Directed by Francis Ford Coppola - 1979 poster
Phew! That was a powerful movie. I read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness last year and, frankly, was a little bored with it. Well, this film, loosely based on the short book, is not boring. So different from The Deer Hunter, shot the year before and also set in Vietnam, and which I have relegated to the bottom end of the War films watched so far. Apocalypse Now is in the Top Ten.
The River holds the Plot together chronologically - and what an eerie, almost evil, river it is. From the flat, paddy-fields delta to the claustrophobic, darkness of Kurtz's ruined Angkor Empire temple compound, strewn with truncated bodies and severed heads, it really is a nightmarish journey into the Heart of Darkness. The problems making the movie were almost as horrific - expensive sets were demolished by extreme weather; Brando turned up overweight and totally unprepared (he used cue-cards in many of his films); Sheen had a breakdown and a near-fatal heart attack during shooting (he was drunk in one scene and did cut his hand badly when smashing the mirror!); the ending was changed several times in cinemas and on DVDs. However, the movie made $150+ million worldwide; it was nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Cinematography, Best Director (Coppola) and Best Supporting Actor for Duvall. It is No. 6 in the Directors' Poll of greatest films of all time. Roger Ebert included it in his top 10 of greatest films ever in 2012.
Ride of the Valkyries'
The juxtaposition of the trite/'normal' with the horrific occurs regularly:
The Vietnamese schoolchildren coming out of their school AND the US helicopters whirring in toward the village
The potential six foot 'swells' ideal for surfing AND "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning"
The G.I. show with Playmate of the Year AND the Vietnamese watching through the fence, as if in a concentration camp
The Chaplain reading The Lord's Prayer AND the fighting going on around him
The cuddling of the puppy AND the cold-blooded shooting of the woman
All best summed up by the comment, Cut 'em in half with a machine gun and give them a band aid
Vietnamese villagers fleeing from the helicopters
There are some thought-provoking lines:
...the temptation to play God.
Because there is a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil, and good does not always triumph...
Terminate with extreme prejudice.
The War is being run by a bunch of 4* clowns
You're in the arsehole of the world, Captain.
Kurtz got off the boat...
He could have gone for General but he went for himself instead (of Kurtz - Marlon Brando)
a poet-warrior in the classic sense
He's clear in his mind, but his soul is mad (of Kurtz)
It's judgement that defeats us (Kurtz)
You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill - Kurtz to Willard (Martin Sheen)
Willard finally goes to meet Kurtz
Other moments that stick in one's mind:
The helicopters flying in formation to Wagner's 'The Ride of the Valkyries'
Robert Duvall's performance as Colonel Bill Kilgore (Big Duke Six)
Mr. 'Clean' killed whilst the tape from home is still being played to him
The very last words spoken - The Horror
Coppola accepted that the film could be considered as anti-war, but argued it was even more anti-lie:
...the fact that a culture can lie about what's really going on in warfare, that people are being brutalized, tortured, maimed, and killed, and somehow present this as moral is what horrifies me, and perpetrates the possibility of war.
2012 DVD
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