Details
Movie Description
Based on the journals of Brother Gaspar de Carvajal, AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD is director Werner Herzog's hallucinatory tale of Spanish colonialists searching for El Dorado, the legendary city of gold, in 16th-century Peru. When the travellers reach an impasse, a scouting party is assembled to search for any traces of the mythical empire. As they attempt to forge their way through the dense jungle, more and more of the party falls ill while their ruthless leader, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), grows increasingly insane.
Widely considered to be Herzog's finest film, AGUIRRE, which shares much in common with Francis Ford Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW, highlights the director's visionary approach to filmmaking. Like Coppola's film, accounts of AGUIRRE's shooting are laced with legendary incidents, such as the time Herzog reportedly held a gun to Kinski's head to get him to finish a scene. Whatever transpired between Herzog and Kinski, it made for astonishing cinema, as evidenced by the actor's haunting performance and the entire film's powerfully hypnotic mood.
Synopsis
AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD is the magnificent story of a Spanish conquistador who is obsessed with the idea of conquering the South American continent and locating the fabled city of El Dorado. This is arguably director Werner Herzog's best film.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Single Side - Dual Layer
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - German
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1.Werner Herzog - Director
Trailers:
Original Theatrical Trailer
Text/Photo Galleries:
Talent Bios
Theatrical release: April 3, 1977 (US)
December 29, 1972 (Cologne, Germany).
Shot on location in Peru between January and February 1972.
Director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski would work together on many occasions, developing a tempestuous creative partnership that eventually became the subject of Herzog's documentary on Kinski, entitled MY BEST FIEND.
Industry Reviews
"...The clarity and truth of [Herzog's] method, and the value of his tension between rationality and its opposite, are summarised to perfection..."
Sight and Sound - p.56-7 - Tony Rayns
"...Absolutely stunning....A splendid and haunting work..."
New York Times - p.43 - Vincent Canby
"...Rarely has German romanticism been so fully realised on screen..."
Total Film - Paul Poland (09/01/2001)
"...Werner Herzog's AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD is one of the great haunting visions of the cinema..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (04/04/1999)
"...It's hard to imagine a more hallucinatory movie than AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (11/03/2000)
"...Herzog's epic about a power-drunk Spanish conquistador is like a Teutonic APOCALYPSE NOW..."
Entertainment Weekly - Entertainment Weekly Staff (05/23/2003)
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