(1972) Written and directed by Werner Herzog; Starring: Klaus
Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo, Del Negro, Peter Berling and Cecilia Rivera;
Available on DVD
Rating: ****½
“I am the great traitor. There can be no greater! Whoever
even thinks about deserting will be cut into 198 pieces! And then trampled upon
until you can paint the walls with him. Whoever eats one grain too many or
drinks one drop of water too much will be locked up for 155 years! If I,
Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees, the birds will drop dead
from the trees. I am the Wrath of God! The earth I walk upon sees me and
quakes! But whoever follows me and the river, will win untold riches. But
whoever deserts...” – Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski)
“… I would have spent the entire budget in three days
working in the studio, and of course, there was something authentic about the
jungle which can’t be fabricated. You can’t create jungle in the studio. You
have to go out there, and the story takes place in the Peruvian jungle; you
have to go there. There’s no alternative to that.” – Werner Herzog
The purported feuds between Werner Herzog and the volatile
actor Klaus Kinski* are legendary, most likely embellished to some degree by
both parties for dramatic effect. But no matter whose account you believe, Kinski
was notorious for being temperamental and difficult to work with. Despite the
acrimony between the two, chronicled in Herzog’s stellar documentary, MyBest Fiend (1999),
they somehow managed to put aside their differences to make five films together,
starting with Aguirre, the Wrath of God. The script was written in 1971
on a tour bus in two-and-a-half days.** The then 28-year-old director set out
with a crew of eight to shoot his low budget epic (budgeted at $380,000) on
location in the Peruvian jungle, with the cast and crew living on rafts. Keeping
the production on track was no small feat for Herzog, as he contended with
limited food and supplies, managing Kinski’s wild rants,*** and near tragedy.****
* Fun Fact #1: Herzog was 13 when he first met Kinski, who
occupied the same boardinghouse in Germany.
** Fun Fact #2: A few scenes were lost from Herzog’s first
draft of the screenplay when one of the soccer players he was traveling with vomited
on his typewriter, along with several pages of the script.
*** Fun Fact: #3: According to Herzog’s account, Kinski
fired his Winchester rifle at a noisy hut full of extras. Thankfully, no one
was killed, but one extra lost a fingertip.
*** Not-So-Fun Fact: Herzog’s life and career were almost
cut short on Christmas Eve of 1971, when he was taken off the passenger list to
Cuzco at the last moment due to a change in routes. Later that day, the same
plane he was supposed to take disintegrated in mid-flight, with all aboard
killed, except for one teenage girl (chronicled in Herzog’s 1999 TV documentary
Wings of Hope)
The opening scene on a fog-shrouded mountain (Huayna Picchu)
sets the tone for the rest of the film,* as conquistadors and their slaves**
traverse treacherous mountain paths, which subsequently claim several lives. Don
Pedro de Ursúa (Ruy Guerra) is appointed leader on
their quest to the golden city of El Dorado by Gonzalo Pizarro (Alejandro
Repullés), along with his second-in command, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski).
Accompanying them on their journey, against the better judgment of Pizarro, are
Ursúa’s wife Inez de Atienza (Helena Rojo) and Aguirre’s teenage daughter Flores
(Cecilia Rivera). But it doesn’t take long before Aguirre, who doesn’t agree
with his superior’s leadership, conspires to displace him. Aguirre chooses Don
Fernando de Guzmán (Peter Berling) as emperor for the new land they hope to
discover, but he’s at best, a figurehead who will comply with Aguirre’s
machinations. Aguirre’s team travels down the tumultuous Urubamba River in
rafts, while fending off attacks from unseen natives on the shore.
* Fun Fact #4: Herzog stated that most of the footage was
filmed on a handheld 35 mm camera, stolen from a film school in Munich.
** Fun Fact #5: Herzog hired 450 indigenous people from the
highlands as extras.
