Cinemacation #2 Aguirre, the Wrath of God

I admit, I wasn't nearly as impressed with this movie as Roger Ebert was. He writes:

Werner Herzog's “Aguirre, the Wrath of God'' (1973) is one of the great haunting visions of the cinema. It tells the story of the doomed expedition of the conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro, who in 1560 and 1561 led a body of men into the Peruvian rain forest, lured by stories of the lost city. The opening shot is a striking image: A long line of men snakes its way down a steep path to a valley far below, while clouds of mist obscure the peaks. These men wear steel helmets and breastplates, and carry their women in enclosed sedan-chairs. They are dressed for a court pageant, not for the jungle.

The music sets the tone. It is haunting, ecclesiastical, human and yet something else...

Something else indeed. The music was one of the things that struck me as interesting about this film. It is similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey in the sense that the music you would expect for a certain shot is not what you got. This was particularly interesting when somebody was killed. There was something very non-chelant about it. No change in music to indicate that something interesting was even happening. He was there then *poof* he wasn't. There is something that struck me as very real and haunting.

The one point where we disagree is Klaus Kinski's portrayal of Aguirre. Ebert portrays it as something magical, but I just thought it was strange. I still don't understand why he was hunched over all the time. Did Aguirre have back problems?

From what I read, though, the making of this film has become legendary. The setting, for one, has a lot of steep hills and fast rivers making filming difficult on a limited budget. Also, Kinski's was a royal douche. Actors throw a lot of tantrums, but to throw some that have been legendary in Hollywood? That is saying something.