There are more dazzlingly brilliant images in ten minutes of this minor epic than you'll probably find in two dozen of the current brainless hits at the top of the charts: if you want easy laughs and dopey characters, this is not your film.
On the surface, Cobra Verde concerns a one-off slightly mad killer who becomes master of an African slave trade; what makes it fascinating is a series of very strange set-pieces: hundreds of half-naked female warriors with spears and red knit caps training on the beach; a daft prince staring into space while his brother in lavish gold garb drinks of out his enemy's half-skull, miles of white flag-wielding messengers stretched into green jungle reaches--its wild! This film is really not much about plot or depth of character but a mad visual adventure and on that level it succeeds in a way that is typical of Werner Herzog's mad follies--it's a macabre feast!
On the surface, Cobra Verde concerns a one-off slightly mad killer who becomes master of an African slave trade; what makes it fascinating is a series of very strange set-pieces: hundreds of half-naked female warriors with spears and red knit caps training on the beach; a daft prince staring into space while his brother in lavish gold garb drinks of out his enemy's half-skull, miles of white flag-wielding messengers stretched into green jungle reaches--its wild! This film is really not much about plot or depth of character but a mad visual adventure and on that level it succeeds in a way that is typical of Werner Herzog's mad follies--it's a macabre feast!