In the epic film The Wrath of God by famous film director Werner Herzog, Lope de Aguirre is the prominent and maddening main character. Based off a real historical figure, the movie seeks to diverge from source material to make a more unsettling and crazed Aguirre. Many soldiers of the real Aguirre claimed his antics were that of a madman and thus, the actor who portrayed Aguirre went for a more sinister, quieter approach; full of rage and manipulation of others. Throughout the film, Aguirre slowly slips into madness as his cruelty and tyranny over the small group of Spanish and Indigenous peoples travelling down the Amazon River destroys them all. The unattainable dream of reaching El Dorado, a legendary city of gold, coincides with Aguirre’s brutality and greed found in historical records and portrayed in the film. The film did pay homage to some historical accuracies such as the creation of characters like Aguirre, Ursúa,…show more content… In the closing minutes of the film, the crew has slipped into hallucinations and quickly succumb to an attack by unseen forces in the jungle. Even Aguirre’s own daughter is shot while Aguirre is the sole survivor of the attack. He wanders aimlessly around the raft, swatting monkeys off the unmoving corpses of his crew, and even grabs one of the skittish creatures to yell his famous line, “I, the Wrath of God, will marry my own daughter and with her I will found the purest dynasty the world has ever seen. Together, we shall rule this entire continent. We shall endure. I am the Wrath of God!”. However, in reality, Aguirre killed his own daughter, was arrested and subsequently executed by Spanish forces still loyal to the King. grammar. Both endings are tragic and nightmarish, adding a layer of horror to the story of Aguirre. Although he was not killed in the film, his punishment of being stranded alone, mad and raving, seems fitting for such a cruel
