Paying the Piper: Foreshadowing in Aguirre

By Tatum Lawrence

[1] Director Herzog uses the Inca piper in a number of scenes throughout the film. Each time the upbeat music is used, a sort of roll-call is taken of Aguirre’s men, and those who have chosen to accompany him on the journey. The scenes that are accompanied by the piper’s music in the background follow a rather specific sequence. First, the faces of those still dedicated to the mission are brought to bear in close detail. Then, the scenery is emphasized with long, broad camera shots to show the current setting of the adventurers. More often than not, the scene ends as the music fades out to be replaced with other dialogue.

[2] The most striking scene involving the Inca piper comes with his final tune and begins at 1:17:13 and ends around 1:18:43. In this scene, Herzog deliberately chooses a montage of the adventurers clinging to their natural surroundings. By doing this, the director is pointing to an untimely end for the men aboard the raft. The scene ends with a striking close up of the Inca piper himself as he flashes the camera a knowing look. He is well aware of how this story will end, being a conquered person himself, and he realizes the debt that those upon the raft will be forced to pay.

[3] The scene begins with two men eating the scum out of a dip in the raft. The upbeat music plays in the background as the men slurp up the slimy food. The tendrils of scrum hang from their mouths and mingle with their beards, insinuating a certain marriage between the men and their natural surroundings. This moment also gives off an air of impossible desperation -- the food is running out and the men are forced to eat the muck that grows between the logs for sustenance. It is a symbol that the men are regressing and that it is not long before the mission becomes an utter failure. They turn with dripping beards to look at the piper with curious eyes, as if just now realizing his prominence.

[4] The following clip that accompanies the piper’s music shows a mouse taking his/her young from the nest and moving them elsewhere. Though the destination is never known, it seems to represent a certain fear of danger, as if the other natural living creatures that have accompanied the men on their journey see fit to move in order to protect themselves. It is also important to note that the mouse scurries over a sword, as if trying to escape the harsh and physical violence that Aguirre’s leadership has brought into the camp.

[5] The camera then cuts to a bald man, turning toward the music, and looking up at a blooming tree. The camera looks down on the man, and then up at the tree, giving the impression that nature is bigger and more powerful than the men aboard the raft. The man looks curious, even fearful, as if the forest is slowly beginning to encroach upon their short-lived party.

[6] The next scene seems to cut against the idea of an overly-powerful nature by showing a man with a butterfly perched upon his outstretched finger. The piper’s jaunty music continues in the background as the butterfly flexes its wings, only to take flight and land upon the man’s shoulder. The most important part of this clip, however, is the man’s reaction. His eyes dart around the screen as if panicked and frightened that nature has so deftly and suddenly eluded his grasp. The insinuation here is that the men are losing control of not only their mission but also their surroundings, body, and eventually life.

[7] The next clip is that of Aguirre’s daughter, propped up against the side of the raft, twirling a piece of grass between her fingers. She too clings to some natural element in the blade of grass, but her posture foreshadows a disturbing end for her as well. Her dress is hiked up to an inappropriate level for the time period, drawing the audience’s eye away from the blade of grass she is holding and, instead, to the scandalous part of her thigh that is visible beneath her dress. This position is striking, since it shows Aguirre’s fear in his daughter becoming a sex object after his death. Not only that, but it also seems to prelude the sexual desire for her that Aguirre announces later in the film.

[8] All this takes place during the span of the piper’s song and, as the music finally dwindles, the camera shows the piper putting away his instrument with much flourish and offering the audience one of the most intense and prolonged looks of the entire film. The relaxed lips and shining, knowledgeable eyes show the Inca piper as a wise character, one who is able to see all the imminent truth in the scene. As an Incan, he has already experienced the bitter taste of the conqueror and seems to realize in advance how this will turn out. The audience has been exposed to his music periodically throughout the film, and this lingering glance seems to be a kind of curtain call, as if he will play no more songs for the rest of the adventure, and, in doing so, it heightens the audience’s awareness that this is his final check-in.