Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Werner Herzog’s 1972 masterwork attacks the colonial mindset through the story of an insane Spanish conquistador searching for a lost city of gold in the Amazon rain forest. An expedition of Spanish conquistadors, exploring the Amazon jungles in search of the golden city of El Dorado, is overthrown in a mutiny by the power-hungry Don Lope de Aguirre, who drives the soldiers ever deeper into the forest on an insane quest to establish a private kingdom. From 1972, directed by Werner Herzog, the film is Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Aguirre was a real historical figure, but for Werner Herzog…