Aguirre, the Wrath of God

This afternoon marked my 1,100th film watched with Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God. This was also my first fictional Herzog film (I have previously seen and enjoyed Grizzly Man) so I was very excited to dive into this one. And it's one of those rare films that even though there is nothing terribly remarkable about the camerawork or lines of dialogue there is something that really gets under your skin, especially during the ending. I would dare say that it's a better 'Men going down a literal and metaphorical river' film than Apocalypse Now if such a category existed outside of this blog. If you like thoughtful films that don't obviously make a point about their themes, in this case the darkness and corruption man is capable of then this would be to seek out. To sum it up briefly, it's like Lord of the Flies in medieval Spain where certain characters are beyond saving.