinker It´ s on the contrary, Coppola was the one that inspired by this one for Apocalipse Now, as I comment on the own Coppola

[@NewtNuke]

The actors are speaking English - watch their mouths. Both German and English audio tracks were dubbed later by different actors because they ran out of money.

[@mizofan]

Do see Embrace of the Serpent.

[@jkorshak]

About Vietnam is awkwardly America centric and, sure, soldiers in the bush fighting charlie - except this is no war against the natives but against the jungle and themselves as they seek El Dorado to sate their greed. Indeed, the film is about greed, ambition, hubris, ignorance, dogma, madness - the brute parts of the human condition against itself in the face of and uncaring and brutal nature. It comments on colonialism and class and cults of personality but that is not the story the film is telling.

[@dubbedcrazy]

you say you don't like the outdoors documentary feel...yet you've watched this several times??????? *_*

[@1966human]

Yep ive got this film, one of my favorites, German film makers arnt afraid to go with the flow with movie making ( bring events outside the script into the movie. The music is grate. The main caracture gives it his all, ( so to speek ).

[@johansoderberg6546]

Apart from the greatness of the opening scene and the on-location settings this film is dull, because tragic things happen with no response from those affected by the events in the film. Therefore I felt emotionally detached from the participants in the story.

[@greenman6141]

The need to emotionalise things is what many people loathe about US film making. A good film shouldn't need to tell an intelligent audience what to think or feel. As for dull...I don't think I've ever seen a film as nerve wracking. One doesn't know what is going to happen at any given second. But whatever does...is going to be bleeding awful.

[@John_on_the_mountain]

@@greenman6141its not about telling the audience what to feel, its that the characters didnt react to anything happening around them

[@greenman6141]

@@John_on_the_mountain That is your perception. I'd say a woman walking straight into a jungle is absolute a reaction to what was happening. Indeed, everyone was reacting. They just weren't over emoting all over the shop.

[@liltick102]

Herzog is a god

[@Sycokay]

I never understood why people liked that one. It's more of a stage play in the wilderness than a movie. Wooden acting, besides Kinski, who just played himself as he always did. Never managed to watch it in one go.

[@John_on_the_mountain]

Personally i like it. But also it was so weird how the characters just never seemed to react to anything going on around them

[@jorgipogi]

The german language might be a bit of distraction. However, it looks like a very interesting movie.

[@mizofan]

most great films have not been in English

[@riccardoangeli802]

Kinsky unico attore degno di nota del secolo scorso... Inquietante Intenso Magnetico ... Gli altri attori banali mestieranti... De Niro Nicholson al Pacino ecc ecc ecc ecc