Avis des critiques

One of the true greats, this, an adventure saga about the ultimate futility of existence. Werner Herzog accompanies his not-so-merry band of travellers through the low-clouds and down the deadly winding trails of a mountain in the Amazon. They are indistinct specks on the landscape, consumed entirely by nature's all-conquering awesomeness.

An essential hallucination, subsequently mined by Coppola, Weir and Malick but unsurpassed in its vision of the withering yet liberating madness beneath our armor: When Aguirre climactically announces his mania in the body-strewn boat, the circling camera mourns, mocks, and exults.

Aguirre remains for me the most convincing of Herzog's films in terms of narrative. Though there is little dialogue, this saves Herzog from getting overly tangled up in the construction of a plot, something German directors are never good at. Instead, the narrative is more or less a steady stream of images which not only sets the pace of the film but the mood as well.