Aguirre, Wrath of God is the motion picture that many would consider to be Klaus Kinski’s finest work and indeed his best collaboration with director Werner Herzog. Theirs was a difficult professional relationship fuelled by Kinski’s almost schizophrenic nature and Herzog’s insistence on perfection. We’ve all heard of Christian Bale’s rants on the set of Terminator Salvation or Marlon Brando’s almost unbearable “performances” off the screen, but when one learns Kinski used to scream in Herzog’s face for hours on end on set, it seems we have a new contender on the list of difficult actors to work with. If “actors are like cattle”, as Alfred Hitchcock famously declared, then Klaus would be the bull that no-one dares counteract.
Here he plays to his best as the Spanish conquistador of the title. Aguirre will stop at nothing to guide his motley band of men and women downstream and through dense jungles to find the fabled land of El Dorado, where the promise of gold and fame blind the evil madman. On the way to hell they encounter cannibals, savages who pick them off one-by-one from the river banks, but the most terrifying thing is their leader who claims he is God and will stop at nothing to get what he desires. Join him or die.
As well as a character study of a power-crazed leader, the film has many elements to offer. The tense silence and extended wide shots of the landscapes surrounding the actors provide this film with an unforgettable aura you just can’t turn away from. An unlikely aspect that nevertheless works to subtle perfection is the creeping ambient background music that accompanies these reflective hypnotic sequences. It is a progressive film that simultaneously pairs the slow elimination of his crew with Aguirre’s increasingly worrying mental state and obnoxious obsessions with power.
I shall most definitely be watching more Kinski/ Herzog collaborations in the future.
PG Certificate
Review by LiveWire Film Critic, Paddy Johnson (June ’13)