Apocalypse Now: A Bittersweet masterpiece
Watching Francis Coppola’s movie, Apocalypse Now is quite an experience. The movie seems like a psychedelic room, and each time you look around the walls, they start moving closer, and you are left with a question, ‘What just happened?’
It’s a tale of a Captain Willard, played by Martin, to assassinate Colonel Kurtz who he believed to be gone mad, Captain Willard is just a reflection of Kurtz and ventures into the journey to bring down a darker side of him.
Now, we all know that the movie was loosely based on the Heart Of Darkness book by Joseph Conrad and the script written by John Millus.
The book takes us through the life of Marlow, an Englishman, a steam-boat captain working for a Belgian Trading Company. He took the initiative to meet an ivory trader, Kurtz, who had established himself as a God among the local tribesmen.
In Apocalypse Now, Francis has considered Willard, a messed-up soldier, desperately waiting for a mission, a mission to kill Kurtz.
On a navy patrol boat, eventually, he was sent to take up the mission by superior officers along with the other ship members, a serious, determined officer and navigator Chief (Albert Hall), Clean, a 14-year soldier (Laurence Fishburne), Chef, a saucier who didn’t even know why had to come to the war (Frederic Forrest) and a cocky young soldier (Sam Bottoms)
The crucial aspects of the movie are the starting and ending of the movie, the rest are the favorite scenes that you never want to forget.
In the Conversation Walter Murch and the Editing film book, Water Murch said that the opening scene was not even in the script. It was just a ‘rephrasal experiment’ by Frances to bring out a spoiled person from Marty. And Marty Shreen at that time was going through his own problems with alcohol.
The scene turned to the point where it really put the hook in you. Lying down in a Sagon hotel, Willard dreams of lush green trees burning into ashes and the helicopters hovering in the sky, and the song ‘The End’ by Doors playing in the background. I think the whole purpose of Francis showcasing the dream was to make you step into the shoes of Willard, an American soldier on the edge of getting mad.
Then, drunk-as-a-lord, he smashes his own reflection in the mirror and breaks down in tears. It’s beautiful how some scenes of the movie that are supposed to be in the trash bin, become the main reel of the movie.
In the later scenes, Willard goes to the superior office. He doesn’t know what mission he is going to get, the mission that probably will turn his life upside-down. What I really appreciate is Francis casting a star-war actor Harrison as Colonel Lucas.
I’ve read somewhere that Harrison was a shy actor and this shyness trait perfectly blends into his dialogues.
(Watch this video, you’ll get the idea of what I’m trying to say)
Francis is a genius, his observation for looking out for small details in his cast makes Francis movies powerful.
So many critics blabber about Kurtz played by Marlon Brando was not a perfect choice, as well as the ending was not at all satisfactory.
Though, I genuinely don’t feel that at all. Brando’s great stature gained in the Godfather series and his deep voice that can almost scare you are the reasons that Francis decided to stick with him.
And I love the ending because of the meaning behind it. When Willard realized he was just a reflection of Kurtz, a reflection of a madman disturbed by the horrors of war, Willard couldn’t resist and killed him.
Now the movie comes along with the most cherished scenes also that you can’t stop watching on loop.
The most undiscussed scene is of Willard reading the documents of Kurtz, which are the sequences of the movie that remain throughout half of the plot. This shows Willard getting obsessed with and having affection for Kurtz, as the movie unfolds ahead.
What other sequences of the movie that critics love was with Bill Kilgore played by Robert Duvall. His fondness for the war and surfing and instructing the flying jets to burn down the forest so he could clear the waves so that the soldiers could easily surf, was amazing.
The dialogue in this scene earned him the Oscar and made him my favorite actor:
“I love the smell of Napalm in the morning”, the line itself shows how Americans were so mad in the Vietnam War.
Another movie sequence that made my heart sink was when the crew of the ship was reading their letters from their family. Then, all of a sudden gunshot fire started rushing from the forest. All of the crew of the ship started screaming, shooting with machine guns everywhere, and the 14-year-old soldier got shot right through his chest. When the firing stopped everybody broke down in tears, behind a voice-tape recorder by his mom that the Clean received was playing. I’m a huge sucker for these scenes that capture the emotional side of the movie too.
All in all, the way the movie made Willard discover his dark side. And captures the horrors of the war that no other film could ever do and yet begs to bring to chill down your spine is brilliant. All through my life, I could never forget this movie.
