RusticMachine
25May11
You're criticisms are baseless and exaggerated. "Long arrows seem to be in fashion these days"?---You've perhaps picked the only line in entire film that was overly theatrical and out of place. You're nit picking.
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Displaying wall posts 1 - 30 of 64 in total
Howard Orr
26Dec11
One of cinema's great warnings on hubris. More than a vehicle for Kinski's craziness, as he didn't have to go to the Amazon to find his heart of darkness.
Eivind Nordengen
2Dec11
Føles som en slags blanding av Apocalypse Now! og The New World (evt. andre Terrence Mallick-filmer). Når ikke helt opp, kanskje mest pga en ganske dårlig engelsk dubbing på cinemateket, men ellers en veldig suggerende og nærmest mediterende film.
trolley freak
4Nov11
This story about an army of Spanish conquistadors searching for the fabled city of El Dorado is the first film in the legendary collaboration between visionary director Werner Herzog and his best fiend Klaus Kinski. Visually stunning from its first shot of the army descending into the jungle to the last shot of Aguirre standing alone amongst a plague of monkeys, it is an unforgettable portrait of power and madness...
Taylor Geddes
25Oct11
With a $300,000 budget this film looks fantastic. Most of it shot with only one 35mm camera. Just beautiful right from the start with the mountainside descent and especially all the shots from the rafts. And most of them all done in one take! The acting doesn't disappoint either, and, as Herzog says in the commentary, Kinski was clearly the only choice for Aguirre. Great film through and through.
Doctor Sodoma
23Sep11
Si me presionan diré, en una noche rodeado de humo de cigarrillos y borrachos patibularios, que esta es mi película favorita.
ramosbarajas
21Sep11
The camera and cinematography are so natural and fluid that it is impossible to not get involved. An amazing example of independent filmmaking, a fruit of love. The mastery from Herzog is something to behold.
TakaAwesome
6Sep11
Finally saw this and really liked it... but there was something off about the dubbing/syncing of the dialogue. Klaus Kinski's voice didn't sound real. It was kind of distracting. Plus they're all German-speaking Spaniards? I guess that's okay.
Catarina Gomes
15Aug11
This was my first Herzog and I found a deeper meaning in it than I was expecting. The man knows how to create atmosphere. And Klaus Kinski, got my eye on him as well.
calengklik
8Aug11
A surrealistic painting of a film. Aguirres visual style and narrative elements would have a strong influence on Apocalypse Now.
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Christopher Taylor
8Jul11
For as real as it feels, it also beckons a sort of poetic realism and exaggerated reality. The respect for the jungle is palpable on every frame and Kinski as usual rocks with a bombastic insanity that you can't take your eyes off of.
afuchs
2May11
The score is great, yes, and colonialism and greed are bad. Apart from music and great ideas (and the big great mad Kinski) everything else is sloppy, subordinated to the extremism of filming in ultra harsh conditions, i.e. living the art. Actionism is not my kind of cinema. "Long arrows seem to be in fashion these days"?! Seriously! What's with the histrionics?
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afuchs
25May11
Rustic Machine: What about the severed talking head? What about Kinski's final monologue? What about non-verbal theatrical symbolics like that ship on a tree-top? And most of all - what's with the sloppy German dubbing over English speaking German and Spanish actors? I know it's all insufficient funding and harsh conditions, but it does not make the movie any better - for me, at any rate.
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RusticMachine
27May11
"What about the severed talking head? What about Kinski's final monologue?"---What about them?Are you telling me that those theatrical elements negated the rest of the film for you?Your entitled to that viewpoint,I just don't understand it.Bad dubbing? Sure,I didn't find it distracting though.If you simply don't like "histrionics" in general, then say that(it's a valid reason),but don't present some pseudo-critique as if "being theatrical=bad film " or "bad dubbing=bad film".Also you critiqued it for being sloppy,and that's personally what I liked about it, I thought it fit the story well. I guess we can agree to disagree.
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afuchs
27May11
I should probably add a disclaimer at this point. Every opinion I allow myself to publish here is a personal view. I do not pretend to be objective. (This column does not seem to be a column in Cahiers du cinéma). What I write means explicitly or implicitly "why I did not like this movie", or, in extreme cases "why I do not understand what others liked about this movie". So, yes, I am perfectly at piece with your view. Moreover, I am sure our tastes in cinema might overlap greatly even despite our decisive disagreement on "Aguirre". --- More to the point though: yes, I do not like histrionics in cinema, and still, somehow, find it highly amusing in Hal Hartley or Aki Kaurismäki. Maybe it's because they counterbalance it with a fair measure of self-irony. And bad dubbing - yeah, I hate it. There must be a really really good reason for that. In Aguirre, I did not find any of the other qualities redeeming enough - for my personal taste or view or opinion or however you may call it.
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RusticMachine
28May11
Fair enough. I suppose I only responded the way I did because I've noticed a tendency for people on MUBI to be dismissive of films for absurd reasons(generally completely unfounded political/philosophical reasons). However,you haven't done that here, so I apologize for assuming you to be one of those people
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Zachary Curl
26Dec10
one of the best films i've ever seen. i saw it on a whim and i can't believe i hadn't seen it before.
