Swimming Monkeys and Werner Herzog

Today I was watching TV and saw a commercial which showed a swimming and diving monkey. This, of course :) reminded me of one of the most twisted and greatest movies ever, Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes or Aguirre, the Wrath of God. (if you click on the link above, my favorite characters are even referenced in the second paragraph of the "Production" section.) I mean, 400 swimming monkeys!

The film is in German, but is about Spanish Conquistadors and their search for El Dorado. This is also the movie in which the famous incident took place of Herzog threatening to kill his lead actor and himself if he walked off the set. Klaus Kinski, the actor, shot off the tip of one of the extra's fingers in the Peruvian jungle. Said Herzog of the jungle, "The trees are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don’t think they sing. They just screech in pain. …Taking a close look at what’s around us, there is some sort of harmony: it’s the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder."

I know that I've spoken of the movie before, several years ago on my blog. What really made me write about this was not just the sighting of my little aquatic, furry friends (They play a damn creepy role in the movie though) but the new movie that will soon come out, which features one of my favorite actors in a movie made by one of my favorite directors.

Christian Bale is starring in Rescue Dawn a film based on the ture story of a German man who joined the United States Navy and ended up as a POW during the Vietnam War. Herzog previously made a documentary on this same subject (His interest is probably partially due to his own German nationality.)

I was all excited because the commercial reminded me that the movie was being released on March 30 and I was geeked to view it and review it for work, but then I checked out IMDB and found that the date of release has been pushed back because of a dispute with paying the crew that worked on the film in Europe and Thailand. Grrr. How much money would it be to pay them?

~Interesting Trivia-- Bale's first major role, Jim Grahm in Empire of the Sun he plays an internee during Wolrd War 2 in China. The new film features him as a pilot, but in Empire of the Sun he plays a boy who idealizes flight and admires the Kamakazie pilots who depart from the runway that the internees helped to build. I wonder if the similarities had any influence on his decision of whether or not to take the role. I wish I wrote for a paper that was near enough or influential enough where I could aks him at a press funcation.