Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979)

♦♦♦♦ = This film is ehttps://wordpress.com/post/penumbracreative.wordpress.com/1691pic!! (Note I watched Apocalypse Now Redux, so it contained something like 40+ minutes of never seen before footage.)

Holy crap that was an epic film!!! I hadn’t seen “Apocalypse Now” in a long time and it isn’t at all what I remember it to be. Looking back, I must have seen it the first time when I was like 6 or 7 so maybe I didn’t quite appreciate it for it was, but now I see what everyone has been telling me for years. Honestly, I think my dad put it in our old beta machine (yes I said beta, you know the one before the VHS.. and yes I am that old) just to run me out of the house kind of like he used to do with the Pink Floyd albums he blared on the weekends (by the way I now appreciate them a whole heck of a lot more too, just saying not really what I wanted to hear at that age). Any who I digress, let’s get back to Coppola’s masterpiece and what’s up with it. “Apocalypse Now” is a modern re-imagining of the classic novella by Joseph Conrad “Heart of Darkness“. Instead of the mighty river of the Congo instead  Coppola’s film transports us to the controversial Vietnam War. Captain Benjamin Williard has been summoned to his commanders tent and is given a mission of extreme importance. One of the Army’s finest and a member of the special forces, General Kurtz has gone joined a group of Montagnards in the jungle and now not only thinks of himself as their god, but is being worshipped as such. Clearly insane, Williard is instructed to find him and terminate him with what the military likes to call extreme prejudice (in other words assassinate Kurtz). Assigned a boat, Williard and the crew journey up the river into Cambodia (pssttt…we weren’t supposed to be in Cambodia just saying) to find Kurtz’s village and complete the mission.

Okay some of the praise from this films refinement and masterful editing has to go to the best editor ever to touch an editing machine, Walter Murch, but in the end if Coppola hadn’t had the determination or vision to persevere through all the trials and tribulations this film brought into his life Murch wouldn’t have had anything to cut. “Apocalypse Now” is the perfect example of Coppola’s techniques coming together beautifully, the music , the montages, the crosscutting. This film just in the shot composition alone could be a silent film and you would still be able to feel it’s visceral message, but Coppola’s masterful use of light to visually show you Williards descent into Kurtz’s heart of darkness (as well as Williards on journey through his demons) is the key to everything and a  character all its own. The other techniques in the epic film only serve to heighten that visceral message and create a film that will inevitably stand the test of time. Even the narration which i normally hate in film, is never over powering but used masterfully to further Williard’s inner struggle with not only his mission but his life as well. This film is one that every film student should see and if you are a film nerd like me one you seem to want to make everyone watch around you.

I have already stated it many a time but it bares repeating, Coppola is and always will be one of the finest cinematic rebels to come out of the class that includes names like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. He is a true story-teller and that is why he has been the idol he has been to so many burgeoning directors for decades. And “Apocalypse Now“? Though many of his other films are more talked about (i.e. “The Godfather trilogy“) this film is the best of the best and certainly stands heads and shoulders above the rest of his work. No need to take my work after all this is only my opinion, check the movie out for yourself. Let me know what you think and let me know what is your favorite Coppola film?

Kim

A Fellow Film Enthusiast