[In Aguirre, Wrath of God] Herzog paints his most ambitious canvas…. No blockbuster this, however, despite some imposing set-pieces Herzog's manageable cast is fairly small and it is not long before the paranoid Aguirre dominates proceedings and script alike. (p. 38)

Herzog is at pains throughout to show the reality of the expedition behind the glamorous legend: cannons trundling through muddy swamps, raging rivers to be crossed, sudden death from darts or arrows from the Indians following on the river bank. The metaphor of the journey itself for Aguirre's breakdown is obviously but painlessly applied, and Herzog's film, not at all to its detriment, can be compared with the similar Deliverance of John Boorman. In both the main characters soon take to the river, but where Boorman concentrated more on the suspense of the situation, Herzog assuages the viewer with the savage beauty of the landscape, inserting sudden jabs...