Week 6: Apocalypse Now
----The Choice of a Lifetime
The power of a film lies in its ability to tell a story through its images. The images are in essence what differentiates film from literature as an art form. If the greatness of a film is defined by its images, then Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now may be the greatest film ever made. There are moments in it that will forever be burned in my memory. This film demonstrates an artist at his apex.
The film tells that story of Captain Willard(Martin Sheen) who is on his third tour of Vietnam. He is given a classified mission to locate Colonel Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Kurtz has traveled deep into the jungles of Cambodia, gone insane, and has begun to lead a combination of natives and soldiers like a god. According to the brass, Kurtz's methods have become “unsound”. Willard is told to travel up the Nung River, find Kurtz and terminate his command. When Willard is unsure about his orders they are made clearer for him- “terminate, with extreme prejudice.”
Throughout his journey up the river (the film is loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness) Willard experiences the Vietnam War in a series of episodic sequences; the best of which involves a helicopter air strike against a village. Willard meets up with Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) who deliberately chooses a hot enemy territory because of its surfing potential. Kilgore is also insane, of course, but no matter- he is the type of “Gung-Ho, Charlie Killin’” solider America needs. In the film’s most famous sequence, Kilgore leads an attack with dozens of helicopters- completely destroying a village. The attack not only kills the enemy, but countless civilians as well- all to Wagner’s The Rider of the Valkyries. This is electrifying filmmaking: the best battle sequence ever filmed. It is both exhilarating and horrifying at the same time. This sequence alone would make Apocalypse Now one of the great movies. The battle is technically amazing. Every single one of those helicopters is real, as are the explosions. These days we would see nothing but CGI. Even the opening scenes in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan fail to achieve the heights of this sequence.
----Destruction, Terror and Joy (Click Image to View Whole Scene)
Once the battle is over and soldiers are finally able to surf the waves, Kilgore calls in an air strike against the forest. Once the bomber has completely incinerated the forest with napalm, Kilgore haunches in the midst of the madness around him and says the films most memorable lines:
This sequence simply starts off several more memorable episodes leading up to the end of the film. There is the brilliant scene of Willard and Chef (Frederick Forrest, a PBR crew member) in the jungle searching for mangos that is quiet and introspective. Another sequence features the boat stopping at a USO show featuring Playboy Bunnies. The show ends after roughly three minutes when a riot ensues and the ravaging soldiers attempt to overwhelm the playmates. Later on, a small sampan (fishing boat) with a family is stopped by the PBR to check for weapons. Within minutes the entire boat is gunned down by Mr. Clean (a young Laurence Fishburne, also on the boat) to only find that the family was hiding a small puppy in a basket. Each one of these scenes is masterful in its own right; each one completely illustrates the brutality, madness, and insanity of war.
----The Madness of War
My personal favorite scene, aside from the ending, is the sequence at the Do Lung Bridge. The Do Lung Bridge is the last trading post before Cambodia- the point of no return for the soldiers. It is at this point the picture becomes more surrealistic and abstract. Willard goes ashore to heavy gunfire and madness, only to realize that there is not even anyone in charge in the battle. The visuals in the scene are among the most striking and unique I have ever seen.
Francis Ford Coppola was the most important director of the New Hollywood era. He directed only four films in the 1970’s, but those films were The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now. Every single one of these pictures are now classics in their own right, with the first two Godfather films and Apocalypse Now frequently cited as three of the greatest films ever made. All of his work during this period was masterful, but none as important as Apocalypse Now.
Coppola started filming this picture in late 1975. Shooting took 16 month and another year or so was spent in post production. Throughout shooting Apocalypse Now a typhoon destroyed sets on location in the Philippines, Martin Sheen had a heart attack, and the film went dramatically over budget forcing Coppola to put several millions of his own personal fortune on the line to finish making the movie. Many of the actors on the film came to the set stoned (which you can tell in many sequences) and Coppola himself had multiple mental breakdowns, even threatening suicide on a variety of occasions. Finally, the films star Marlon Brando showed up for filming having never read Heart of Darkness, did not know his lines, and was roughly 60 lbs overweight. Brando demanded to only be scene in shadow and insisted on improvising many of his lines. He did end up giving the best performance in the picture, but Coppola vowed never to work with Brando again. The entire struggle of making Apocalypse Now was filmed by Coppola’s wife, Eleanor, and turned into an excellent documentary: Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse. Never has there been a documentary so insightful on the true difficulty of making a film.
