Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writer:

Werner Herzog

Stars:

Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo

4 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Klaus Kinski	...	Don Lope de Aguirre
Helena Rojo	...	Inez
Del Negro	...	Brother Gaspar de Carvajal
Ruy Guerra	...	Don Pedro de Ursua
Peter Berling	...	Don Fernando de Guzman
Cecilia Rivera	...	Flores
Daniel Ades	...	Perucho
Edward Roland	...	Okello
Alexandra Cheves	...	(as Alejandro Chavez)
Armando Polanah	...	Armando
Daniel Farfán
Julio E. Martínez	...	(as Julio Martinez)
Alejandro Repullés	...	Gonzalo Pizarro
Indianern der Kooperative Lauramarca

Storyline

A few decades after the destruction of the Inca empire, a Spanish expedition leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon river in search of gold and wealth. Soon, they come across great difficulties and Don Aguirres, a ruthless man who cares only about riches, becomes their leader. But will his quest lead them to "the golden city", or to certain destruction?

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Plot Keywords:

el dorado | conquistador | megalomaniac | 1560s | spanish | 

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Taglines:

A breathtaking journey into the heart of darkness.

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Genres:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | History

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

West Germany Peru Mexico

Language:

English Quechua Spanish German

Release Date:

3 April 1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Filming Locations:

Huayna Picchu, Peru

Box Office

Budget:

$370,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, Hessischer Rundfunk (HR)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Near the end of the shooting, Werner Herzog thought he had lost all the negatives that the film was shot on. He later discovered that the shipping agency at the Lima airport had completed all paperwork that accompanied the transportation of the film cans, but had not actually shipped them. The cans were thought lost for several weeks before the oversight was revealed.

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Goofs

The "dead" Indian slave opens his eyes as the horse walks by.

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Quotes

Don Fernando de Guzman: All the land to our left and all the land to our right now belongs to us. I solemnly and formally take possession of all this land. Our country is already six times larger than Spain, and every day we drift makes it bigger.
Don Lope de Aguirre: Have you seen any solid ground that would support your weight?

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Alternate Versions

The original released version is spoken in German. The actors spoke a variety of languages on set (including English), and the lines had to be re-recorded in post-production in the final language. Because of this, the dubbed English version is preferred by some.

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Connections

Referenced in The Thin Red Line (1998)

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Soundtracks

Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes (Lacrime Di Re)
Written by Florian Fricke
Performed by Popol Vuh
Published by Edition Intro Meisel
Courtesy of Gammarock Music

User Reviews

An expedition formed by Spanish soldiers down the Amazon river searching for the fabled city of gold

1972's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, by Werner Herzog concerns an expedition formed by Spanish soldiers down the Orinoco and Amazon rivers searching for the fabled Dorado. It is set in the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado. It deals with an expedition under command of Pedro Ursua (Ruy Guerra) with various officers . The travelers who are over-dressed for the heat in their old world clothes and armour must survive the crises of jungle life and human frailty . The river , jungle scenery and several dangers dominate the motley characters in the risked journey . But later on , Lope De Aguirre (Klaus Kinski , who was the start of an extremely stormy, and sometimes violent, professional relationship with Herzog that lasted 15 years) taker over the explorers .

Slow-moving and interesting film that contains historical events , thrills , double-crosses and wonderful scenarios . The picture has been criticized for its plodding argument , with brief moments of tension where the travelers must survive the crises of jungle life and human frailty . Good performance from Klaus Kinski , who plays this actual historical character of strange manner , as usual . According to director Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski threatened to abandon the film entirely at one point during the shooting. Herzog says he threatened to kill Kinski and then turn the gun on himself if Kinski left and later declared he was quite prepared to do so. Kinski stated in interviews that Herzog wielded a pistol to emphasize the threat, but Herzog denies this. Werner Herzog claims to have written the screenplay in two and a half days , he wrote a good portion of it while traveling with his soccer team, during games and on bus rides . Rare musical score and colorful cinematography , though most of the film, as well as several other features by Werner Herzog, was shot on a 35mm camera that he stole from his film school . The motion picture was originally directed by Herzog , though he did not storyboard a single frame of the film and ll of it was shot and framed spontaneously. In 1988 was realized another version titled ¨El Dorado¨ by Carlos Saura ; because of a similarity in plot and characters, the movie suffers by comparison but stands on its own as a less fantastic version of the same travel of obsessed adventurers . Rating : Above average , it's considered to be a "Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time"

The picture is based on real incidents , these are the followings : Together with his daughter he joined the 1560 expedition of Pedro De Ursúa down the Marañón and Amazon Rivers with 300 Spaniards and hundreds of natives ; the actual goal of Ursúa was to send veterans from the former Peruvian civil wars away, to keep them from troublemaking, using the Eldorado myth as a lure . A year later, he participated in the overthrow and killing of Ursúa and his successor, Fernando De Guzmán, whom he ultimately succeeded. He and his men reached the Atlantic (probably by the Orinoco River), destroying native villages on the way. On March 23, 1561, Aguirre urged 186 captains and soldiers to sign an act which would proclaim him as prince of Peru, Tierra Firma and Chile. He is reputed to have said in 1561: I am the Wrath of God, the Prince of Freedom, Lord of Tierra Firme and the Provinces of Chile In 1561, he seized Isla Margarita and brutally suppressed any opposition to his reign, killing many innocent people. When he crossed to the mainland in an attempt to take Panama, his open rebellion against the Spanish crown came to an end. He was surrounded at Barquisimeto, Venezuela, where he murdered his own daughter, Elvira, "because someone that I loved so much should not come to be bedded by uncouth people". He also killed several followers who intended to capture him. He was eventually captured and shot to death. Aguirre's body was cut into quarters and sent to various cities across Venezuela.