MovieChat Forums > Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1977) Discussion > Wasn't that great.

Wasn't that great.

posted 12 years ago by movie_nazi
14 replies | jump to latest

I'm not sure if it was the style Herzog used in which the film almost seemed like a documentary with the shaky camera and shots of people doing absolutely nothing to show their misery or if the story just did not have enough substance. The historical inaccuracies bugged me a bit as well but also the film seemed to be anti climatic over all. After all of the hullabaloo I suppose I was expecting something a bit more epic. Kinski looked as though he didn't even want to be there.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) - 6 outta 10 stars

My vote history link:http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=5504773

[–] molypocho 11 years ago

I finished watching this last night. I will admit that I didn't like it then and I still don't. But I got to watching the beginning again and the layers came into focus, most obviously, Aguirre's mad soul, blurred from sight on first viewing, made apparent once we realize he plans to wed his own daughter. Sick, sick man, always plotting, never giving a damn for no one, not even his daughter. Also, the landscape is symbolic, representing The Wrath of God: slow, painful, unpunctuated death. I imagine that to fully realize this film I would need to watch it on a very large screen, right?

My rating: 10

Once again, I'm pretty sure, if you watch it on a really big screen, allowing the mountains and trees to loom over you, then those people standing around doing nothing will gain meaning: to sit in the palm of an angry God.

[–] TheIncredibleJerk 11 years ago

to sit in the palm of an angry God

This is a wonderful way to describe the madness of the situation these people are in.

Ellen, I have no memory of this line whatsoever.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] movie_nazi 11 years ago

Even in the "action" scenes the people looked disinterested and tired.

I'm sure the heat was getting to everybody.

[–] Prof_Lostiswitz 11 years ago

This is an anti-romantic movie. The characters are motivated by fear or greed, not heroism. Herzog and Kinski knew what they were doing.

[–] OldSamVimes 11 years ago

Hard to believe someone who is into foreign movies wouldn't like this.

Then again I see you liked Black Hawk Down and Requiem for a Dream and I thought both of those were laughably bad.

Oh well, different strokes for different folks.

[–] movie_nazi 11 years ago

?

I gave Black Hawk Down a 7. Nothing spectacular there. You are also definitely in the minority if you thought Requiem for a Dream was "laughably bad". I stand by that film. Extremely haunting and I thought Aronofsky did an excellent job expressing the despair of drug addiction.

Hard to believe someone who is into foreign movies wouldn't like this.

What's that supposed to mean? Because it is foreign I should like it? Do all foreign films follow a specific motif? No, I don't think so.

[–] franzkabuki 11 years ago

Requiem For A Dream is a very, very silly film - although not as silly as The Fountain, of course. But then again, The Fountain is one of the silliest things ever created on Earth.

Silly-silly.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] OldSamVimes 11 years ago

if you thought Requiem for a Dream was "laughably bad"...

The portrayal of ECT in it was hilairously over the top and completely unrealisitic.

The characters were all losers, Ellen Burstyn was wonderful in the role she had, but when they wheel her into a hospital when she's psychotic and right away give her ECT... I laughed and thought 'Who wrote this garbage?'

Like an after-school special for people who want something edgy.

Drugstore Cowboy, Naked Lunch, Ed Wood.. all had drug use themes and weren't as 'one note' as Requiem.

But like I said, different strokes for different folks.

[–] serfs_up 10 years ago

Glad to see I wasn't the only one that found Requiem...wait for it...dope-y. Seriously though, it was underwhelming after all the hype.

[–] Errington_92 9 years ago

Some may think Aguirre, Wrath of God as boring due to its slow pace, but it is an introspective piece, where audiences study self-righteous characters gone deranged with greed.

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

[–] cthulhulurks 11 years ago

The opening shots were wonderful, then it descended into mediocrity. I expected something more original along Kaspar Hauser. Sadly, no there's nothing original, just some boring story of boring people dying at the hands of a boring petty despot. Herzog's coulda done much better even with the same script.

The title calls for something epic, an epic villain that does epic evil. Instead there's this limping angry moron who doesn't know what he's doing. A wrath of fraud.

my vote history:
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13767631/ratings

[–] movie_nazi 11 years ago

The opening shots were wonderful, then it descended into mediocrity. I expected something more original along Kaspar Hauser. Sadly, no there's nothing original, just some boring story of boring people dying at the hands of a boring petty despot. Herzog's coulda done much better even with the same script.

Indeed. "Boring" is a good word to describe this film. It just didn't seem to have any direction. Not sure how anyone could include the word "brilliant" and this film in the same breath. Herzog could do better and I have seen him do better.

My vote history:

http://www.imdb.com/user/ur1914996/ratings

[–] 11 years ago

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