Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now A Deep Dive in the Decent into Madness The 1979 War film made by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola, made for audiences looking for a good twist on war films. At this point in film history, war films had the same atmosphere to them, then Coppola gave the viewers a film they didn't even know they wanted: a hypnotic take on the horrors of war, centered around a war very close to the viewers hearts, the Vietnam war. Starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall, and Lawrence Fishburne to name a few, the plot centers around Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), who takes a trip on a patrol boat upriver to terminate Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, A once decorated and promising officer of the U.S army who has gone completely insane. Willard and his crew take the increasingly surreal journey in the Heart of Darkness. Me and my friend have become very interested in war. we find it so strange and absurd it all is. we try to understand it but simply can't. This is exactly what the point of Apocalypse Now is, shows the absurdity of war and the psychological torment of it as we see soldiers attempting to bring home back to them, hide their homesickness, and hide from the inescapable fact that they're in hell. My friend finds WW2 very interesting while my interests lie with the Vietnam War. Had to show him this masterpiece even through I had seen it about 3-4 weeks ago. while watching the film I was a little worried he would not enjoy it too much since well it isn't like any other war film ever made and I was scared he was expecting an 100 percent action/war film. Turns out I had nothing to be afraid of. I have yet to talk about it more to him since he had to go home for dinner, but he said "that was actually really good." can't wait to have a conversation about it at school tomorrow. I find it to be one of the best films of all time, and the best war film of all time (I do not consider Schindler's List a war film). The more I watch Apocalypse Now, the more I feel a special connection to it. I am 100 percent immersed in the story at all times, and the deepness of this film makes it all the more awe-inspiring for lack of a better word. It's a wonder this film was even made, let alone be the greatest war movie of all time. I love seeing the increasement of craziness throughout the film. We go from, an home (literally at the start of the movie), to an isolated nation with little to no modern technology. Coppola completes this affect very interestingly. in the beginning, there is Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore and his crew. Constantly they attempt to bring a sense of home despite being so far away from it. also, unlike the ending, we see many well working vehicles such as helicopters, boats, even a camera crew. there is a sermon going on, people are playing football, Kilgore even gets his men to surf the waves during battle. all an attempt to bring home back to them. In Colonel Kurtz's eyes, this is Denial. Kilgore won't accept the horror of war so therefore fears horror as a great enemy. Further along the journey, Willard and his crew continue to see an act of bringing home to a place farthest from it, but less and less so as they go on. slowly, shirts come off, parts of the jungle are put on their faces, as well as war paint. there is even a point where the boat burns and must have some of it replaced with large leaves of the jungle. I'd also like to add that I absolutely love the transformation of Lance, one of the crew members on the boat. Once a famous hot-shot surfer boy, Lance dives deeper into the chaos and craziness of the journey, until he is unrecognizable to the point where he could be mistaken for a native, perfectly encapsulating the power war has on the human condition. Jungle isn't the only aspect that engulfs Willard and the others. as they go deeper into the Heart of Darkness, chaos surrounds them, less of this sense of home. at one point the boat stops in the middle of a battle in which their Commanding Officer. it is very different than that of the battle we saw at the beginning of the film, this wasn't home, this was Vietnam, this was horror. the character of Roach. In the scene, music is played, likely to give the soldiers a sense of home which obviously isn't there. In comes Roach, a composed, possibly insane soldier who is called in to kill a Vietcong soldier. here, he turns the American music down, shooting and killing the soldier. Roach is a man who follows Colonel Kurtz's philosophy. instead of blocking out the horror, he befriends it, uses it to his advantage. Finally, Willard, Lance, and Chef, another soldier on the boat, find Colonel Kurtz's compound. at this point, any sense of Kilgore's philosophy, of home, is gone. Willard and the two others are now completely immersed in the jungle. these next events are difficult to analyze, as they are considered to be the most discussed endings in cinema, but here I go. As Willard finds Kurtz, we here more of the Colonel's philosophy, most importantly, of his stance on horror. Kurtz says, "Horror has a face and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends, if they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. they are truly enemies." This explains Kurtz's whole philosophy and if you really think about it, it's a depressing one at that. The idea states that in a world so mad, there is no other option but to accept the chaos and “horror” around you. After the fact Kurtz implies he wants to be killed, as a way to be freed from his journey through the horror's of war. Like I said, his philosophy is depressing, reflecting the Colonel's complete loss of hope. He believes his death is necessary. once Kurtz is dead, he writes a message to Willard, telling him to blow up his people, as he realizes the pure absurdity on which they live off of. so why not do it, because after all, Willard decides not to blow it up at the end. I really had to think about why this was but I think it was Willard's way of refusing to become what Kurtz had become. and this is the end. A film reflecting on what war does to the human condition, the way it turns people into something you would never think possible, but realizing that in the end, you have a choice whether or not to become the man or the thing you once despised. This is what Willard does, and is what you should take from this one heck of a film.