Movie poster for Apocalypse Now with Brando head
Where do we start? Apocalypse Now was one of the most talked about movies of the late seventies. Francis Ford Coppola began the project in earnest right as Godfather II was being released (1974) and spent the next 5 years producing / directing it. That means the production for this movie was longer than the actual Korean war but still 3 or 4 years shy of how long the Vietnam War lasted. According to Wikipedia (and they never lie) apparently both Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas encouraged Coppola to make a Vietnam War movie. Perhaps this was a brilliant plot by them to keep Coppola busy and out of the theaters while they released mega-hits like Jaws and Star Wars. Those guys are pretty clever. Anyway, Coppola rose to the occasion and hired rightwingnut / filmmaker and friend John Millius (recall Red Dawn when the Cubans invade Colorado) to write the script. It was Millius's idea to pattern the movie after Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
BTW - if you weren't forced to read Heart of Darkness in High School or College consider reading it for fun - and then ask yourself why you ever thought it would be fun.
We digress. The original title was supposed to be "The Psychedelic Soldier" and Millius was originally developing the film with Lucas for four years (hence the need to dump the project off to Coppola so he could make Star Wars). The next five years represented a hellish struggle to get the thing made and Coppola's wife even made a documentary about that called "Hearts of Darkness." Martin Sheen, who along with Marlon Brando starred in the film, suffered a major heart attack during filming and almost died (he was only 32 or so when it happened). Making the movie cost a fortune (much of which Coppola ponied up himself) and took its toll on everyone involved. Was it worth it?
The original trailer...
Our answer is an immediate and unqualified, hell yes. While Lucas and Spielberg were making movie magic with Jaws and Star Wars, Coppola created something entirely different; a visually magnificent indictment of the Vietnam War - and a cinema classic every bit as powerful as his previous work in the Godfather series. There's a lot more going in the movie, though, and much of that was due to Millius' more or less brilliant idea to base the script on Heart of Darkness. For those not acquainted with that book, it chronicles a man's journey up the Congo river (we think it's the Congo) in what was the Belgian Congo in the 1890's or so. The Congo was more or less Belgium's only colony and they exploited the heck out of it. By some estimates, as many as 5 million men, women and children were either worked to death or killed during Belgium's cruel tenure as colonial masters. There's a certain insanity to any colonial system and this one was crazier than most - Conrad (who was really Polish but shortened his name and wrote novels in English) captured this insanity well within his fictional tale. That insanity then became the major theme translated to the semi-fictional world of Coppola's Vietnam - and the topic of Colonialism drives much of the storyline within Redux.
Best ranting Hippie journalist award
The movie itself is iconic and unforgettable; the best way to chronicle this is through a list of great cinema moments captured in the film/s:
- The helicopter attack sequence playing Wagner
- The Playboy show in the middle of the jungle
- The lighted bridge
- Surfing on the beach while under mortar fire (and the Napalm one liner)
- The sacrificed cow / assassination of Kurtz interplay
- Martin Sheen emerging from the water on his mission of death
- Pretty much anytime Dennis Hopper spoke
- Brando's (Kurtz's) diamond bullet in the forehead monologue
- The wacked army of Kurtz greeting the boat in their canoes
- The arrow attack (which was a scene right from the novel)
- The boat search and shootout
- The juxtaposition of ceiling fan and helicopter rotors
- Appropriately place use of Doors music
- The old head in the lap trick (which reminds us a little of the Godfather horse-head stunt)
- The tiger in the jungle scene
There's more of course, but those are the moments and images that stand out for us.
Best operatic helicopter attack ever
This is not to say that there weren't problems with the movie. At the time, much fun was had a Brando's expanse, oops, expense due to his large waistline. He was filmed in shadow and wearing shirts that helped to mask his enormous weight gain. There is a sequence in Redux where Sheen has to have dinner with a bunch of petulant Frenchmen who seem to whine relentlessly about losing their Vietnam War. Now this could have been an interesting twist given the focus on Colonialism both in the novel and movie - but it just comes off whiny. And the romantic encounters in the Redux version - all of them - come off a bit goofy and distracting. Perhaps in another 10 years Coppola will re-cut the movie one more time and get it perfect.
Best coming out of the mud bath spa assassin award
We will leave you with Jim Morrison's disturbing and hauntingly beautiful self-fulfilling prophecy.
The horror, the horror... (BTW - that came from the novel too).
A song perfectly matched to the movie ending
Copyright 2013, Raving Reviews
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