Aguirre, the Wrath of God was actually an incredibly insightful film. Regardless of its exact historical accuracy, it portrayed a very real sense of what the actual intentions of the Spanish conquistadors was. They wanted El Dorado- they wanted gold; they wanted to “convert” natives to Christianity. These things were all amazingly accomplished in some ways, but this exact expedition seen in the film was obviously very unsuccessful in their conquest.
Aguirre, in the film, was absolutely perfect in his embodiment of a corrupt, power hungry white European conquerer. It was such a vision of what some men did and would have done to gain their fortune. Although in reality Aguirre was not known to be insane, it was an interesting take to see the film character exaggerated in such a way to cause even more disgust with what the Spanish did in South America.
The whole idea of ruling authority, law, and order is very interesting to look at in a situation like what was shown in the film. Literally, the men “overthrew” their leader- by killing him and his supporter. Once that was taken care of, it was easy for the second-in-command Aguirre to take over. Since evidently he could, Aguirre decided to put someone else on the “throne” as emperor. I just think it is completely crazy and amusing that rule could have been as arbitrary as that. Someone is appointed, and so they are. It is hard for me to even imagine something like that with our extravagantly complex political system in the United States for electing rulers. It is an interesting perspective to see the eventual overtake of the Incan Empire from this. It is so much less “official” in my mind than I would have thought it had to be. It would have been actually very easy for the Spanish to have controlled Manco Capac as their puppet ruler. The political intricacies of today were not actually in existence!
It seems like the world was just completely different in that time, although only a few hundred years ago. I know today there are still many ruthless leaders and power hungry criminal types, but we have come so far to be able to hold rulers accountable and enforce justice in the developed world. History of events like the Spanish conquest of the Americas and how it was gone about paints a very clear picture as to why institutions such as the United Nations are so vital and necessary in our world today. I think people in power really might go to any extreme to attain their goals if not held in check, mentally insane or not.
Viewing the film Aguirre, the Wrath of God, was overall a very effective way to begin to really understand the reality of what it is we are studying. The Spanish conquistadors were men, just like men today. Most of them were probably not mentally disturbed and yet they still did the ruthless things we know about today, similar in many ways to the actions of Aguirre.
