This film has been on my mind lately. Maybe because its director, Werner Herzog, decided a clinically insane, ex-Nazi military man named Klaus Kinski should play the infamous conquistador Lope “El Loco” de Aguirre, who is best known for being treacherous, brutal, and monomaniacal. (In the midst of the fevered jungle, Aguirre declared war on the king of Spain and anointed himself the prince of Peru and “the wrath of God.”) Maybe because Herzog’s empathetic German eyes see the Amazonian jungle as a palette for madmen. Maybe because, during one of his scenes, Kinski fired his pistol into a hut where crew members were playing cards too noisily and blew off the top of someone’s finger. Aguirre is a film about a great and terrible man made by great and terrible men. (Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St, www.grandillusioncinema.org, 7 and 9 pm, $8)
Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua.... More by Brendan Kiley
At first I thought that picture was Private Benjamin. Right? http://tiny.cc/kbb4v
I love this movie. And hey, anybody who fathered Nastassia Kinski can’t be all bad, right?
I have never managed to stay awake for this movie. It’s more soporific than NyQuil.
@3: I agree–really over-rated.
“Ex-Nazi military man”?
Kinski was drafted before the age of 20 and soon deserted.