This is where my review ends. I have developed writer's block. I do not know what else to say. I feel I have adequately described what Apocalypse Now is about, but I haven’t even touched upon the heart of the movie. This is not a movie to sit and discuss, but one to experience. I can write three paragraphs on the brilliant helicopter attack sequence- but those three paragraphs are not going to relay the feelings of watching the sequence for the first time. Apocalypse Now is a film that must be understood and contemplated. You want peace and quiet after watching it to gather your feelings and find your footing. It is not just a film about the Vietnam War. It is about our ability to be civilized in an uncivilized world. After all, if history has shown us nothing is has shown that humans love war. We are savage in our nature. If this were untrue, world peace would have occurred long ago. Instead we must have enemies, must conquest, and protect the ideals we hold above all others. I think what Coppola is trying to illustrate in his beautiful and disturbing film above all else, is the madness we all possess. The world is insane; we keep our sanity from hiding ourselves from this very truth. We put this truth in the back of our minds. We escape in literature, sports, socialization, film, relationships, the internet, etc. in order to live our lives happily. Apocalypse Now is a film that takes the blinders off. Every time a laugh track plays on a sitcom a child is being murdered, a woman raped, a home destroyed, a person starves to death.
When Willard finally discovers Kurtz at the end of the river, the war picture ends and the masterpiece begins. Kurtz is certainly insane, but his madness is introspective, and almost warranted. You see, Kurtz has come to the realization that the world is an evil place. He has found his place in the system of insanity by leading his people through mass destruction and chaos. He feels that chaos will end the war, but does not necessarily want to come home. Kurtz understands that the Vietnam War, all Wars, are not ever truly winnable. It is at this point in the picture Kurtz tells Willard about the horror. The horror is the realization that no matter how insane things get, somebody will make them more insane. He tells a story of a village of children innoculated for polio, only to have their innoculated arms chopped off. There is strategic brillance in the madness, which makes it more horrific.
Once you realize what Kurtz means when he describes the horror, Apocalypse Now becomes a film that is timeless and universal. It ceases to be a film about Vietnam but a film about the nature of humankind; our place as a destructive force in the world. It could be about poverty, homelessness, the environment, the middle-east, the Iraq war, the oil crisis, the September 11th attacks, or more. Humans are a destructive force. They are born with no morality, the morality is taught to them by their upbringing and environment, by other fallible humans. Kurtz knew it, and died on his feet. The horror is illustrated through all of the previous sequences in the film, and now the viewer gets the heart of not only the movie, but the Vietnam War itself, along with all other forms of human destruction. Coppola is on record as saying “My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam.” He is absolutely correct in his assessment. While Apocalypse Now may not be the most realistic war film of all time, it is the truest to the feelings of war- the madness of the human struggle.
This movie has the single most powerful ending in the history of film. It begins with the Kurtz monologue and ends with Willard standing over the natives with his machete. It is clear he has killed Kurtz. Willard has mud and paint all over his face; he is no longer in the war, but in the jungle- a primal human. As Willard stands on the precipice, the natives, his people, begin to bow. We see a look of madness in his eyes. Willard can become God.
Instead, after a few brief seconds of looking across the hundreds of Natives, he throws his weapon down. The Natives do the same. He takes the sole survivor of his boat and goes home. Willard understands the horror that Kurtz talks about; he has seen it first hand. He chooses peace, not war- hope, not futility. He has lost his sanity but kept what little morality he has left, and sails home up the river. The images haunt him, just like the images of the film as well as our collective history haunt us. We move on, even though we understand the horror.
Coppola has not made another great film since Apocalypse Now, and I believe I know why. After directing this picture, what exactly is left?
Review and Analysis by Shaun Henisey
Cast and Credits:
Kurtz: Marlon Brando
Kilgore: Robert Duvall
Willard: Martin Sheen
Paramount Pictures and American Zoetrope present "Apocalypse Now." Produced and Directed by Francis Coppola. Written by John Milus and Francis Coppola. Narrated by Michael Herr. Music by Carmine Coppola and Francis Coppola. Cinematography by Vittorio Storaro.
Rated R: For Intense War Violence, Adult Language, Nudity, and Adult Themes. 153 minutes. A Movie A Week has reviewed the original theatrical release, not Apocalypse Now: Redux.
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