Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes
Film details
History · Adventure · Drama · Werner Herzog · 1h 34min
Synopsis
A few decades after the destruction of the Inca Empire, a Spanish expedition led by the infamous Aguirre leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon River in search of the lost city of El Dorado. When great difficulties arise, Aguirre’s men start to wonder whether their quest will lead them to prosperity or certain death.
Verdict
Dense auteur cinema about unrestrained ambition and the madness of power.
In-depth analysis
Aguirre, the Wrath of God is one of Werner Herzog's seminal works, a visual parable on hubris and madness. The film follows Lope de Aguirre, a Spanish conquistador who, in his obsessive quest for El Dorado, drags his expedition towards self-destruction. Herzog films the physical descent down the Amazon as a metaphor for moral descent: as they advance, Aguirre transforms into a megalomaniacal tyrant who loses all touch with reality. The direction is hypnotic and claustrophobic; the jungle devours the men while the protagonist raves about impossible empires. The violence is period-specific — ambushes, summary executions, death by disease and poisoned arrows — presented without aestheticism or morbid fascination, as part of the horror of the colonial enterprise. The film critiques unbridled ambition and colonialism, but from the register of European auteur cinema, not from a contemporary ideological agenda. Herzog depicts human failure without celebrating it: Aguirre ends up raving on a raft surrounded by corpses and monkeys, a symbol of the emptiness of his ambition. A demanding work, recommended for adults who appreciate contemplative cinema and are prepared for its philosophical density and historical violence.