How a dog stopped Werner Herzog from committing murder: “We laughed so hard”
The great Werner Herzog is one of the most unflinching and extreme documentarians of all time, with his work capturing a side of humanity rarely seen on film. As a key figure within the New German Cinema movement, Herzog’s films often focus on characters pursuing seemingly impossible dreams and quests, showing people who have become jaded and borderline manic by the intensity of their mission.
From Timothy Treadwell’s incomprehensible mission in Grizzly Man to Fitzcarraldo‘s monumental undertaking, Herzog has boldly stepped where no other filmmaker has gone, putting the film above everything else and becoming nearly as crazed as his subjects in his goal to share these miraculous stories with the world. As a result of his ferocious intensity, the director has often found himself in bizarre and dangerous situations, willing to risk everything for the sake of his work, including the life of one of his subjects.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God, is perhaps one of the most well-known from Herzog’s body of work, with the stylised documentary following a Spanish expedition led by Aguirre in search of the lost city of El Dorado. However, as the crew is met with an increasing number of challenges, they begin to wonder whether this quest will lead them to greatness or, perhaps, death.
The film is a towering and monumental piece of work as Herzog captures the cruelty of colonisation through his feverish portrait of madness and greed, with Klaus Kinski playing the unhinged leader of the quest as he leads his team towards destruction in pursuit of power.
However, given that the entire film is shot in the jungle, it was a notoriously difficult shoot for Herzog, with the director describing the many challenges he encountered along the way, mostly induced by his strained relationship with Kinski himself.
Herzog spoke about his threats to shoot Kinski in the head if he abandoned the production of the film, as well as seriously planning an expedition to blow up his house, a plan that came crashing down after the discovery that his dog was still in the house. Herzog described his homicidal feelings, saying, “It’s fine to engage your mind with things like this, but you obviously do not end up doing it. The funny thing is that, at the exact same time, he planned to shoot me. We laughed so hard over all this. It somehow solidified our friendship”.
There is nothing easy about Herzog’s filmmaking style, with the director encountering famously extreme challenges during the production of his films, whether it be selling his shoes to afford food for his crew or dragging a ship over a mountain for a shot in Fitzcarraldo.
However, there is nothing more impactful than the power of creative resilience and the human spirit, with the director refusing to take an easy way out and always striving for authenticity over convenience. As a result, the making of his films reflects the impossible dreams created by his subjects, with Herzog becoming as mad as they are in his all-consuming pursuit of honest filmmaking.
