Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Werner Herzog · 1972
Werner Herzog's 1972 film follows Spanish conquistador Lope de Aguirre, played by Klaus Kinski in the first of five collaborations between the two, as he leads a splinter group of Spanish soldiers deeper into the Amazon in a doomed search for the mythical city of gold, El Dorado. Written in under three days, shot chronologically over five weeks entirely on location in the Peruvian rainforest on a budget of roughly $370,000, and scored by Popol Vuh, the film became a cult favourite whose off-screen production stories, including Kinski's on-set volatility, are nearly as well known as the film itself.
