A masterpiece remains a masterpiece. I saw ‘Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes‘ again 50 years after its release, and the impression was just as strong. It’s one of those films that I haven’t forgotten at all in the half century that has passed since I first watched it, a film that remains actual in message and artistry, and that if it were released today as a new film would, I think, have an equally strong impact. The script, written according to the legend by Werner Herzog in two nights while he was accompanying his soccer team on a tour, is based – very loosely – on the adventures of a historical character from the time of the Spanish conquest of South America. Historical truth is probably respected to a very small extent, but that is unimportant. Don Quixote is not based on a historically documented figure either, and even Shakespeare’s plays do not excel in factual accuracy, but they represent their eras and the passions of their characters better than archival documents and historical treatises. ‘Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes‘ is an allegory about colonialism, about the meeting of civilizations, about power and about the madness that can lead to glory or downfall. The film is an artistic adventure, and making it was a human adventure.
The comparison with Shakespeare is not out of place. Don Lope de Aguirre is a Shakespearean character, a Macbeth who takes over a kingdom through murder and whom the surrounding moving forests will end up defeating. Adjutant to the commander of a patrol sent by Pizarro on a near-suicidal mission, he is the de facto leader of the group, orchestrating a ‘revolt’ from the shadows that ousts the mission commander and installs a puppet emperor of an empire as vast as imaginary. Deadly dangers lurk around: a lush and hostile nature, natives who see their territories invaded and their way of life threatened. The group of Europeans consider themselves representatives of ‘civilization’ through the force of the Christian faith that they try to impose on the inhabitants of the barely discovered continent, but their power is actually based on the power of arms and they only bring them slavery, disease and the destruction of indigenous civilizations. El Dorado with its treasures remains a mirage that inflames the imaginations of the Europeans who came in dressed in armory and with their guns. In its search, a political and human drama plays out, which can only end in madness and death.
Countless articles and even whole books have been written about how this film was made. Filming took place on location and the film crew lived in conditions not very different from those of the members of the expedition that had taken place four centuries before. A 35mm film camera that Herzog stole from a Munich film school he never graduated from is said to have been used. Most of the dialogues were spontaneous, without a script written in advance. Several of the scenes considered of symbolic value were improvised. The film is dominated by the acting perforance of Klaus Kinski, a formidable actor and a controversial personality, whose relations with Herzog during the filming were as conflictual as possible. That didn’t stop the two from collaborating on four more films over the next few years, the last in 1987. All of them are among the best of the director and actor’s respective careers. ‘Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes‘ is probably the peak.