The stance of a conqueror (Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (DVD))

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Product:	Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (DVD)
Date:	18/09/01 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ambitious and sincere, Compelling performances, Superb cinematography

Disadvantages: none

Werner Herzog's account of quest for the golden city of El Dorado is an intensely explored study of greed, cruelty and delusion, featuring one of the most compelling screen prescences in cinema history in the form of Klaus Kinski as the renegade commander Aguirre.

The film opens with a huge expedition party snaking its way down a mountain into the amazonian rainforest. Thomas Mauch's cinematography is superb. There is a soft golden glow to scene, as the sunlight catches the metal of the helmets, a haziness to the image that reminds me of that seen in old photographic prints where the silver is beginning to seep through the image. Here though, the colour is the gold of heaven, or perhaps the gold of the city they are searching for. It is history seen through the filter of nostalgia, the filter of romance.

Once inside the rainforest though, the mood changes dramatically, the glamour of exploration being replaced with the dirty reality of the conquistadors' avarice. As the party makes its way clumsily though the mud, we see the harsh treatment of the indian slaves, and hear of their increasing death-rate from colds. When narrator Brother Gaspar de Carvajal explains that he 'has not the time' to bury them, we are aware that this is a journey where God has been left behind. We also notice Kinski for the first time, brutally shoving the slaves onwards despite their obvious exhaustian. Their is a crazed look in his eye, a contempt for weakness and a lifetime of pent up fury.

Before long, the expedition's leader Pizarro, decides that the toll on the party is too great and decides to halt the journey and send a small party down the river on rafts in search of food and information. The party includes commander Don Pedro de Ursua and his wife, other noblemen and slaves, and Brother Gaspar de Carvajal. Second in command is Aguirre (Kinski). Under Aguirre's influence, the journey soon becomes a search not for food, but for E
l Dorado itself - and his fellow companions are powerless to stop him leading them further into the jaws of the river.

This is where the film becomes truly remarkable. In a determination to capture the realism of this ill-fated mission, Herzog puts his actors (and crew) through extremely dangerous and harsh conditions. The raft acts as both a stage for a kind of Shakespearean tragedy, and at the same time a very real means of surviving the fearsome waters of the amazon. The look of anxiety in the faces of the actors as their raft is tossed violently around by the rapids is genuine, as is their gaunt, wasted appearance towards the end of the film. It feels at times as though you are experiencing not acting, but re-enactment.

Kinski's simmering, violent passions are also genuine, if his confessed desire to kill Herzog during filming are to believed. And there is the matter of the gun. I've heard it said that Herzog kept a gun under his pillow, so afraid was he of Kinski. On the other side of the coin, it is said that Herzog at one stage put a gun to Kinski's head to demand that he continue acting. Where the truth lies in these stories it is hard to say. Certainly there are times, though, where Kinski is seen to catch the 'eye' of the camera and there is a flicker of hatred there that burns bright, evidently resenting the ordeal he is being put through.

Acting or not, Kinski's prescence is undeniable. He is largely silent, occasionally violent, but always 'there', his eyes fixed rigid with delusions of grandeur and a certainty of his own destiny. There is something in his stance too, that takes a while to pinpoint. He walks with a curious limp, a gait that puts him permanently in the stance of the conqueror, one leg straight, the other bent as though stood on the body of a conquered king or hilltop. He is a tragic figure, a man driven to extremes of folly and cruelty in the quest for glory, laying claim to eve
ry mile of jungle that passes.

Meanwhile, the other members of the expedition descend into despair as they are picked off one by one by the arrows of unseen natives. "Long arrows are evidently in fashion" says one matter of factly, as he topples into the river, skewered through the chest. Only the monk de Carvajal retains any hope, driven as he is by a lust for gold which rivals that of Aguirre's for power.

The film's climax comes with a further blurring of realities, as the explorers begin to hallucinate from lack of food. We have been carried into a world where documentary, realistic fiction, and hallucinogenic fiction blend into one. We no longer know what we are looking at, and Herzog does not give us any answers, choosing instead to leave us cognitively and emotionally adrift.

An uncompromising film in every way, this is a truly unique film, and an unforgettable experience.

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The English title for the film is 'Aguirre, Wrath of God'. It is available with subtitles and in widescreen format. One version is available which also includes Herzog's documentary on those who are deaf and blind, titled 'Land Of Silence And Darkness'.

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