Sunday, July 27, 2014

Apocalypse Now influenced by Aguirre: Wrath of God

7:30 PM | Posted by

Werner Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God is one of those epic masterpieces that could never be made today. The film-making process that Herzog and his cast and crew endured was grueling, risky and at times life threatening, filming on location on the Amazon River. 

 Aguirre: The Wrath of God, tells a story which takes place in the year 1560 about a doomed expedition led by a group of men in the Peruvian rain forest in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. Klaus Kinski plays Aguirre, one of the most frightening villains ever captured on film. A man so ruthless and evil, he will let nothing and no one get in his way to retrieve his untold riches.

Right from the beginning Aguirre proves to be an oppressive leader, so terrifying that few protest his leadership and those who complain are easily killed. Klaus Kinski embodies the character of Aguirre perfectly with his frightening facial expressions, his stern cold eyes and his crab spider-like walk. Kinski creates a man on the verge of madness always scheming and plotting against others and the only person Aguirre shows any tenderness or love towards is his 15-year-old daughter, which disturbingly feels incestuous.

The films themes of greed, murder, madness and lust for power has made this one of the most powerful films to explore the dark side of the human soul, and so its not to surprising and this was one of the main influences for Frances Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Aguirre: Wrath of God has some of the most haunting and most dangerous sequences ever captured on celluloid which includes its iconic opening of a snake-like line of men making their way down the steep Andes mountains through a thick fog of clouds and jungle, or the thrilling sequence of rafts getting caught in a horrifying and dangerous whirlpool, or the decapitation of a man plotting to escape, whose head continues to speak shortly after the man is beheaded. In one of the most beautiful camera shots of the film, the camera rotates 360 degrees around and around Aguirre alone on the leaking raft surrounded by corpses and chattering monkeys as you hear the voice-over of Aguirre's madness still planning his new empire. 

The making of Aguirre: The Wrath of God became as legendary to film buffs as the film itself, as right from the beginning of the production Herzog would purposely try infuriating Kinski to get the most frightening performance he desired out of him. Kinski's angry outbursts would result in not only a gunshot blowing off the top joint of a extras finger but Herzog threatening to shoot first Kinski and then himself, at a time when Kinski threatened to walk off set. Over the years this story has been given rise to the legend that Herzog made Kinski act for him at gunpoint. However Herzog debunked that rumor in the DVD commentary track by stating, "I was unarmed but somehow in order to look better Kinski reported as if I had drawn a gun at him...it's not like that. But I would have shot him, there was no doubt and the bastard understood it was not a joke. I just out-gutted him and was more determined than he was. After that he behaved for like ten days."

 

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