With that penetrating stare out of a death's-head skull, and
his histrionic need to go over over-the-top, Kinski was made
to play villains. At times, as in his films with the
director Werner Herzog, he rose above bad guy — sometimes
into madman. In Aguirre he's a cruel Spanish explorer on an
Amazon adventure in the 16th century. The New World whispers
a siren song to Aguirre, and in trying to tame the wilds of
Peru he goes searingly, splendidly bonkers. Under assault
from the natives, his crew goes insane too. ("That is
no arrow," one says. "We only imagine the arrows
because we fear them.") Aguirre is left alone to lord
over the monkeys — a victim of his own villainy.