I thought the movie betrayed itself... Didn't like it
I've been going back and watching a lot of old movies in the IMDB top 250 in the last few months.
I have really liked classics such as Apocalypse now, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, the Sting, Dr Strangelove etc. I have no Bias against old movies or movies where the special effects and sound quality aren't as good as modern movies.
Therefore, I decided to watch Aguirre de Zorn Gottes. I watched it in German with English subtitles.
Firstly, I found many scenes very flat and boring. For example the part where one of Aguirre's prisoners escaped from the cage is not shown. They simply wake up the next morning and find the guards dead body. There is little emotion, simply a couple of dull lines. You never see that character again, his fate becomes as unresolved issue.
Then you have a scene such as when Aguirre commands that the horse be chucked off the boat. Not only is the scene extremely unprofessional in video and audio but it is just stupid. The character of Aguirre as I understood at that part of the movie, would have been more likely to kill the horse and eat it.
Another thing, If Aguirre was so power hungry why did he appoint that fat, useless, nobleman as leader? In the reality of the jungle the title of nobleman would have meant nothing. I really couldn't envisage that.
And the whole thing of taking a cannon on rafts and through thick jungle seemed really dumb to me as well. Its like they were insane before they even started the trek.
Another example is when they bring the native Indian onto the boat and interrogate him. First of all the native Indian willingly moves onto their boat without any fear. Anybody confused? Then the conversation starts out OK asking about where he got his gold. Then it flips into a totally unrealistic scenario of trying to convert him to catholicism in all of 2 seconds. The dialogue is tacky and ends up with the indian mocking the bible at which they instantly kill him. Then the monk comments (something like), as if to insert a tacky joke into the movie: "this conversion stuff is a tricky business". The rash and unrealistic tone of that scene and the unrealistic behavior left me feeling ripped off and cheated. It ran against and mocked the slow and somber flow of the movie.
The scene would have been more convincing if it had been something like: interrogating the indian for: a) location of El dorado b) presence of enemy indians c) geography of the river and surrounding regions d) forces which may have been guarding El dorado, and then after pumping him for relevant information they would take him prisoner or display him as a disincentive for further arrow attacks.
Another thing that annoyed me was seeing (at random moments) arrows sticking out of people without any notion that their had been any conflict... not even seeing any Indians fire at them. It just seemed really fake to me.
They make no effort to do anything against the arrows. They can somehow host a cannon and advanced toilet hut on their raft as well as a perfectly manicured roof, which appears from one scene to the next. But yet they cannot build some shields on the side of their raft to stop the arrows coming in. Did they somehow lack the impetus for practical action? I don't get it.
Maybe it was good back in 1972 when its flaws didn't seem so obvious. But I really think the movie has reached its use by date. I was glad it only went for 95 minutes, I couldn't bear any more of it. The movie seemed intellectually stupid to me and undermined its own purpose. I'm sorry but I just couldn't get into this irritating and disappointing movie.