Aquirre, the Wrath of God

According to film lore, Werner Herzog stole the 35mm camera used to film this from his old film school.

Convinced of his own genius, he viewed the theft as somewhat his divine right.  If he did not steal it, a great movie could not be made.

This was Herzog's third movie, and the first of five collaborations with Klaus Kinski.  Conceived in 1968, filmed in 1972, it was not released in the U.S. until 1977, which is when I first saw it at Portland's Cinema 21.

Herzog wrote the script in a couple of days, including during time on a long bus ride with his German futbol team. Location filming was spread over five weeks in the Andes and on Amazon tributaries.

The characterizations are in part based on historical figures from what little is known of the earliest Spanish explorations of the Amazon, but the story is purely Herzog's.

The real Aquirre did in fact survive beyond his actual reign of terror and was executed by authorities.

Gaspar de Carvajal's written account of a Spanish expedition inspired the story, though the priest lived to the ripe old age of 84.

This is without a doubt one of the best movies ever made.


TS