History Trivia / AguirreTheWrathOfGod

** A number of German actors played Spanish roles, starting with Kinski.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Creator/WernerHerzog wanted Aguirre to be the epitome of TranquilFury, but Creator/KlausKinski wanted to produce a raving madman (more akin to his personality). To get his wish, Herzog would intentionally provoke Kinski into unleashing all his fury off-camera. By the time shooting began, Kinski was exhausted, creating the performance that Herzog desired.

** Herzog was attacked by fire ants when he was chopping a tree branch with his machete. He didn't cut it down completely, so the ants poured down on him and bit him "about 150 times". As a result, he got a bad fever.

** Kinski later became irritated by the amount of noise coming from a hut where crew members were playing cards. He grabbed a rifle and fired multiple shots into the hut, blasting off the tip of someone's finger. It was said that it was a miracle that he didn't kill anyone.
* OrphanedReference: In the DVDCommentary, Creator/WernerHerzog reveals that the ship in the trees originally was part of a subplot that was dropped in the course of filming. It was intended to be a real ship, not a hallucination. He has not explained how the ship came up there.

** Creator/WernerHerzog was travelling with a soccer team while writing the script, and one of them got drunk and vomited on the first several pages he'd done, rendering them illegible. To this day, he has no memory of what was on the lost pages.
** The screenplay was shot as written, with some minor differences. In an early scene in which Pizarro instructs Ursúa to lead the scouting team down the river, in the script Pizarro mentions that in the course of the expedition Ursúa could possibly discover what happened to UsefulNotes/FranciscoDeOrellana's expedition, which had vanished without a trace years before (see "Historical Accuracy" section). Later in the screenplay, Aguirre and his men find a boat and the long-dead remains of Orellana's soldiers. Further down the river, they discover another ship lodged in some tree tops. In the screenplay, Aguirre and others explore the boat but find no sign of Orellana or his men. Herzog ultimately eliminated any such references to Orellana's expedition from the film. The sequence with the boat caught in the upper branches of a tree remains, but as filmed it seems to be simply a hallucinatory vision.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/KlausKinski was always Creator/WernerHerzog's first choice for Lope de Aguirre. The two had met many years earlier when the then-struggling young actor rented a room in Herzog's family apartment, and Kinski's often terrifying and deranged antics during the three months he lived there left a lasting impression on Herzog. Years later, Herzog remembered the volatile actor and knew that he was the only possible man who could play the mad Aguirre, and he sent Kinski a copy of the screenplay.
-->Between three and four in the morning, the phone rang. It took me at least a couple of minutes before I realized that it was Kinski who was the source of this inarticulate screaming. And after an hour of this, it dawned on me that he found it the most fascinating screenplay and wanted to be Aguirre.

** The screenplay was shot as written, with some minor differences. In an early scene in which Pizarro instructs Ursúa to lead the scouting team down the river, in the script Pizarro mentions that in the course of the expedition Ursúa could possibly discover what happened to Francisco de Orellana's expedition, which had vanished without a trace years before (see "Historical Accuracy" section). Later in the screenplay, Aguirre and his men find a boat and the long-dead remains of Orellana's soldiers. Further down the river, they discover another ship lodged in some tree tops. In the screenplay, Aguirre and others explore the boat but find no sign of Orellana or his men. Herzog ultimately eliminated any such references to Orellana's expedition from the film. The sequence with the boat caught in the upper branches of a tree remains, but as filmed it seems to be simply a hallucinatory vision.

* InspirationForTheWork: The idea for the film began when Herzog borrowed a book on historical adventurers from a friend. After reading a half-page devoted to Lope de Aguirre, the filmmaker became inspired and immediately devised the story. He fabricated most of the plot details and characters, although he did use some historical figures in purely fictitious ways.

* FatalMethodActing: ''Barely'' averted. During one scene set in a native village, Creator/KlausKinski hit one of the crewmen over the head with his sword. The blow would have killed the man were he not wearing his helmet.
* TheForeignSubtitle:
** Portugal: ''Aguirre, the Adventurer''

* FatalMethodActing: ''Barely''' averted. During one scene set in a native village, Creator/KlausKinski hit one of the crewmen over the head with his sword. The blow would have killed the man were he not wearing his helmet.

-->"I only remember that the end of the film was totally different. The end was actually the raft going out into the open ocean and being swept back inland, because for many miles you have a counter-current, the Amazon actually goes backwards. And it was tossed to and fro. And a parrot would scream: "El Dorado, El Dorado"..."

* FatalMethodActing: Averted. During one scene set in a native village, Creator/KlausKinski hits one of the crewmen over the head with his sword. The blow nearly killed the man, and only his helmet saved his life.

* ArtImitatesLife[=/=]LifeImitatesArt: They filmed the movie in the actual jungle, which was almost as foolish and dangerous a move as those of the characters in the movie. Of course the movie is based on real life, making this life imitating art imitating life.

-->"I only remember that the end of the film was totally different. The end was actually the raft going out into the open ocean and being swept back inland, because for many miles you have a counter-current, the Amazon actually goes backwards. And it was tossed to and fro. And a parrot would scream: "El Dorado, El Dorado"..."

* OneBookAuthor: This was Cecilia Rivera's only film role.

* ArtImitatesLife / LifeImitatesArt: They filmed the movie in the actual jungle, which was almost as foolish and dangerous a move as those of the characters in the movie. Of course the movie is based on real life, making this life imitating art imitating life.

* SameLanguageDub: According to Creator/WernerHerzog, Creator/KlausKinski requested too much money for the dubbing session, and so his lines were performed by another actor.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Herzog was travelling with a soccer team while writing the script, and one of them got drunk and vomited on the first several pages he'd done, rendering them illegible. To this day, he has no memory of what was on the lost pages.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Creator/WenerHerzog wanted Aguirre to be the epitome of TranquilFury, but Creator/KlausKinski wanted to produce a raving madman (more akin to his personality). To get his wish, Herzog would intentionally provoke Kinski into unleashing all his fury off-camera. By the time shooting began, Kinski was exhausted, creating the performance that Herzog desired.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Herzog wanted Aguirre to be the epitome of TranquilFury, but Kinski wanted to produce a raving madman (more akin to his personality). To get his wish, Herzog would intentionally provoke Kinski into unleashing all his fury off-camera. By the time shooting began, Kinsky was exhausted, creating the performance that Herzog desired.

* TroubledProduction: When Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski make a movie, it's a given. This one was fairly mild compared to other instances, as Herzog threatened to shoot Kinski and then himself when Kinski tried saying ScrewThisImOuttaHere.

* TroubledProduction: When Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski make a movie, it's a given.