Und So Weite: Aguirre was a Madman
August 19th 2008 00:20
Warning! Posts on Und So Weite contain spoilers!
The image shown above is from the Wikipedia page on Lope de Aguirre, whom the movie was based on. Even in this portrait, you can see the savage look in his eyes, and a remarkable similarity to Klaus Kinski.
Herzog's film is a brutal examination of how easy it is to discard the trappings of civilized life, yet how fragile the human body is. The Spanish explorers, ostensibly trying to bring the word of God to the native tribes, but having a wild time looting gold, sought the city of El Dorado, a legendary city, covered in the precious metal.
A group of explorers take a couple of rafts down the river, Aguirre one of the soldiers, only to be stranded by bad luck and angry rapids. The leader, an officer named Ursua, decides to march back, but Aguirre, lost in the feverish dreams of fame and power, mutinies, taking the men deeper into the wilds.
The further Aguirre floated from his Basque homeland, the more he descended into madness, as if it was the jungle that infected him. In 1561, he said
" I am the Wrath of God,
the Prince of Freedom,
Lord of Tierra Firme and the Provinces of Chile "
the Prince of Freedom,
Lord of Tierra Firme and the Provinces of Chile "
Herzog decided to make a film about this one trip, but Wikipedia tells us something even more unbelievable about Aguirre; previous to the expedition in search of El Dorado, Aguirre was arrested for crimes against the natives in 1551. The judge was a man named Esquivel who ignored Aguirre's claims and sentenced him to a flogging.
Those wild eyes must have burned bright, because Esquivel fled that part of Bolivia, fearing the inevitable revenge.
Aguirre followed him, in barefeet, over 6 000 km in three years.
He finally finds the judge, hiding in a library, sleeping fitfully, wearing a suit of armour. Aguirre, with what I presume was a cold and stony look, but lips pulled back in a grimace of satisfaction, draws his sword and cuts off Esquivel's temples.
He flees, returning shortly after to retrieve his sombrero, then hooks up with some friends, dresses in black and hides from the authorities.
Aguirre was a complete lunatic, the kind of rare freak that managed to cover his lack of humanity by engaging in war and terror. A similar personality might be Mark "Chopper" Read, whose story was wonderfully told in "Chopper" - a movie of similar barbarism.
I watched a YouTube video of Chopper telling a particularly frightening story about prison, which he ends by saying
"You could be a thief, you could be a bloody murderer, but, in a prison, the person most feared is an absolute fucking lunatic"
That sentiment holds strongly during Herzog's "Aguirre, Wrath of God", as Aguirre, wobbling around with his limp, remorselessly takes his men, followers and daughter to their certain death, his raft overcome by monkeys and the dead.
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