Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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

arminhage I never red the novel so my first and only exposure to the story was through this movie. It may be a faithful adaptation of the novel into big screen but one to make movie based on a book, should re- wright the story as screenplay within the boundaries of a cliché and that's exactly where the movie gets the blow.We see no character development nor any character arc. We never know where the reputation of Cobra Verde came from. Why is he famous. Why people afraid of him. He appears to be hard working labor and shows absolutely no violent behavior throughout the movie, actually he appears to be a very reasonable man. When he appears on the city square (or whatever it may be called) and tells the running slave not to make his situation worse and the slave listens to him, it makes no sense at all. When he attacks kings palace and says "I was a snake myself in my own country" that doesn't make sense either because we saw nothing of his character as a dangerous bandit. When he goes to Africa and things appear to work out immediately, again it doesn't make sense if we want to connect the immediate progress to his character. From the dialog we know he must be some sort of though guy but from the action we see a normal somehow arrogant man who has nothing to lose and that's why he is not afraid not because he is brave or a renowned bandit. When in the sugar plantation he says "Sugar Planter, I'm COBRA VERDE", if there was a good character development, that had to elicit good amount of excitement among audience which of course it doesn't. Nothing in this movie looks coherent and editing is very poor.It appears that they spent good amount of money and much effort in African tribal scenes which I admire that but again movie failed to create spectacular epic scenes because set ups and costumes were too polished and colorful. Everything looked shiny and brand new and somehow plasticy instead of being dusty, less colorful and a bit rundown. The worst was the king's ornament, the golden ones. They looked like plastic objects with golden color sprayed on them. I thing herzog assumed that with the quality of theaters in 1987, the resolution is low enough to cover the shininess, maybe he could not see the age of HD was coming, an assumption which I agree with in great reluctance. Movie filmed in 70mm which was and still considered HD. A movie filmed in 70mm can easily be remastered even as 4K.Seeing so much nudity in the movie, one expects so see some harsh sexual scenes which never happens. When at the end of the movie he says "I'm the father of sixty something children", that appears to be a bitter nonsense.And worse but not worse was the teenager music group at the end which appeared 120% 1980s!I like Klaus Kinski a lot and he put good effort into this movie, actually I watched the movie just because of him but I guess Herzog (director) was tired and hasty or let's say he was getting old. Such waste of talent and money can come only from a once brilliant but tired and falling director. I would say the movie is barely watchable but full of obvious defects and it is dead boring.

marcusfernandes My vote for COBRA VERDE was 7 out 10 because is HERZOG...That's all. It is really hard to see blonde deep blue eyes KINSKY playing a Brazilian bandit from the northeast region,Bahia or Pernanbuco,sometimes during the film it is not clear from which Brazilian state COBRA VERDE comes from.It burdens me a lot to see the bandit "jumping" from somewhere in the countryside of the Brazilian wastelands to a typical Andine village barefoot to find a strange bar-owner who speaks perfect German and then... come back again to Brazil to find Brazilian/Portuguese rich farm-owner who speaks...perfect German.There are two aspects in the film that amazed me ,the wonderful African landscapes astonishing well filmed and the historical background.There is no doubt,the last few minutes are,in my opinion,the best ever filmed.In conclusion,COBRA VERDE is the worst HERZOG i have seen until now, but...still is HERZOG.

Dhaval Vyas 'Cobra Verde' is at times a confusing and awkward story about a bandit who finds himself trapped within the slave trade business. What begins as a story of a feared outlaw turns out to be a story examining African cultures and the issue of slavery itself. What makes this movie more interesting than other American films slavery is that the viewer gets to see the other side of the story; the story told from an African viewpoint. International star Klaus Kinski stars a Cobra Verde. He is a feared bandit whom many people fear. When he appears in a small town, all the people runs inside their houses because they are scared to death of him. Many things are missing from Cobra Verde's past. How did he become such a feared bandit? The movie does not answer that question. Through a series of odd circumstances, he is eventually put into the slavery trade business by a group of rich aristocrats. He is sent to Africa, where it is hoped he will be killed because of the slave trade conflicts going on there. What happens is th exact opposite. He gains the trust of the African villagers and eventually trains an army to kill and enemy foe. All the while the viewers are treated to an inside look at some African customs, religions, superstitions, and society. A beautifully made film that is a little marred by changes in the sequences of the story and many things missing from the plot. Nonetheless, this film has one of the most memorable and touching death scenes I have ever seen. Bravo to Klaus Kinski.