Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Aguirre is a ninety-four minute masterpiece of lyrical cinema. It’s about pursuing an impossible goal, and going mad in being convinced that the unattainable is otherwise. Dispatched by the explorer Gonzalo Pizarro, a band of Spaniards, with natives for manual labour, is sent through the Peruvian jungle to find El Dorado and claim it for Spain. Led by Don Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra), with the brash Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) at his right hand, the film opens with the party descending a vertiginous slope through treacherous fog. The image, set to Popol Vuh’s haunting musical theme, a hybrid of human choral voices and electronic notes, sets the tone immediately – we will watch, as objective as the gods, yet as emotionally involved as companions, as the group falls into mutiny, madness, and self-destruction. (J. N. Christley, Apollo Guide)