Movie 207/1001 ~ Aguirre: The Wrath of God

This film is German and stars Klaus Kinski as Aguirre. The story is of a group of Spanish conquistadores in the 1500s searching for El Dorado on several rafts. Aguirre, who is hungry for power causes a mutiny and the slow descent down the river truly begins. This movie is a minimalist film, and many will find it quite boring. The lack of standard musical scores and dialogue is meant to convey the growing madness of all onboard this clearly doomed mission. I liked the movie, but I didn't love it.

Fun Fact 1: Klaus Kinski has a notoriously terrible temper (which is why he was chosen to be a crazy person) and is known to throw temper tantrums. In fact, in one tantrum on location, he fires at a set and accidently shot off an extra's finger. The director, Werner Herzog, had to persuade Kinski not to storm off of the set be threatening to kill him with a gun.Fun Fact 2: To obtain the monkeys for the final scene, the director payed trappers to catch 400 monkeys. He payed them half in advance, and then they tried to sell them to OTHER buyers for more money in Miami. As the thieving trappers were loading the monkeys onto the plane, Herzog showed up, claimed to be a veterinarian, said the monkeys needed vaccinations and just stole the monkeys. The monkeys were released back into the jungle after the film.

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