River/Jungle and Other Imperialist Allegories

Abstract

Just as Peter O’Toole was an ideal choice for the protagonist role in two mainstream attempts at the landscape allegory of the Western politics, the volatile actor Klaus Kinski was cast to play the megalomaniac in two river/jungle allegories released in this defeatist period of cinema. German director Werner Herzog ventured into the Peruvian jungle with Kinski to shoot Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), and then Fitzcarraldo (1982) some years later. Like Lawrence of Arabia, these films contain characters at least partly based on actual historical figures, and with plots involving a characteristically “Western” male whose personal obsession takes him deep into a “Third World” jungle wilderness. Within this natural setting, he pursues an impossible goal and ultimately confronts the futility of his vision. Struggling with the surrounding jungle landscape, this protagonist travels along an unpredictable river’s course toward an unknown destiny. In both films, indigenous peoples emerge from the landscape and become targets for domination. It is the landscape itself that ultimately passes judgment upon these two egoists, becoming the allegorical climax of this cultural indictment.