Cobra Verde (1987)

You won't be disappointed!

Excellent but underrated film

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Cobra Verde is best known as the final collaboration between director Werner Herzog and star actor Klaus Kinski. These two mavericks had come together explosively several times before and, in the process, created some fascinating works of cinema. It was here, however, that the Herzog/Kinski partnership finally and irreparably hit the skids, with Kinski behaving on-set in a manner too negative, even by his alarming standards. This last film is generally considered to be the weakest of the five collaborations and, in fairness, this is not an unreasonable verdict as the plot dynamics and central character are less interesting than in previous films. Having said that, it's still hardly a poor film in a general sense and still has quite a few things about it to recommend.Its story focuses on the 19th century African slave trade. After impregnating all of his plantation boss's daughters, a bandit is sent from Brazil to West Africa to buy slaves in an enterprise his boss fully expects will result in his death. It doesn't quite work out that way and he becomes very involved with an African tribal war instead.Much here is similar to the other Herzog/Kinski films that preceded it. It is set in a historical period, it has a central character who is an outsider with a hint of madness and it features documentary realism in its use of indigenous non-actors in support roles. The location photography is one of the definite strong points and Kinski is always interesting to watch, although in this role he is perhaps more difficult to like than usual; after all he is a slave trader, which is hardly the most sympathetic job title. He and his fellow white men display casual racism throughout, although the film doesn't really much delve into the rights and wrongs of slavery very much and is more a character study of a man in the middle of this scenario. I think the main problem is that the story doesn't really give us much to work with or care too much about. The film, as a result works more in places, with some individual scenes sticking in the mind; most notably for me was the appearance of the 'nuns' – a sequence where several African girls chant and dance in a very captivating manner. There are other interesting moments sprinkled throughout but Cobra Verde somehow doesn't work as well as a whole piece and remains interesting but flawed.

Francisco da Silva (Klaus Kinski), known as the bandit Cobra Verde, muses wistfully: "I long to go forth from here to another world." Barefoot and penniless, he resorts to robbery whenever the opportunity presents itself and villagers flee at the sight of him. At a slave auction, he intercepts a young slave trying to flee. "Don't run away," he tells the man: "It'll only be worse for you." HOW it could be worse is never really explained, but da Silva's handling of the situation so impresses a sugar plantation owner that he hires da Silva to be his overseer on the spot. Da Silva promptly knocks up the man's three young mulatto daughters. This leads to his "assignment" to an abandoned Brazilian fortress on the West coast of Africa. It's reckoned that he won't survive there because the slave trade is being interrupted on the high seas by British ships and because the Africans themselves have tired of doing (dirty) business with White Men. He begins to amass slaves for shipment, only to find that his shipments are being hijacked by the very men who sent him to the island. He is captured by a tribe of Africans and prepared for execution: his face is painted black (because the Africans "can't kill a White Man") and he's trussed up and delivered to the local King for Final Judgement. He's (obviously) upset: "In this place, the dead are more alive than the living." The night before his execution, he's rescued by rebels led by the "insane" Prince of the same tribe that wants to kill him and is put in charge of training a (topless) female army of "Amazons" to overpower the feckless male tribesmen. (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC was never THIS graphic...) COBRA VERDE is an outstanding piece of filmmaking (par for the course for Herzog) and manages to deal with a touchy subject far more effectively than any other movie I've seen about same (slavery). While it's uncomfortable, indeed, to see Kinski leering at some of the (topless) young girls who come out to sing for him, it's well within the bounds of believability. It's one of the Truest moments in the movie, an unabashed look into the Dark Heart of us all. "Slavery is an element of the human heart," Kinski observes: "To our ruin!" The ending, in which a young man horribly disfigured by polio dogs Kinski's heels as he seeks to leave the island, is the perfect denouement.

While I can respect all the work that Werner Herzog and his crew went through to make "Cobra Verde", to me the film is flawed because the main character (played by Klaus Kinski) is too one-dimensional. Once the movie is finished, you really know almost nothing about the guy--he is that big a cypher.The film begins in South America. Francisco Manoel da Silva (Kinski) is a bandit so feared that when he enters towns, just about everyone runs in terror. Despite this, he manages to obtain a job with a Brazilian slave plantation owner. But, Francisco impregnates ALL of the boss' daughters and as punishment is sent to Africa to buy slaves--because the boss figures that the king in Dahomey (today known as Benin) will kill Francisco like he'd done to all the other recent white traders. However, instead, the king welcomes him and Francisco is allowed to renew the slave trade. But, when there is a revolt, Francisco leads an odd army of bare-chested women and he conquers the kingdom. Now he imagines incredible wealth and things look wonderful for the newly christened 'Cobra Verde'. Unfortunately, this was not to be. See the film and see what I mean.This film looks great. As usual, Werner Herzog is willing to go to the most far off places in order to get the look just right. Like several of the previous Herzog-Kinski projects, this one must have been hellishly difficult to make. Unfortunately, like so many other Herzog films, the leading man seems VERY one-dimensional and difficult to accept or relate to because of this lack of depth. Francisco was a bad guy but his motivations, likes, dislikes, and even personality are all lacking. Because of this, although the film is interesting and lovely locales are used, I am only mildly encouraging you to watch it. This film is clearly NOT a film that the average person would enjoy, though I did like the ending in the surf--a fascinating scene and nice ending.

"Cobra Verde" is probably the less brilliant movie that Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski made together. It's the story of a Portuguese bandit that eventually becomes the Viceroy of some African region (when Portugal had some colonies over there).This time the making of the film wasn't as chaotic as it was in "Aguirre" or "Fitzcarraldo", what let Herzog recreate himself filming the deserted landscapes and the native women, and that's precisely what spoils the movie's rhythm. It looks like Herzog fell in love so much with those African natives that he couldn't help to fill dozens of sequences with their rites and their dance (and that stuff does not contribute in anything to the story).Anyway, "Cobra Verde" is just a MUST SEE for those who really like the madman Kinski (just like I do) , because he released his temper and his anger one more time in this performing. You can never know when Kinski is gonna explode.*My rate: 6/10