Between a Rock and an Eddy
By Eric Edgerton, with comment by Kim Weber
[1] Sixteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds into Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God, a scene opens with Inez, Pizarro’s mistress, staring slightly left of the camera with an immensely distraught look on her face. The viewer overhears the men say, “The first raft got stuck in an eddy!†“They must get away from the rocks!†(16:33). This scene, one which begins with a seemingly minor issue that rapidly turns disastrous, may quite plainly be seen as a microcosmic representation of the approaching action in the film, and a means by which Herzog prepares his audience for disaster.
[2] After cutting away from Inez, Herzog inserts one of his trademark techniques in which he focuses for an uncomfortably long period of time on one particular shot. In this instance, Herzog has the camera focus for a full half-minute on the men aboard the stranded raft jumping up and down in panic as the river rages between them and their comrades. By following this lengthy shot up with a shot of the rest of the expedition sitting on the opposite beach, Herzog is able to reveal to his audience the type of individuals on this trek. Showing Pizarro first, Herzog has his actor adopt a look of genuine concern for his men. Next, Herzog shows the priest wearing a comparable look of concern. Lastly, after another cut-away to the stranded raft, the viewer is shown Lope de Aguirre. Aguirre begins this scene with an expression that can only be described as appearing nonplussed.
[3] We next see Aguirre in conference with Pizarro, inquiring as to the number of men aboard the trapped raft. Upon hearing that there are “Seven and two Indians,†and that Pizarro intends to help them, Aguirre begins to betray his true thoughts on the matter as he mutters under his breath, “You are crazy! We will not help them!†(17:55). Though Pizarro hears this and even acknowledges with a pitiful reassertion of his command, he goes no further than to simply stand and walk away. Already the viewer may see Herzog casting Aguirre in a dominant role despite his subordinate rank. Any soldier who would so willingly speak out against his commanders orders surely holds no respect for the officer who issued them. (see comment by Kim Weber)
[4] Later on in the scene, Herzog gives the viewer a glimpse at the comically incongruous way in which the Spanish explorers try to treat their nobility. In the midst of rescue efforts to save the men stranded in the eddy, the audience sees servants and soldiers alike constructing privacy screens and bathing areas for the women of the expedition. They are doing so in the middle of a dangerous rainforest filled with threats from both nature and natives alike. By showing the excessive concern with modesty and civility the Spanish held at this point in their journey, Herzog is playfully pointing out just how ill-prepared both mentally and physically the Spaniards were for this voyage. If they thought finding El Dorado would be a simple stroll through the woods, they would soon learn just how wrong they were.
[5] As night falls and the expedition members on shore lounge around their camp fire, gunshots begin to ring out from the raft in the eddy. As has proven to be the typical assumption made by the Spanish, it is assumed that they are merely trying to signal their companions. Ironically, these men are so certain of their physical safety that the priest actually jokes, “Maybe it’s a battle†(20:45). Yet when dawn breaks, their ignorant confidence is shattered by the sight of their now dead compatriots atop their raft. Up to this point in the scene, Herzog has portrayed the Spanish as overconfident, even supercilious, conquistadors. He reverses this depiction by shooting the realization segment of the scene over the slumped shoulders of the still living Spaniards. Above the raft on the cliff, the intended rescue party looks down with confusion followed by fear as they realize that they are almost certainly still surrounded by Indians. During their retreat, yet another of their party is killed. After this extended tragedy, the only question remaining now is simply, what is to be done with the bodies on the raft?
[6] As the viewers have come to expect from the benevolent Pizarro, he is not at all satisfied with the notion of leaving the dead with nothing but a prayer from afar; he insists on reclaiming them so as to administer a proper burial. The priest agrees. Aguirre eavesdrops on this exchange and does so with a bemused expression on his face. Aguirre makes no attempt to persuade Pizarro that they would be better served by simply sailing away; he makes the transition from passive observer to deliberate actor by ordering one of his men to fire the cannon and sink the trapped raft. The cannon fires, and with an extraordinarily unrealistic fireball, the saga of the eddy comes to a conclusion. One may be certain that Herzog was aware of the fact that the spheres of iron fired out of the colonial Spanish’s cannons were not highly inclined to spontaneously combust as is shown at this scene’s conclusion; he includes the fireball not for the sake of historical accuracy, but, rather, as yet one more indication that the future will bring this expedition nothing good.
[7] Overall this scene is critical for its ability to set up the three primary conflicts of the film as a whole. With it, Herzog is able to foreshadow the conflict the expedition is set to have with nature as shown through becoming ensnared in the eddy. Additionally, Herzog is able to prepare the audience for the impending clashes with the native populaces as shown through the midnight slaughtering of the helpless Spanish. Lastly, this scene erases any doubt the audience might still have held as to the rapidly approaching power struggle between Aguirre and Pizarro. By trapping a raft in an eddy, having the riders killed, and allowing Aguirre to sink them to the riverbed, Herzog has in these nine and a half minutes revealed to the conscientious viewer all that is to ensue in the remainder of the film.
Comments
I had a bit of a different take on Aguirre’s personality and actions during this scene. Although he eventually develops into the commanding and heartless rebel the audience knows by the end of the film, I found his rise to power to be a bit more gradual. I found him quiet in this scene, and even though he was expressing a dissenting opinion, it wasn't an opinion that was largely accepted or that started a huge revolution. I agree with Eric that he is a dominant player (especially as the film progresses), but at this point I’d consider him to be more of a contemplative, troubled man, not necessarily a dominating character. Maybe it is what I would consider to be this shift in Aguirre’s personality that makes him seem so evil and despicable by the end of the film—the audience isn’t necessarily expecting it from the beginning, especially as we see shots of Aguirre spending time with his daughter. I’m not defending Aguirre or by any means saying he is not a terrible guy, but I don’t think he starts off as bad as he ends up, and I’d also argue we see small moments of his “humanity,†especially with his interactions with Flores.
