Apocalypse Now

[Johann]

I read an article on soundtracks that referenced The Doors song "The End" in Francis Coppola's epic masterpiece
Apocalypse Now and I realised that nobody's really said much about the film here, including me- the film is in my top ten of all-time and will never leave it.

The more I think about Mr. Coppola (I just thought of him again yesterday when I was at HMV- gawking at a new DVD release of another masterpiece of his: Bram Stoker's Dracula) the more I understand how consumed by his art he was/is and how much better we are as cinephiles and people because of his all-emcompassing passion for life and cinema.

The one thing that will always stand out in my mind about Apocalypse Now is not even in the movie. It's in the incredible documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. Coppola is in his director's chair, bearded and shirtless, talking about David Lean and Max Ophuls and how his film is different from them.
Whenever I think of Francis Coppola I think of that short part of the documentary. That man (to quote Robert Richardson on Oliver Stone) went as deep and dark as you can go as an artist.

The reason Apocalypse Now is such an exalted film to so many is because of it's history and the end result. The film took years to make, for various reasons, and Coppola was painted by many as a madman, an eccentric freak, squandering his resources on a pie-in-the-sky movie, with an even more eccentric star (Marlon Brando).
But the film he delivered to Cannes in 1979 shut the traps of those who were calling the production Apocalypse When?

Which brings me back to "The End"- Coppola chose the song on instinct, as the right song to open his magnum opus. That timeless track sets it all up, from the mesmerizing opening frames to the Fuck-yeah-head-outta-the-swamp shot of Martin Sheen getting ready to slay Goliath. That shot gets my vote for best shot in all of cinema history. I can't explain what is all contained in that shot: the absolute madness of war, the determination and stealth of a soldier, the death of the hero (we've seen it in Homer, Michael~) and of course aesthetic perfection.

Coppola was such a successful artist that he could do whatever he wanted, make any film in the cosmos.
What did he choose?
He chose to film a story that Orson Welles was passionate about but couldn't get off the ground.
Coppola thought he had the clout and wherewithal to make a film that stands alone in cinema history, and in many many ways it does.

To me personally that film is Mythic, and will always be Mythic, just like Orson Welles and the Doors and Joseph Conrad's works.

When you sit down to watch Apocalyse Now you sit down to fearless truthful genius filmmaking, and I don't know anybody who's seen it that hasn't been impacted by it.

[cinemabon]

I'm glad you enjoyed Coppola's masterpiece. I went to the very first showing, a Billy Graham presentation at Westwood's Bruin Theater prior to Francis taking the film to Cannes. He personally handed out to sets of paper to those coming into the theater. The first was a list of credits, so ordered by the guilds in Hollywood, as they protested his 'no credits' version of the 70mm showing. Secondly, he handed out a question and answer, which he demanded that each person fill out and return upon exiting the theater. I hid mine under my shirt and still have it.

The movie had no credits and did not have the Doors hit in the soundtrack. The film opened and ended with narration by Martin Sheen. When he cut the film for the 35mm version, he not only added credits, but changed the cut of the film, and thereby created a controversy over which version is the 'real' version of the film. When he cut the film a third time for the 'redux' version, he cut the film again, as well as a different cut for DVD. I"m not really certain which version anyone should consider the true version. I only know I fell for the first, and that is the only version I have ever seen.

[oscar jubis]

The criticism the film has received concerns content. Does it have anything to say about Vietnam or the Vietnam War? Does it have anything to say at all besides "war is hell"? Perhaps not, but I still think it's a wonderful film (for a most impassioned defense of the film, read Roger Ebert's review). And the Redux version, with 51 extra minutes, adds a long sequence that has plenty to say about the death of Colonialism. I prefer it to any other version I've seen.

[Johann]

At a Cannes press conference Mr. Coppola said "My film isn't about Vietnam. It IS Vietnam.

I think what he was saying is that the madness of war, the all-encompassing evil of it, is captured in Apocalypse Now.
The opening slo-mo shots with choppers and palm trees and huge napalm explosions coupled with juxtaposed shots of Martin Sheen in his room in Saigon, the psychology of it hits you square between the eyes. "The End" begins.

The opening seconds of Apocalypse Now reveal madness, darkness, destruction. The film lives up to it's title, with a U.S. Navy patrol boat crew (PBR Streetgang) helping a Captain Willard who's on a covert execution mission.
You feel the doom, or the "end of the world", or "a cataclysm in which the forces of good triumph permanently over the forces of evil". The film is heavy- it's got some very disturbing elements, elements that only those who understand what war can do to a man will reconcile.

"Charging a man with murder in this place is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500"- Capt. Willard