Rating of
4/4
Megalomania is Kinski's Jungle Fever
Jeremy - wrote on 01/19/11
Werner Herzog's masterpiece is a lonely descent into madness and destruction. As the main character Aguirre becomes more consumed in his quest for riches, he completely disregards the safety of himself or his fellow soldiers, even as they are picked off one by one. Herzog examines how power can corrupt one individual, which in turn can infect the sanity of all of those around them. Not to be confused as nothing more than a character study, Aguirre: The Wrath of God is a film that shows how unforgiving the Earth is who do not appreciate their existence. The mysterious score and the claustrophobic photography can make the viewer terrified of both Kinski (whose performance is nothing short of legendary) and the terrible might of the world that surrounds them. A film that was made with such force that many of the crew became ill while shooting in the rainforest, Aguirre is a testament to how powerless a man is in the face of destruction.
