Apocalypse Now

Cast
Kurtz: Marlon Brando
Kilgore: Robert Duvall
Willard: Martin Sheen
Chef: Frederic Forrest
Chief: Albert Hall
Lance: Sam Bottoms
Clean: Laurence Fishburne
Photojournalist: Dennis Hopper

Plot summary

The film is based loosely on Joseph Conrad's 1899 novel Heart of Darkness. The main protagonist is U.S. Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard who has returned to Saigon during the height of the Vietnam War. He is in a cheap hotel drinking heavily and haunted by his memories of battle. Drunk, dishevelled and out of control, he punches a mirror and bloodies his fist. The impossibility of assimilating the war's grand scale horrors has led directly to this downward spiral of self destruction. Two officers enter his room, shocked by the scene; they stick him in a cold shower to help sober him up quickly. They escort him by helicopter for a mission briefing. He has to accept one of his most daring and secretive missions yet. Willard is sent into the jungle with top-secret orders to find and eliminate Colonel Kurtz who has gone insane and set up his own army within the jungle in Cambodia. As Willard descends into the jungle, he is slowly over taken by the jungle's mesmerizing powers and battles the insanity which surrounds him. His crew succumbs to drugs and are slowly killed off, one by one. As Willard continues his journey he confronts the same horrors that pushed Colonel Kurtz over the edge into the abyss of insanity and he becomes more and more like the man he was sent to assassinate. He sees the primal violence instilled within human nature and is witness to the darkness clouding his own heart and mind. Willard must struggle against the horrors and hypocrisies of war and the darkness within himself to complete his mission and kill Colonel Kurtz.

Apocalypse Now - a magnificent epic. 3 gruelling hours long. Regarded rightfully as one of the finest films ever made on the cantankerous subject of war; Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now is nothing short of a masterpiece of glorious proportions. It has to be one of the most disconcerting and perennially intangible films considered a consensus classic of cinema. Essentially it is the ultimate dystopia played out in images. Dangerous, charismatic, legendary, controversial and eternally relevant are just a few of the words to describe it. It is essentially a war film, yet it is more than just a film about war. It explores themes and consequences of war that are not openly discussed and it's still as poignant today as it was when it was released in 1979. Showing that humans still haven't learnt that war is not a solution to problems and conflict must be solved in other diplomatic ways. It forced a society to question its conquest-like intentions in Vietnam and also presented a graphic depiction of guerrilla warfare. Its message is timeless and one with the most moral persuasion in the history of film. It should still be adhered to today; war is not valiant or patriotic but plays with the lives of innocent people like pawns in a Chess game.

The power of a film lies in its ability to tell a story through its imagery. The difference between literature and film as an art form are in essence the visual images we see. If the greatness of a film is defined by its images, then Apocalypse Now may be the most incredible film ever made. If we study the images created in this film alone, the emotions they stir within us and the hypnagogic way our brain responds, then it is certainly a contender. Moments in the film will forever be burned into my memory. The ambitious project of Apocalypse Now demonstrates an artist at his sublimity, his climax, his zenith, his peak.

Francis Ford Coppola was one of the forerunners of the "New Hollywood" era. He directed only 4 films in the 1970s. 3 of them are cited to be the greatest films ever made! The Godfather I, II and Apocalypse Now were masterful and groundbreaking films. They are all classics in their own right. 

The legacy of the filming process almost outweighs the legacy of the film itself, one of the most chaotic filming processes in history. It is notorious for the constant setbacks that plagued production. There were extraordinary script, shooting, budget and casting problems almost destroying the life and career of Coppola. He had multiple mental breakdowns, the stress almost bringing him to the point of suicide. The enduring legend is that the production in the Philippines was nothing short of hellish. It took more than $30 million to make. Brando, the films star showed up on the set 60lbs overweight, not knowing his lines and insisting on doing his performance by completely improvising. He ended up giving the best performance in the picture, debatably his career but Coppola vowed to never work with him again. Many of the actors came onto the set stoned and not knowing their lines, Sheen had a heart attack and a typhoon and severe weather destroyed several expensive sets on location. The film's release was postponed several times while Coppola edited reels of footage. He nearly faced bankruptcy and had to put several millions from his own personal fortune to finish making the movie as it went dramatically over budget. 
Knowing that Coppola went through a less deadly version of the same sort of experience gives the film a feeling of authenticity. The wounds from the film making process bled so heavily into the movie itself. Yet out of this mayhem emerged a masterpiece of cinema, hailed by experts in the field as the best war film of the past 30 years, surpassing Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter and Saving Private Ryan.

Coppola joking on set!

