Aguirre, The Wrath of God and Nights of Cabiria

The two films I chose to watch for this project were Fredrico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria and Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, The Wrath of God. These two masterful works do an excellent job depicting the societies they are based in. Nights of Cabiria is set in post-World War II Rome, most likely in the early 1950’s. Fellini manifests the impoverished society that was left as a result from World War II. Nights of Cabiria illustrates how the effects of the war were still visible in society ten years later. The protagonist is a prostitute named Cabiria, and the film follows her life of heartbreak while she is desperate for love. She works the gritty streets of Ostia, a poor neighborhood in Rome; her encounters give the viewer an exhibition of the destitute society. In one scene we are shown a group of people who reside in caves, one woman who lives in a cave speaks of her past where at one point she was a prosperous prostitute. The people are desperate; one powerful scene set in a church displays this particularly well. So many people come to the church to ask for miracles and for help with their economic issues that some people are locked out. In this scene people are desperately crying out to the Virgin Mary asking for her help.
The second film I watched, Aguirre, The Wrath of God also gave an excellent view of the society it was based in. It is set in the Amazon rainforest, where Lope de Aguirre leads a group of Spanish conquistadores exploring the new world and looking for the city of gold, El Dorado. These conquistadores are new to the land and are confused and attempting to adapt. It reveals how the natives in South America were treated by the Spanish, they are taken in as slaves and looked upon as practically subhuman. One native slave speaks of how he used to be a prince and now he is a slave in chains. Yet the main aspect of society that I took away from this film was the corruption of the Christian church. A priest is traveling with the conquistadores, and at one point he declares, “The church has always sided with the strong”. This is very relevant to this day in how the church has always looked for profit mainly through exploitation rather than helping those in dire need. The priest greedily grins at the idea of acquiring a gold and jewel studded cross necklace, that they would be able to get if they reached El Dorado. The priest attempts to convert some of the natives and he hands them a bible telling them it is the “word of God”, they are confused and they put the book up to their ears expecting to hear the word of God. Rather than helping the natives the soldiers with the priest beat the natives, calling them “blasphemous”. This illustrates the churches’ questionable ethics. Both of this films are widely critically acclaimed and are considered to be very important films. This reflects the importance of revealing societies in film.