Despite the behind-the-scenes drama (including a shooting
spree by an enraged Kinski),* it’s easy to admire Kinski’s mesmerizing
performance, as a feral, malevolent force of nature. Instead of using makeup or
prosthetics to depict the disabled Aguirre, Kinski portrayed his character’s infirmity
through body movement. As directed by Herzog (or Kinski’s idea, depending on
which story you prefer), Aguirre scuttles like a crab or spider, in a
side-to-side motion. His uneven stance suggests a twisted body, with one arm
longer than the other. He matches his unpredictable motion with an equally
mercurial demeanor. While surprisingly tender to his daughter, he reserves his savage
energy for his men.
* Fun Fact #6: Kinski commented in his hyperbolic
autobiography on his working relationship with Herzog: “…He doesn’t have the
foggiest inkling of how to make movies. He doesn’t even try to direct the
actors anymore. Long ago, when I ordered him to keep his trap shut, he gave up
asking me whether I’m willing to carry out his stupid and boring ideas.”
In stark contrast to Kinski’s scene-stealing performance, Mexican
actress Helena Rojo chose a more subtle approach as the beleaguered Inez de
Atienza. She contends with the disgrace of her husband’s imprisonment, along
with the ever-increasing madness of Aguirre with quiet dignity, although her
eyes and facial expressions suggest another story. After experiencing one injustice
after another, she simply walks into the jungle, clad in her finest dress, vanishing
without a trace.
In his DVD commentary, Herzog made it clear that this was
not a history lesson, but a fictionalized account (including real historical figures)
about Spanish conquistadors, their plunder of the New World, and subsequent
ill-fated quest for the fabled golden city, El Dorado. While he didn’t hide the
fact that most of the story was fabricated, his documentary-style approach
creates a “fly on the wall” experience, as if Herzog traveled back in time to
1560 to capture a forgotten piece of the past. There’s a sense of immediacy
that transcends fiction, to create its own reality. While adhering to a more naturalistic
approach in general, Herzog incorporated sequences that are pure poetry. In one
scene that exemplifies the vanquished and their once-proud legacy, a slave laments
that he was once royalty, with no one permitted to look directly upon his face.
In another scene, a soldier’s loud proclamation to overthrow Aguirre is met
with swift retribution. In the midst of counting to ten, he’s cut off (quite
literally) with his decapitated head finishing the count. It’s a surreal scene
that doesn’t reflect reality, but it’s unforgettable nevertheless. Herzog’s
crowning achievement is the haunting climactic scene with Aguirre alone on his
raft, his plans in tatters, surrounded by scores of monkeys (although I doubt
Kinski’s simian-tossing would win any awards from the ASPCA).
* Fun Fact #7: Herzog purchased 400 monkeys in Iquitos for
the scene. The monkeys were later released in the wild, rather than sold to
another buyer.
* Fun Fact #8: For the scene where Aguirre and his men
encounter the remnants of a cannibal village, Herzog adorned the village set
with a real mummy, which was somehow acquired by his brother.
The road to ruin is paved with imaginary gold. Aguirre,
the Wrath of God illustrates how a cult of personality, fed by the empty promise
of untold riches, can lead a group of people to insanity and their ultimate ruin.
Aguirre’s cult almost parallels Herzog’s obsession with filming his vision,
regardless of the peril and hardship involved.* But there’s a method to Herzog
and Kinski’s (alleged) madness. Although historical accuracy takes a back seat
to art, Herzog somehow manages to capture the veracity of the setting,
purveying a fiction that’s more truthful than pure fact.
* Fun Fact #9: Perhaps as a final insult to injury, Herzog
recounted how the exposed negatives of his footage (intended for developing at
a lab in Mexico City) were lost. He feared that his movie was gone, only to
have the lost reels discovered on top of a pile of trash at Lima airport.
Sources for this article: Shout Factory Blu-ray commentary
by Werner Herzog; Kinski Uncut, by Klaus Kinski; Every Man for
Himself and God Against All, by Werner Herzog