Apocalypse Now starts with one of the most famous and powerful film opening sequences of all time. The central character is a U.S. Army special operations officer; Captain Benjamin L. Willard. He is lying in a hotel room, heavily intoxicated whilst the camera is spinning round. However, this is one of the scenes that has to be observed to behold the extent of its powerful imagery, a true visual phenomenon. The terrifying sound of helicopters swarming slowly over the jungle, their blades spinning menacingly is juxtaposed with a singular guitar playing softly, it is oddly calming. It is then followed by Jim Morrison's haunting voice and prophetic poetry. Suddenly, an inferno rises unleashed from the helicopters dropping napalm from above, it engulfs the landscape and the main image is of the jungle aflame; scorching and smouldering behind a yellow plume of smoke. Suitably The End by The Doors with it's surreal, liberating lyrics almost match the exact feelings going through the mind of Willard, the beginning of the film already seems to be some sort of psychedelic mind trip. It lays the hallucinatory groundwork for the rest of the film. Willard's solitary face appears upside down, superimposed over the blazing fire as he takes a long and slow drag on his cigarette, a gun positioned beside him. His eyes are glazed and distant as if in a hypnotised trance as he looks at the spinning ceiling fan above him whirring like the propellers of the helicopter. 
The pictures are all symbols showing that war is inescapable and has a huge effect on the human psyche. He then breaks the mirror "destroying" who he is and getting rid of all thoughts in his mind. The whole scene is intended to make the viewer question their own sanity but it also depicts the very scale of the destruction ornamented during the Vietnam War.

Another major scene in the film is the "Ride of the Valkyries" scene, one of the most controversial, stark and politically motivated scenes in film. It is undeniably electrifying film making: 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 the helicopters is real, as are the explosions with no CGI. 
The scene demonstrates the full atrocity humans are capable of and does not portray the USA soldiers as heroes at all. Colonel Kilgore is the head of this scene, relishing the chaos around him. He leads the formation of helicopters during the spectacular air strike, it is a sickening scene, designed to target our moral compass. The impending helicopters looming like wasps with their ominous presence in the sky, threaten their imminent doom over the peaceful community below. We see them over the horizon with large waves in the forefront. Wagner's operatic score rages vehemently and then a dramatic silence as the camera cuts to the Vietnamese civilians (mainly women and children) dressed in white and attending their private business.

It connotes bigotry and imperialism, racism and unjustified murder. The whole sequence is a pure anti - war statement. The "glorification" is intended to be completely satirical as Kilgore's primary notion to bomb the village was essentially to go surfing, illustrating the pure absurdity of his actions; he is an emblem of reckless killing. The blaring "Ride of the Valkyries" sequence is a powerful testament to the senseless death in war. Kilgore is beloved by his troops but uses methods that are often questionable and indiscriminate. He represents the type of leader of men that wars produce. Kilgore then offers the films most memorable lines, waxing lyrical about explosions, a macho declaration of warmongering:

This sequence escorts us to many other notable scenes leading up to the climax. The quiet introspective scene when Willard and Chef search for mangoes offers a little peace. Though the most broached and disliked sequence in the film is the fishing boat scene. A small sampan is stopped to check for weapons in spite of a family are on board. The whole boat is gunned down in a horrendous massacre, only to find the family was hiding a puppy. Again it illustrates the brutality, insanity and nonsensical actions in war.

When it finally premiered at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, Coppola said: “My film is not a movie. My film is not about Vietnam. It IS Vietnam. It’s what it was really like - it was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane.” 
Roger Ebert predicted that “Apocalypse Now will still stand, as a grand and grave and insanely inspired gesture of film making, of moments that are operatic in their style and scope, and of other moments so silent we can almost hear the director thinking to himself.”

In a film about insanity and insane performances across the board, Brando has his work cut out for him playing the most insane of the bunch and he delivers big time. He epitomises the physical aura of mystery surrounding the iconic Kurtz. He is dressed in black and his face is always in shadow, smoke swirls around him, giving him the demonic air of a tribal king. The effect is spot-on. Brando invented his own lines and mumbled and slurred them in that incoherent but unmistakable Brando way, pouring over Conrad, books about mythology and T. S. Eliot's poem of destruction and rebirth, The Waste Land. 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.

Apocalypse Now's depiction of war comes from a mix of chaos and normality, a nightmarish cacophony. Soldiers surfing on the edge of a battle zone, the ability of the boat crew to kill civilians but save a lost puppy, the mix of morality with madness, the unpredictability of the people and their double standards when trying to justify their actions. The direction and cinematography are superb, as you would expect from Francis Ford Coppola, the second half of the film in particular, filmed in half light and shadow, swathed in mist and an atmosphere of terror and slow death, creates this otherworldly feeling, this is hell on earth. 

It is at this point the picture becomes more surrealist 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. The techniques used in the film set the benchmark for future film makers, forever trying to emulate the style but never recreating the magic the film possessed.

Apocalypse Now cannot be discussed to adequately describe its sheer brilliance; it has to be experienced for what it is. A metaphysical journey. It has to be understood and contemplated. The feeling of eclipsing emptiness when the film ends and yet the contrasting feeling of emotions full to capacity. One of the most important films to emerge from the Vietnam war era, it explores very heavy, philosophical themes; the rottenness of all wars in general, the fragility of the human psyche, the meaning of civilization, the hypocrisy of Western cultures, darkness, the lust for home and safety.
Through the eyes of the insane, a sane man appears to be crazy. The film is about the basic futility of war. What is remarkable is that this undisputed greatness was hewn out of a production that was constantly teetering on the edge of self-destruction.
Apocalypse Now rightfully earned widespread critical acclaim. Its monumental performances and dazzling film-making technique have stood the test of time. Its cultural impact and philosophical themes have been extensively and tirelessly discussed encapsulating its place in history as a slice of modern culture.

Dedicated to Alex Davey