This is powerful and intense stuff. 90 minutes inside one man's descent madness and a group's descent into starvation, treachery, fear, panic and damnation. The film depicts a trek through South American jungle by river-raft in search of El Dorado (a mythical city of gold) by Spanish conquistadors. Their motive is blind greed. Greed for money and greed for power.
The cinematography is fantastic with a constant contrast between handheld cameras amongst the actors, literally inside the action (in several orations to the group, actors speak directly into the camera as though the viewer was with them) and longer shots of the jungle which surrounds and dominates them on all sides. Indeed the opening shots of the entire party (over 1100 men) from above as they follow a single track through the jungle growth, give a sense of the scale of the expedition. And of how difficult the film must have been to complete.
The film is tranquil for stretches before sporadic bursts of violence that end as suddenly as they start. interrupt. We are conveyed into the world of the conquistadors who are bored, afraid and starving, drifting in absolute silence for hours awaiting an attack from an enemy that they cannot see or slay.
Whilst the attention to detail, painstakingly authentic direction and bare, powerful script are also key to the film's success the cornerstone of the movie is the central performance of Klaus Kinski as the title character. He seethes, literally seethes with irrationality and a burning lust for power. Kinski is awesome. His contorted frame and maniacal breathing, his timing, his very awareness of what his eyes are conveying are phenomenal. His bloodless reading of key phrases such as "I am the wrath of God, who is with me?" or "If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees... then the birds will drop dead from the trees" make compelling viewing.
This is a tale of folly and madness, rendered truer than any literal depiction by the claustrophobic atmosphere and pervading air of desperation. A magnificent achievement. 10/10.
