Final notes on Mr. Aguirre

When the expedition to find El Dorado had had enough, when they realised that it was never going to happen, and that they were somewhere in the middle of an endless nowhere on the seemingly endless Amazon, they turned on their leader and killed him. Afterwards, trying to cover their arses, they wrote up a document making excuses for their actions and handed it to Aguirre to sign. He signed it: "Aguirre, traitor".

Revolutionary leaders are often the terrorists that won their campaigns. Terrorists are the ones who lost. Aguirre seems to have had this pretty clear in his head. Either we are murderers who killed a guy, he thought, or we are defying the whole of the system and breaking away by killing that system's representative.

Never let yourself become a symbol of something; they're so much easier to kill than real people.

I suppose he decided that this was to be his last throw of the dice. He was fifty something with an ambition that outran his opportunities and (probably) his talents. He went on a rampage. More than 400 years later you can feel the rage coming out of him. His run lasted about a year until he was hunted down in Venezuela.

"If it is my fate to die ruined in this land of Venezuela, then I believe neither in the word of God, nor in the sect of Mahomet, nor in Luther, nor in the pagan world: I believe that there is nothing for man except birth and death."

Before he died he killed the only person he loved: "My daughter, my love. I thought I should see you married and a great lady. But my sins and great pride have willed it otherwise.... Commend yourself to God, my daughter, and make your peace with Him."

Here comes the Renaissance. Here comes Shakespeare's dark laugh, here comes the beauty of man and the modern age.