Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes

September Movie Night will celebrate film maker Werner Herzog for his 80th birthday. Join us on September 2, at 6 PM.

Werner Herzog born September 5, 1942 is a German Film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. He is known for his unique filmmaking process, such as disregarding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing the cast and crew into similar situations as characters in his films.
Werner Herzog’s work has had a decisive influence on New German Cinema and makes him an important representative of international auteur filmmaking. To mark the occasion, we take a look at one of his films from his rich oeuvre.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Herzog depicts colossal failure in this delusional legend of conquest about a Spanish expedition that fights its way through the jungle of Peru in 1560. In search of the legendary golden city of El Dorado, doom draws ever closer the further the troop advances.

The 16th century in the Peruvian Andes: An expedition of Spanish conquistadores is in search of El Dorado, the legendary golden realm of the Incas. The power-hungry officer Aguirre usurps command of an advance party that is to sail down the Amazon on rafts and explore the region. Aguirre declares the Spanish king deposed and a nobleman travelling with him “Emperor of El Dorado.” He then pushes further into the country with the rafts in the midst of a hostile environment, threatened by the poison arrows of the Indigenous people, hunger, exhaustion, disease and mutiny. The group becomes ever more decimated. In the end, we see Aguirre succumbing to madness on a raft covered in corpses drifting down the Amazon.

Aguirre’s dream of El Dorado, of power and greatness, is the dream of making history to defy fate. It is a visually powerful adventure that also brought great international recognition to New German Cinema. At the same time, AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD is the first collaboration between Werner Herzog and the eccentric Klaus Kinski. Their close relationship has always been marked by great ambivalence and produced further films such as NOSFERATU (1979) and FITZCARRALDO (1982).