This movie explains the human condition with all the candor of a much-upvoted shitpost, and all the beauty of a classical painting. The final scene perfectly depicts our contemporary global situation.
[An] epic historical drama film produced, written and directed by Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski stars in the title role of Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre, who leads a group of conquistadores down the Amazon River in South America in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. … Aguirre opened to widespread critical acclaim, and quickly developed a large international cult film following. It was given an extensive arthouse theatrical release in the United States in 1977, and remains one of the director’s best-known films. Several critics have declared the film a masterpiece, and it has appeared on Time magazine’s list of “All Time 100 Best Films”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aguirre,_the_Wrath_of_God
FUN FACT: the movie was originally shot with the actors speaking in English, since it was the only language that everyone in the cast knew. But the funds to do the original post-sync were stolen, and they ended up dubbing it again in German.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIOCyVeRmjo (German dub with English subtitles, 360p, this is the link from above)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u2tooYxicE (English dub, 720p, lacks subtitles on the introductory German text)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in3E9mPnz_Y (Spanish dub, no subtitles, 360p)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqScvdIADmk (another Spanish dub, no subtitles, 360p)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2iXtLQHjFU (German dub, Spanish subtitles, 720p, subtitles are timed a second too soon)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM3eZtnz7Bs (German dub, no subtitles, 360p, sound is a bit low)
- to find an invidious version of any of the above, replace “www.youtube.com” with “redirect.invidious.io”
The film’s reputation through the years has continued to grow. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 50 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 9/10. The site’s critics consensus reads, “A haunting journey of natural wonder and tangible danger, Aguirre transcends epic genre trappings and becomes mythological by its own right.”[28]
J. Hoberman has written that Aguirre “is not just a great movie but an essential one … Herzog’s third feature … is both a landmark film and a magnificent social metaphor”.[29] Danny Peary wrote, “To see Aguirre for the first time is to discover a genuine masterpiece. It is overwhelming, spellbinding; at first dreamlike, and then hallucinatory.”
Herzog went to an airport, claimed he was a veterinarian and stole around 300 monkeys for the final scene that they later simply released into the jungle. I’m pretty sure I’m not okay with that, but then again, that was 50 years ago. I believe Herzog had also stolen the camera for that movie.