Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Conquistador expedition travels down the Amazon to death and madness

After Pizarros conquest of the Inca Empire, a megalomaniacal Spanish soldier (Klaus Kinski) leads a group of conquistadores down the Amazon River in early 1561 in search of gold and more conquest.

Werner Herzogs Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) mixes the 1541 expeditions of Gonzalo Pizarro & subordinate Francisco de Orellana with the 1560 expedition of the major characters of the film (Aguirre, Ursúa, Don Fernando, Inez and Flores), which left Peru to search for the fabled El Dorado.

This influenced superior movies like Apocalypse Now (1979) and Black Robe (1991), but Aguirre still packs a punch for those who can handle its unconventionality and remote ...

Based (loosely) on fact, Werner Herzog takes us on an escapade through the Amazon jungle looking for the legendary El Dorado. Expedition leader and conqueror Pizarro despatches a forward troop to clear the way and gather some intelligence, and that's led by "Don Pedro" (Ruy Guerra) and his rather demonically focussed sidekick "Aguirre" (Klaus Kinski). This is an arduous and hazardous journey and the boss soon decides he wants to turn back. "Aguirre" is having none of this and so we have a change at the top and they force their way deeper and deeper into this hostile terrain with just about everything - man and beast - lined up against them. Kinski is super here portraying a man whose grasp on reality was at best limited when he started, but...