Aguirre, the Wrath of God is a 1972 West German adventure film written and directed by Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski stars in the title role. The soundtrack was composed and performed by German progressive/Krautrock band Popol Vuh. The story follows the travels 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. Using a minimalist story and dialogue, the film creates a vision of madness and folly, counterpointed by the lush but unforgiving Amazonian jungle. Although based loosely on... what is known of the historical figure of Aguirre, the film's story line is, as Herzog acknowledged years after the film's release, a work of imagination. Some of the people and situations may have been inspired by Gaspar de Carvajal's account of an earlier Amazonian expedition, although Carvajal was not on the historical voyage represented in the film. Other accounts state that the expedition went into the jungles but never returned to civilization. Aguirre was the first of five collaborations between Herzog and the volatile Kinski.
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| Release date: | 1972 |
| Directed by: | Werner Herzog |
| Runtime: | 100 Minutes |
| Producer: | Werner Herzog |
| Editor: | Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus |
| Music by: | Popol Vuh |
| Cinematography: | Thomas Mauch |
| Screenplay by: | Werner Herzog |
| Estimated budget: | $370,000 |
| Genre: | Adventure |