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herzog's dark romantic obsession with nature, esp prominent in his early films, pays off here. much better than his other big south american nature movie Fitzcarraldo. there is a documentary about fitzcarraldo however that is very good. the broad theme of Aguirre--overconfident and puny european ego (civilization) vs. mysterious and enormous aboriginal id (nature)--is very conventional. but the conventionalism of the themes is gotten over throguh great performances and mood and plotting. klaus kinski has a great and weird charisma. the slow and meandering doom of the spanish expedition on the boat is both hypnotic and dreadful and works effectively as a sort of surreal descent into madness. in a broader thematic sense this is the consumption of civilization by nature, the ego by the id, the european by the aboriginal. my favorite moment is when the princess gives up all hope and walks into the jungle. she prefers the self-destructive purity of nature to the polite hypocrisy of civilization. the story is historically true on at least some level so it is very resonant. there were lots of spanish conquistadors who declared open rebellion to the crown and sailed up various south american rivers to found their own kingdoms. a lot died probably. but some did survive and helped to create lovely racist spanish colonial society. Zane fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Dec 13, 2017 |
# ¿ Dec 13, 2017 00:18 |
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# ¿ May 22, 2024 06:53 |
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sorry if too many i just like the movie
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# ¿ Dec 13, 2017 00:32 |