ThiefHott Too much of everything

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Kirpianuscus like many films by Werner Herzog, it seems be one of the examples of war between him and Klaus Kinski. the result - a sort of storm. expected. . because like each film of this fascinating team, "Cobra Verde" is a challenge. direct, powerful, remembering the chaos and transforming the story in pretext. and , in strange way, it is the basic good point. useful for define it as a great film. because nothing surprising is presented by the film. only a large circle of confirmations. and a story about fall. as only reasonable answer.

TheLittleSongbird This is being said with a very heavy heart, due to admiring Herzog hugely as a film-maker and to me Kinski gave some of his best work in his work with Herzog. Their previous collaborations ranged from very good to masterpiece status.'Fitzcarraldo' particularly is what cinema is all about, and 'Aguirre Wrath of God' is a ground-breaking achievement. 'Nosferatu', a visually stunning and quite riveting homage to the 1922 FW Murnau masterpiece, and 'Woyzeck', very powerful stuff, are not quite as good but still great. 'Cobra Verde' is certainly not an awful film and is watchable, but Herzog and Kinski's last collaboration is also their weakest to me and it's lesser Herzog overall too.'Cobra Verde' is certainly not without redeeming qualities. The best thing about it is that it's visually stunning, there is a sweeping majesty but also a stark but rich atmosphere making for some truly arresting images. The music score is suitably haunting and rousing.Kinski gives his usual intense and effortlessly charismatic performance, and there are some wonderfully sensual and surreal parts. Herzog has delivered more on the substance in other films of his but there is a little evidence of that here, and there is no denying that he delivers on the style.Sadly, the story is the least cohesive and involving of Herzog and Kinski's films together. 'Cobra Verde' is marred by a sluggish pace, that is not helped by having scenes that go on for too long, and by having storytelling that is chaotic and sometimes incomplete-feeling which doesn't make the film so easy to follow. It's not hugely lengthy (being under two hours), but this is the only film of Herzog and Kinski that feels too long and like the story was nowhere near enough in content to justify the length.Very little is done to make the characters interesting. The titular character is done in a way that's trademark Herzog (eccentric character in difficult environment) but too much of a pale shadow of far better developed variations of the same type of character in 'Aguirre' and 'Fitzcarraldo'. Some of 'Cobra Verde' also feels excessively overdone thematically and uninspired, good ideas for content but with not enough done with it.Dialogue here is the least thought-provoking and natural-sounding of their collaborations together, often sounding on the awkward side. None of the rest of the performances stand out in any way, practically lost amongst the wonderful images but messy storytelling.In conclusion, Herzog and Kinski's final, and weakest, collaboration together. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Cobra Verde" is a collaboration between West German and Ghana from 1987, so this one will have its 30th anniversary next year. The primary language in here is German and director Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski collaborated here one final time to make this movie. It is not the first film that takes the two to exotic places obviously. The movie runs for 110 minutes approximately and has Kinski play a man who is in charge of supervising slaves, but then he is sent to Africa where he is the only White guy among so so many Black people. Of course, the blonde hair (slightly gray already by then) helps in creating the big contrast in physicality. I cannot say I am familiar with any of the other actors here. Herzog directed of course, but he also wrote the script and for that he adapted Bruce Chatwin's novel. While I love Herzog and Like Kinski, I must say that this film felt a bit like a poor man's version of some of the other work from the duo such as Fitzcarraldo (never been too big on "Aguirre"). The story dragged on quite a few occasions and I must say that overall I did not feel that this was a really exciting movie. Insanity always played a major role, in front of the cameras and certainly also behind the cameras with the volcano that is Klaus Kinski. I would not say that this is a good choice to start getting into Herzog's filmography. I am not at all saying that it was a failure, but it just left me hoping for a better movie and it's far from the best Herzog and Kinski have come up with together. But why would you want to start with this one as it's also a fairly later career effort from Kinski and he was already 60 here. Only 3 Italien films should follow until his death less than five years later. I guess he was probably past peak already for this one too. I don't recommend the watch. Thumbs down.

Coventry I have to admit the plot of "Cobra Verde" was less impressive and coherent than I anticipated (or hoped…) to be, but it doesn't matter all that much, because this is purely Klaus Kinski's movie. Even though the status and reputation of this movie is too often overshadowed by reports of conflicts & hostility between the director and the lead star, Werner Herzog still undeniably brings some sort of homage to Kinski here. During a lot of scenes, the camera just purposelessly follows him around and there's an incredibly large amount of shots that simply show his facial expressions, and more particularly his insanity-filled eyes, in extreme close-ups. Much more than any film of his that I've seen so far, "Cobra Verde" represents Kinski's most obsessive performance. The lovely title refers to the nickname of Francisco Manuel Da Silva, obviously played by Kinski. At the beginning of the film Da Silva is an ordinary early 19th Century Brazilian farmer mourning over the loss of a beloved one, but in no time he promotes himself into a relentless bandit. His charisma and fearful influence on the locals have him spotted by a sugar-plantation tycoon, who engages Cobra Verde to guard his slaves. But when he impregnates not just one but all three daughters of his employer, Cobra Verde is exiled to Africa to recruit a new slaves and deport them to Brazil. This is meant to be a certain death mission, as the destination – the kingdom of Dahomey – is at war with its neighbors, forbidding slave trade and its king is possibly the one person on earth madder than Da Silva himself. King Adahee (who, for example, wants all dogs killed because they conspire against humans at night) commands to execute Cobra Verde but he escapes, joins the rebellion and trains the fighting skills of an army of over a 1.000 topless women! The screenplay, adapted from a novel by the acclaimed writer Bruce Chatwin, is slightly disappointing because the study on colonialism is rather clichéd, one-dimensional and shallow. The slaves wear chains around their necks, yet the walk around singing and smiling to the crazed white man. The multiple sequences involving mass activity, for example Kinski training the warrior women and a cross-country human telegraph line, as well as the portrayal of typically African rites (dancing and a lot singing) are visually staggering but admittedly they add very little substance. "Cobra Verde" is, as extendedly stated above, a purely brilliant one-man Kinski show. From the scenes where he dominantly arrives in Africa, wearing a grotesque Napoleonesque hat, to the unsettling climax in which he vainly attempts to escapes from the continent as well as from his own personal demons, Kinski is one indescribably fascinating & compelling individual.