Cobra Verde (1987)
Whenever the names Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski come up in the same breath, the phrase "toxic relationship" practically hangs in the air like smoke. Their final collaboration together is a glaring reminder of why. I often find myself wondering what on earth kept drawing them back to each other, given the legendary, explosive hostility that defined their partnership. And watching Cobra Verde, that question doesn't get any easier to answer.
The trouble, for me, starts with Kinski himself. He is undeniably a force of nature, and I've always felt he's far better deployed as a volatile supporting presence rather than the sole engine of a film. Here, tasked with carrying the whole thing on his shoulders, his performance feels like a miss. Less a compelling character study, more a grating, unhinged shouting match that wears out its welcome well before the credits roll. There's a difference between chaos that crackles and chaos that exhausts, and this lands firmly in the latter camp.
The story follows a ruthless Brazilian bandit, the "Cobra Verde" of the title, who is exiled to a decaying plantation in Ghana. In a desperate bid for power, he throws himself into the grim machinery of the slave trade, only to eventually set his sights on Brazil, the very destination of those he has enslaved, blissfully unaware that the trade has since been outlawed there. It's a rich premise, packed with the kind of heavy irony and moral weight Herzog clearly relishes. And yes, it has that familiar, arduous Herzogian texture to it. You can practically feel the sweat and the logistical madness of the production baking off the screen, much as I felt watching Fitzcarraldo. But where that film had a sheer, madcap ambition that kept pulling you forward, this one feels hollow by comparison, meandering through its own ideas without ever fully committing to them.
It isn't entirely without merit, and I want to be fair about that. The thematic ambitions are pure Herzog: colonialism, human greed, the grotesque theatre of power. The social commentary is palpable, even when the film struggles to translate it into something dramatically engaging. And I genuinely want to give credit to one of the production's more inspired decisions: the casting of an actual Ghanaian king in one of the roles. It's a cool, authentic touch that grounds the otherwise overwrought proceedings and adds a layer of historical weight the rest of the film is desperately searching for. Moments like that make you wish the whole thing had trusted its setting a bit more, and its lead actor a bit less.
But as a cohesive piece of work, I really don't think it comes together. It's a heavy watch, and not always in the rewarding way that Herzog's best films manage to be heavy. It's more like a stubborn exercise in endurance. The runtime feels inflated, the narrative momentum keeps stalling, and without a Kinski performance that genuinely holds you, there's too little to latch onto. It's worth noting that 1987 gave us Yeelen, another film rooted in West African history and myth that carries its ambitions with far more grace and coherence. The comparison isn't entirely fair, but it's hard not to make it.
What Cobra Verde does remain is a fascinating historical footnote, the final curtain on one of cinema's most notoriously fractured director-actor partnerships. There's something almost poetic about the fact that their swan song is this: difficult, exhausting, occasionally interesting, and stubbornly unwilling to meet you halfway. If you're a Herzog completist, you'll find things to chew on. But as a standalone watch, it struggles to justify itself. Three stars, and I'm being generous for the ambition.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1987 | Watched: 2026-08-04
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: BFI Player · BFI Player Amazon Channel · BFI Player Apple TV Channel
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
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