Ending of "Aguirre, The Wrath of God" (1972), directed by Werner Herzog

The opening scene of Herzog's masterpiece is equally famous: a vertiginous walk down the sheer mountainside of Huayna Picchu in Peru, linked below. But the ending is a fine, tragic counterpoint to Charlie Chaplin's Adenoid Hinkel (see the Globe scene from "The Great Dictator," posted yesterday). Aguirre the conquistador's dreams of gold and empire in the Amazon have collapsed into chaos and madness, and he now rules over only a sinking raft, a bunch of monkeys, and the ragged, doomed remnants of his expedition, borne along by all-conquering Nature/Destiny/whatever. Klaus Kinski is magnificent and monstrous as Aguirre. He was an equal terror on the set -- if you've seen Herzog's documentary My Best Fiend, you'll know the whole shoot was a nightmare. But when the camera was on him, Mr. Kinski certainly knew his job. Interestingly (see article below), "The finale is significantly different to Herzog's original script. The director recalled, 'I only remember that the end of the film was totally different. The end was actually the raft going out into the open ocean and being swept back inland, because for many miles you have a counter-current, the Amazon actually goes backwards. And it was tossed to and fro. And a parrot would scream: "El Dorado, El Dorado" ...'"

The complete movie, with the epic opening scene filmed at Huayna Picchu. (I've done that walk.) It's very hard to find a widescreen version of Aguirre, unfortunately -- it was produced for television as well as movies, and it's the 1.33:1 aspect ratio that's circulating online. I didn't know this, but the English version is the original -- it was the only language all the actors had in common. Later a German version was dubbed, but Kinski demanded too much money for the session, so according to Herzog, his voice was overdubbed by another actor!

Critics' Picks: The New York Times (video appreciation)

Aguirre, The Wrath of God (article)

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