Aguirre, the Wrath of God: Descending the Mountain (Part I)

In this entry, I will show how a portion of the first scene of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" serves as a synecdoche for a major theme of the movie.

In my previous entry, I said there wouldn't be any spoilers in this one, but I didn't explain what I consider a spoiler. Since everyone has their own barometer of what constitutes a spoiler, I'll give my definition. I see a spoiler as anything the director intended to be a surprise during the first viewing of their movie. If you agree, read on. If not, see the movie first.

Descending the Mountain

The camera tilts down as we follow a faint line of people descending a foggy mountain;

(Click any shot to enlarge)

we see more of the line,


and then finally, the lowest section of it.


This shot tells us the grandiosity of their trek, and through their downward direction and the tone of the music we hear, a sense of foreboding is conveyed. We know this will be a difficult journey-- that much is a given even if they were climbing up instead-- but what more does this shot tell us?

In the brief, written introduction from Werner Herzog that preceded this first scene, we were told the following:

After the conquest and plundering of the Inca empire by Spain, the Indians invented the legend of El Dorado, a land of gold, located in the swamps of the Amazon headwaters. A large expedition of Spanish adventurers, led by Gonzalo Pizarro, set off from the Peruvian highlands in late 1560.

In short: Fresh off a brutal victory, swelling with pride and motivated by greed, our adventurers are embarking in pursuit of something that doesn't exist.

A righteous journey (a journey towards an objective, tangible goal) can be described as a mountain climb: the climb representing the upward, arduous journey that must be persevered, in order to reach the 'mountain top' reward.

In this tale, the reward the adventurers are in pursuit of doesn't exist, and thus, they will never reach their destination or attain any riches. This is why the film starts with their descent down a mountain-- there is no 'mountain top' for them to ever reach, where they're headed. The Peruvian highlands they control was their only 'mountain top', and they abandoning it on a greedy, deluded pursuit.

In the next entry, I will analyze the color palette of this shot, and what that tells us about our adventurers.

To be continued...