Editing Aguirre, the Wrath of God (section)

===Critical response===
The film was produced in part by West German television station [[Hessischer Rundfunk]], which televised the film on the same day it opened in theatres. Herzog has blamed this for the relatively poor commercial reception of the film in Germany.<ref name="Herzog1" /> However, outside Germany the film became an "enormous cult favorite" in "such places as Mexico, Venezuela, and Algiers".<ref name="Peary">[[Danny Peary|Peary, Danny]]. ''[[Cult Movies (book)|Cult Movies]]'', Delta Books, 1981. {{ISBN|0-517-20185-2}}</ref> The film had a theatrical run of fifteen months in Paris.<ref name="Young">{{cite journal |last1=Young |first1=Vernon |title=Much Madness: Werner Herzog and Contemporary German Cinema |journal=The Hudson Review |date=1977 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=409–414 |doi=10.2307/3850276 |jstor=3850276 }}</ref> ''Aguirre'' received a theatrical release in the United States in 1977 by [[New Yorker Films]]. It immediately became a cult film, and New Yorker Films reported four years after its initial release that it was the only film in its catalog that never went out of circulation.<ref name="Peary"/>

In Germany, the ''[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]'' described the film as "a colour-drenched, violently physical moving painting".<ref name=Baumgardt>{{cite web | author=Baumgardt, Carsten| work=FilmStarts| url=http://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/37028-Aguirre-Der-Zorn-Gottes.html|title=Aguirre – Der Zorn Gottes (German language)| access-date = 2009-03-24| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090228195344/http://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/37028-Aguirre-Der-Zorn-Gottes.html| archive-date= 28 February 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref> The ''[[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]]'' described Kinski's acting as "too theatrical" to embody God's wrath.<ref name="Baumgardt" />

In the US and the UK the film received mostly positive critical notices upon release. [[Vincent Canby]], writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'', called it "[A]bsolutely stunning&nbsp;... Mr. Herzog views all the proceedings with fixed detachment. He remains cool. He takes no sides. He may even be slightly amused. Mainly he is a poet who constantly surprises us with unexpected juxtapositions&nbsp;... This is a splendid and haunting work."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF1739E762BC4C53DFB266838C669EDE |title= 'Aguirre, the Wrath of God' Haunting Film by Herzog |access-date=<!----2008-06-14----> |first=Vincent|last=Canby|work = The New York Times | date=April 4, 1977}}</ref>

In ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', [[Richard Schickel]] opined that "[Herzog] does the audience the honor of allowing it to discover the blindnesses and obsessions, the sober lunacies he quietly lays out on the screen. Well acted, most notably by Klaus Kinski in the title role, gloriously photographed by Thomas Mauch, ''Aguirre'' is, not to put too fine a point on it, a movie that makes a convincing claim to greatness."<ref>{{cite magazine| date=May 16, 1977 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918983,00.html?internalid=atm100 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070108063632/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918983,00.html?internalid=atm100 |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 January 2007 |title=Meditation on Madness|access-date=<!----2007-03-14----> |first=Richard|last=Schickel|magazine =[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |location=New York }}</ref> [[Time Out (company)|''Time Out's'']] [[Tony Rayns]] noted, "each scene and each detail is honed down to its salient features. On this level, the film effectively pre-empts analysis by analysing itself as it proceeds, admitting no ambiguity. Yet at the same time, Herzog's flair for charged explosive imagery has never had freer rein, and the film is rich in [[oneiric (film theory)|oneiric moments]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/77613/aguirre-wrath-of-god.html|title=Aguirre, Wrath of God|access-date=2007-03-14|first=Tony|last=Rayns|work =Time Out Film guide}}</ref>