Aguirre: The Wrath of God

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Aguirre: The Wrath of God

1972

1h 34m

Adventure

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

96%

Tomatometer

56 Reviews

90%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), a ruthless Spanish conquistador, vies for power while part of an expedition in Peru to find El Dorado, the mythical seven cities of gold. Accompanied by his daughter, Flores (Cecilia Rivera), Aguirre faces off against his superior, Don Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra), and grows increasingly volatile after seizing control of the group. As Aguirre presses deeper into the Amazonian jungle, he descends further into madness.

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Critics Consensus

A haunting journey of natural wonder and tangible danger, Aguirre transcends epic genre trappings and becomes mythological by its own right.

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Tim Robey

Daily Telegraph (UK)

04/30/2024

It's a descent into madness as vertiginous as Heart of Darkness, and a portrait of futility as monumental in its irony as Shelley's Ozymandias.

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Roger Clarke

Independent (UK)

04/30/2024

Never has human folly seemed so vivid, rapacious and primeval.

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Derek Malcolm

London Evening Standard

06/07/2013

5/5

The whole movie merges landscapes and character with such force that, once seen, you never forget it.

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Daniel Barnes

Dare Daniel

Oct 28

5/5

The rare absurdist-realist intimate epic, Aguirre is an impossible-to-recreate fever dream of power-mad colonial gold-lust run amok.

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

Aug 25

5/5

…you’ll come for the jungle vistas and Peruvian-pan pipes, but you’ll stay for the intensity of the drama as Aguirre, The Wrath of God demonstrates why Werner Herzog’s film is still a benchmark for barnstorming cinema…a truly unique, epic adventure movie…

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

12/16/2024

4/4

At once poetic and brutal, dreamy and nightmarish, beautiful and hideous.

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Frank H.

@FrankLikesFilm Apr 7

When people say "you couldn't make this movie today" movies like this are what they should be referring to because this required an absolute madman to create and I'm glad he did.

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James C

@RT10842914 Nov 15

It’s masterfully created. Just watch it!

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Thomas S

@RT53929595 Aug 1

So dark... Loved the atmosphere, and preferred it to Fitzcarraldo

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James A

@Droz27 Jul 3

The only reason this is well rated is because only pretentious film students have seen it. It looks incredibly amateurish and dated and the dubbing is a total joke. There is rain on the camera lens in many scenes LOL. I was looking for a great period piece I hadn't seen like The New World or Master and Commander. The Bounty ended up being the best I found after this disaster. I'll never understand why Europe makes everything better than we do except for films.

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Stephen C

@bob25009 06/10/2025

1 hour and 34 minutes based on a myth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Jim S

@Sharkmiester 03/17/2025

I just think all the high ratings for this film are a result of group-think and the fear to say it is terrible when others rave about it. To call this an art house film is even a stretch. The dialogue seems like that of poorly dubbed foreign film. It is like a 12 year old boy stole his dads old 16mm camera and shot what his pre-teen, drug addled brain thought would be cool. It took all I had to finish watching this.

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Werner Herzog

Director

Klaus Kinski

Don Lope de Aguirre

Ruy Guerra

Don Pedro de Ursua

Helena Rojo

Inez

Del Negro

Brother Gaspar de Carvajal

Cecilia Rivera

Flores

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Synopsis

Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), a ruthless Spanish conquistador, vies for power while part of an expedition in Peru to find El Dorado, the mythical seven cities of gold. Accompanied by his daughter, Flores (Cecilia Rivera), Aguirre faces off against his superior, Don Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra), and grows increasingly volatile after seizing control of the group. As Aguirre presses deeper into the Amazonian jungle, he descends further into madness.

Director: Werner Herzog
Producer: Werner Herzog
Screenwriter: Werner Herzog
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Production Co: Hessischer Rundfunk, Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
Genre: Adventure
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 3, 1972, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 15, 2017
Runtime: 1h 34m