Aguirre, was a film that heavily contributed to my obsession with films. I saw Herzog's journey into darkness around the turn of the millennium as a university student, and I felt "film is for me, film is my thing now". It wasn't the first stepping stone, but it was a major one, it was a film I proselytized with. Seeing that train of people descend through the clouds at the start of the movie fascinated me. It fascinated me because they were in real danger, and that's why Aguirre is not just merely a film. Hundreds of real people traversing a tiny perilous path in a slippery humid environment is madness. The Popol Vuh soundtrack, the sheer aesthetic beauty of the arcing line, and the Gaspar de Carvajal narration intensifies the madness. However this movie is not so much about artifice as it is about being a documentary; the most interesting thing about the film is its fact not its fiction. Later on we see people in unwieldy trappings, going down a river in foment, these are real people in real danger. This is a film which makes various great points about the mania of colonialism, but it is also itself a mania.
The film got to me both at the start and at the end. Aguirre's traitor speech particularly grabbed a hold of me. He talks about his ambition of being a great traitor, and that deeply resounded within me at the time as a young man with deep rivers of anger in the subterranea of my soul. Yes, betray everything, betray the parents, betray the schools, betray the churches, betrayal as an avenging triumph ending in obliteration.
Watching this after the passing of two decades, for the umpteenth time I was surprised to find those rivers of anger were still flowing, it took me some time to calm down after the movie. Whatever else it is, the movie is full of power.
I also came to understand Aguirre as God's puppet. At the start of the movie he is very clearly a cautioner, he repeatedly tells his superiors of the folly of the expedition. He undergoes a very sudden transition to Punisher, which seems to point to a divine intervention.
The main pity of the film is the way the animals are treated. At the start of the film a cage with a chicken hurtles down the abyss and smashes to pieces, later a horse is bullied and in clear distress pushed off a raft. The most haunting shot of the movie as a better adjusted adult is the horse staring back at the raft from the river bank, awaiting devouring, pining after abusers. Haunting because it is real, not acting. The coolest people in the movie are the little swimming monkeys, glorious experiencers having a great time except when one is hauled up in Kinski's mitt.
As a film Aguirre has been an incredibly important one in my life, but as a document of abuse, it cannot remain a favourite.
The film got to me both at the start and at the end. Aguirre's traitor speech particularly grabbed a hold of me. He talks about his ambition of being a great traitor, and that deeply resounded within me at the time as a young man with deep rivers of anger in the subterranea of my soul. Yes, betray everything, betray the parents, betray the schools, betray the churches, betrayal as an avenging triumph ending in obliteration.
Watching this after the passing of two decades, for the umpteenth time I was surprised to find those rivers of anger were still flowing, it took me some time to calm down after the movie. Whatever else it is, the movie is full of power.
I also came to understand Aguirre as God's puppet. At the start of the movie he is very clearly a cautioner, he repeatedly tells his superiors of the folly of the expedition. He undergoes a very sudden transition to Punisher, which seems to point to a divine intervention.
The main pity of the film is the way the animals are treated. At the start of the film a cage with a chicken hurtles down the abyss and smashes to pieces, later a horse is bullied and in clear distress pushed off a raft. The most haunting shot of the movie as a better adjusted adult is the horse staring back at the raft from the river bank, awaiting devouring, pining after abusers. Haunting because it is real, not acting. The coolest people in the movie are the little swimming monkeys, glorious experiencers having a great time except when one is hauled up in Kinski's mitt.
As a film Aguirre has been an incredibly important one in my life, but as a document of abuse, it cannot remain a favourite.