I thought there where some nice scenes in this film but it was just too uneven and aimless to rise to greatness. It's like the film did not know what it wanted to be or wanted to say.
Anyone agree?
- No animal was hurt during the making of this burger -
Completely. It was very badly written, without any point, good introduction, structure or motivations. Near the end Cobra Verde is writing a letter about loneliness which was just uncalled for and off the mark. As if Herzog tried to insert some deep character moment last-minute.
I've liked all previous Kinski/Herzog collaborations. But this one felt just like a B-movie. Despite the big crowd scenes.
I thought the final scene when he's trying to pull the boat into the water, and finally falls into the waves in exhaustion and defeat, was worth the 1 1/2 hours preceding. Devastating, amazing, beautiful. A flawed film for sure, but some of the most compelling images... that last scene, and the shots of Klaus on his side, face painted black.
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I have to concur here. While I "kinda" like it (the flag communication scene was rather nice), just like you say, it just meanders from scene to scene without any sort of build-up... at the same time, COBRA VERDE to that regard is probably truer to life than a prepared "beginning-middle-end" structured movie in just how it flows moment to moment.
I still didn't quite get the death scene at the end though... I know he exhausted himself, but maybe if they showed british ships off the horizon and/or maybe had him stabbed or shot before reaching the beach (thus the combination of wounds and exhaustion trying to escape kills him) it would have made more sense. I just felt that even having the fort emptied and all, he still could have found a handful people to help move the boat to the water...
I recently watched Cobra Verde for the first time and I also thought it seemed disjointed. It felt like the scenes were jumbled up and not connected correctly. Aguirre blew me away, but this somehow missed the mark for me.
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