Cobra Verde (1987)

During the 1800s, paroled Brazilian bandit Cobra Verde is sent to West Africa with a few troops to man an old Portuguese fort and to convince the local African ruler to resume the slave trade with Brazil.

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writers:

Bruce Chatwin (novel), Werner Herzog

Stars:

Klaus Kinski, King Ampaw, José Lewgoy

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Klaus Kinski	...	Francisco Manoel da Silva / Cobra Verde
King Ampaw	...	Taparica
José Lewgoy	...	Don Octavio Coutinho
Salvatore Basile	...	Captain Fraternidade
Peter Berling	...	Bernabé
Guillermo Coronel	...	Euclides
Nana Agyefi Kwame II	...	Bossa Ahadee (as His Royal Highness Nana Agyefi Kwame II of Nsein)
Nana Fedu Abodo	...	Yovogan
Kofi Yerenkyi	...	Bakoko
Kwesi Fase	...	Kankpé
Benito Stefanelli	...	Captain Pedro Vicente
Kofi Bryan	...	Messenger of Bossa Ahadee
Carlos Mayolo	...	Governor of Bahia
Pedro Oliveira
A. Kwesi Compson

Storyline

The feared bandit Cobra Verde (Klaus Kinski) is hired by a plantation owner to supervise his slaves. After the owner suspects Cobra Verde of consorting with his young daughters, the owner wishes him gone. Rather than kill him,the owner sends Cobra Verde to Africa. The only white man in the area, Cobra Verde finds himself the victim of torture and humiliation. Later, he trains soldiers in a rebel army. Far from home, Cobra Verde is on the edge of madness.

---

Plot Keywords:

sugar | tribe | cinema | ship | drummer | 

---

Taglines:

The slaves will sell their masters and grow wings...

---

Genres:

Adventure | Drama

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

West Germany Ghana

Language:

German Ewe Portuguese

Release Date:

3 December 1987 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Slave Coast

Filming Locations:

Brazil

Box Office

Budget:

DEM 800,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Werner Herzog Filmproduktion,Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF),Ghana Film Industry Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) Color (Agfacolor) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Werner Herzog's notoriously combative relationship with Klaus Kinski reached something of a pitch in their final collaboration. A famous picture taken onset shows Kinski attempting to throttle Herzog in front of a crowd of African extras. Herzog discusses the picture with photographer Beat Presser in the documentary Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski (1999): Herzog thinks that Kinski, aware of the camera, wanted to create a dramatic moment (Presser thinks Kinski was genuinely trying to kill him).

---

Goofs

When Cobra Verde (Kinski) arrives at Elmina for the first time with ten rifles as gifts, he opens up the roll of weapons and pulls out a Lee-Enfield .303 bolt action rifle, a piece that began service with the British only in 1895 - long after the events at Dahomey and Elmina actually occurred.

---

Quotes

Taparica: Aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid of dying?
Francisco Manoel da Silva: I haven't tried it yet.

---

Connections

Referenced in The Big Box: To the Devil a Daughter (2009)

User Reviews

Powerful, moody and surreal

This movie is very absorbing: the cinematography is excellent, and the movie is full of eye-popping scenery and images, as well as intense exchanges of dialogue. One just doesn't find this combination at the movies very often.

Parts of the movie have such vivid but exotic imagery, that it seems surreal (the segment where the Amazon warriors are gathering for battle is a case in point!). Other parts seem almost operatic - especially the exchanges between Francisco Manoel da Silva (Klaus Kinski) and the mad African king, who has taken da Silva prisoner and plans to kill him.

Klaus Kinski is totally compelling in the lead role as Cobra Verde, a swashbuckling bandit-rogue who, partly through fate, partly through crooked machinations of those around him, gets sent off to a Brazilian slave fortress on the coast of West Africa to scout for slaves to bring back to Brazil. I had forgotten how old a man Mr. Kinski was, and was curious to find out his age when he made this film. I checked his stats, and to my astonishment I discovered that he was 62 years old when he made this film. His performance is truly amazing. Would that I have that much fire and energy when I am 62!

I heartily recommend this movie to anyone who is sick and tired of the usual pap that too often fills the screens these days. Though this film was made in 1988, nothing in it seems dated. Just based on its subject matter, it already has a built-in "timeless" quality to it. I think it will hold up well over the years. Go rent it!

By the way, for those of you who like these sorts of films, then another movie that I would recommend as a companion piece to this film is James Ivory's "Heat and Dust" (1982). Though much more "tranquil" and sans the fiery acting of a Klaus Kinski in the lead role, that film, set in India, too had excellent cinematography and a compelling, historically-based story with memorable images and characters.