Apocalypse Now (DVD)

'Apocalypse Now' is rightly considered to be one of the best movies dealing with the Vietnam War. Coppola's drug tinged view of the madness of war does more than examines the conflict it but asks many more basic questions about the nature of morality, humanity and madness.


THE PLOT

Martin Sheen is Captain Willard the army 'assassin' who has been told to 'Terminate with extreme prejudice' the insane (or is he?), ...
...charge of a small river patrol manned by a mostly inexperienced crew he begins his search for Kurtz. The problem is that Willard, a war weary veteran, is close to a mental breakdown he is beginning to doubt is own sanity and the journey he takes up river to Cambodia where Kurtz has last been seen is symbolic of his own search for some meaning to the horrors of the war. How will the journey change him? Will he survive? Will he complete his mission? ... more

'Apocalypse Now' is rightly considered to be one of the best movies dealing with the Vietnam War. Coppola's drug tinged view of the madness of war does more than examines the conflict it but asks many more basic questions about the nature of morality, humanity and madness.

THE PLOT

Martin Sheen is Captain Willard the army 'assassin' who has been told to 'Terminate with extreme prejudice' the insane (or is he?), renegade Green Beret Colonel Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando. Taking charge of a small river patrol manned by a mostly inexperienced crew he begins his search for Kurtz. The problem is that Willard, a war weary veteran, is close to a mental breakdown he is beginning to doubt is own sanity and the journey he takes up river to Cambodia where Kurtz has last been seen is symbolic of his own search for some meaning to the horrors of the war. How will the journey change him? Will he survive? Will he complete his mission?

CAST CHARACTERS AND PERFORMANCES

Marlon Brando .... Col. Walter E. Kurtz
Martin Sheen .... Capt. Benjamin L. Willard/Narrator
Robert Duvall .... Lt. Col. William 'Bill' Kilgore
Albert Hall .... Chief Quartermaster Phillips
Frederic Forrest .... Engineman Jay Hicks/'Chef'
Sam Bottoms .... Gunner's Mate Lance B. Johnson
Laurence Fishbourne .... Gunner's Mate Tyrone Miller/'Mr. Clean'
Dennis Hopper .... Photo Journalist

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Writing credits John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola

The Vietnam War holds a special place in the collective consciousness of America's post WW2 generation. It wasn't the first major conflict that the US was involved in after the war, remember the Korean war a macabre dress rehearsal for the later longer struggle came first. It was however the Vietnam conflict that generated more protest and was to give rise to so much analysis in the form of music film and art. I suppose it came at an opportune time for this kind of treatment, the sixties were a period of greater and increasing freedom of choice (sexual, political, artistic) it coincided with the rise of a very vocal anti establishment movement in the form of the beats and the hippies. By the early 60's the unthinking gratitude for the post war economic boom had started to fade and a new wave of cynicism and anger fuelled by left wing politics, drugs and mysticism had started to be the predominant raison d'etre of many young people. It was only natural that such a momentous event as the Vietnam War was later to be examined in detail by the people that lived through it.

'Apocalypse Now' is one of many films that deal with the Vietnam War or its direct after effects. 'The Deer Hunter' and 'Full Metal Jacket' are just two other very different but equally fine examples. 'Apocalypse Now' was different at the time (and probably still is now) for not attempting a realist view of the event but rather to take on the War in a very stylised almost surreal form.

Coppola 's idea was to use as a basis for the film Joseph Conrad's short novel 'Heart of Darkness'. The novel is only loosely represented in the film, it primarily deals with events in the depths of uncharted Africa at the turn of the 19th century when a young representative of a trading company is sent out to find one of the companies most successful traders who is missing in the jungle. The book is a very dark and sombre read and Coppola has managed to transpose that sense of foreboding and slow decent in to immorality and madness to the Vietnam setting. The journey of Conrad's character is mirrored by that Willard and it is interesting to note that while Conrad was making a comment on the evils of colonialism and imperialism in nineteenth century Africa, Coppola is justified in making those same points about the imperialist intentions of the US in the late 20th century. The would be assassin Willard is not a employee of a trading company but of an army that represents a country that has economic colonialism very firmly in its mind.

So why is the film so good?

Many reasons, the story is compelling, we have a very flawed hero chasing the mysterious almost supernatural figure Kurtz. Kurtz was the model soldier a high-flying colonel who could have been a general by now but something went wrong. As the story unfolds we and Willard get to know more about Kurtz and the more we know the more unsure we are of the justification for the mission. Coppola just as Conrad did takes us slowly on a journey in to madness. The river that Willard and his men are travelling on is itself symbolic of the narrative as their quest progresses they begin to see changes in the people they meet, slowly from the relatively ordered military camps deep behind enemy lines we descend in to disorganised outposts and eventual anarchy. This physical journey is paralleled by the slow deterioration in Willard mind. As Willard begins to break down he begins to understand Kurtz. The scenes in the film become more a more surreal.

Along the way we meet weird characters like the surf- loving Colonel Kilgore brilliantly played by Robert Duvall uttering the memorable line 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning'. They also drop in on a 'Playboy' review were models are flown in to the middle of a jungle camp to entertain the troops ending is a massive riot. As the journey nears its end and Willard sense of reality is becoming less well defined we meet a spaced out photo journalist a devotee of Kurtz played by - who else- Dennis Hopper -('did you know "if" is the middle of the word "life"?). A drug infused performance, which by all accounts probably involved more method acting than was good for him.

The film itself over the years has acquired a mythical quality due to the terrible trouble that Coppola faced in making it. It was filmed in the Philippines jungles as very harsh and dangerous environment to begin with. Harvey Keitel had been chosen to play Willard but after months of shooting it was decided to drop him due to differences he had with Coppola over the role. This obviously was a very costly delay both financially and in terms of time. Martin Sheen was brought in to replace Keitel and promptly had a heart attack soon after he started. More delays followed. In the end the whole project could have easily failed if it hadn't been for the determination and belief of Coppola.

The performances of the main actors are uniformly of high quality. Sheen is excellent as the man who has lost his self-belief and is slowly disintegrating, his mission being the only thing that keeps him from total breakdown. Brando is not seen very much and does give an over the top performance but in a strange way considering the nature of the subject matter it is in keeping with the story. There are great cameos also from Hopper and Duvall. Lawrence Fishbourne is so young that he is almost unrecognisable from his recent 'Matrix' persona and watch out for an early pre Star Wars screen appearance by Harrison Ford.

As I said before this is not a realist presentation of the Vietnam War infact there is little or no combat action. Coppola takes the beautiful backdrop of the rain forest weaves it seamlessly with LSD/Hashish fuelled visions and the music of Jimi Hendrix (Purple Haze), Wagner and The Doors (The End) to produce a virtual Psychedelic vision illustrating the futility and horror that the war had became for the people involved. By the time we reach the final confrontation between Willard and Kurtz our ideas and preconceived notion of what and who is right or wrong have been challenged and overturned.

The cleverness of the film is that even though it deals with the actual conflict at arms length it tells us more about the nature of war than any more realistic war film can. It is a dark, violent and at times funny insight into the madness of the Vietnam conflict, which has yet to be bettered.

For more information about the making of the movie see 'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse' a fascinating account of the making of this film directed by Eleanor Coppola wife of Francis Ford Coppola.

Thank you for reading and rating this opinion.

© Mauri 2004
 

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