Apocalypse Now- 5 Stars

Apocalypse Now is the best film I have ever seen. It is probably as flawless as you can get with a film. It is brilliantly entertaining, intelligent and gripping. Just fantastic in every way. So this review is going to be a little different from my last ones because it is basically going to consist of me running my mouth about how good Apocalypse Now is.

Theatrical Poster

Okay, so for those of you who are completely uncultured Apocalypse Now is a 1979 Vietnam war film from director Francis Ford Coppola (the director of The Godfather) loosely based on Joesph Conrad's book 'Heart of Darkness'. The basic plot outline is that Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is sent on a mission down the river Nung to kill the American rogue Colonel Kurtz (an excellent Marlon Brando) who has allegedly gone insane.

Well what to talk about first. Let's start with the characters. The protagonist Willard is a soldier at breaking point. We first see him at his hotel room completely wasted and destroying everything. He lacks the purpose or drive that war gives. Already here we are seeing the dark allure of war. So he requests high command to give him a mission, which they readily give him- to kill Kurtz. During the film Willard is completely passive towards everything, only intervening in order to aid his mission e.g. killing an injured Vietnamese woman so that the crew won't waste time helping her and will instead press on with the mission. However, during the course of the film we see Willard begin to develop a fascination for Kurtz. It becomes more and more ambiguous as to whether he will kill Kurtz or join him. Willard's obsession with Kurtz displays one of the films major themes- an idea of not lying about the brutality of war, or at very least recognising the arbitrary laws of being able to kill a man one way but not another. Willard is so obsessed with Kurtz because it seems to him that Kurtz is just like every other man in the war- killing violently with obscene acts of brutality. The difference is however, that Kurtz is honest about it and does not operate within the superficial bounds set by the military.

Martin Sheen as Willard

The character of Kurtz also shows this idea of truth and lies. Coppola said about the film 'It is not so much an anti-war film than anti-lie...' What Kurtz represents is the man who has a moral compass and realises how  destructive the war is. But what he also ultimately accepts is that war is no place for morals. That the ultimate soldier must be moral but must also simultaneously be a man who is prepared to do anything. Kurtz has become such a man and the question by the end of the film is will Willard become that man too? Of course Kurtz's madness has been caused by his indulgence of this destructive instinct. His final words in the film 'The horror. The horror.' create an ambiguous idea of whether he regrets the fact that he has been consumed by the depravities of war or whether he is still enchanted by their powers and dangers.

Marlon Brando as Kurtz

A recurring motif throughout the film is the question of the god vs the animal. Kurtz has become to his native people like a God, living in a pyramid and having them worship him. But his brutality is of such a nature that the audience is left questioning is he really any more than an animal? Okay now for this next point there is a spoiler and it will continue to the end of the paragraph so SPOILER ALERT. Right so this idea of Kurtz as both the animal and the God is backed up during his death for when Willard hacks Kurtz to pieces in the temple, outside Kurtz's worshipers are sacrificing a cow. This obviously links Kurtz to the cow. Perhaps Coppola is trying to say that in the end we are all animals and we will all die like animals? However, there is always this Godlike image in the background. For instance at the end of the film, after Willard has killed Kurtz, the natives lay down their weapons and bow to him as if he, Willard, is now a god too. This idea of white supremacy is obviously a stab at American interventionism thinking that they are gods doing as they please. However, it also shows something about mens passions during war. The weak want to be led by the strong. Kurtz was consumed by this own power because it put no restraints on him allowing him to kill at will. The ideas in Apocalypse Now are very unholy as they place no hope in punishment after death or at least show people are not constrained by their fear of God's retribution.

'I love the smell of Napalm in the morning' Robert Duvall as Kilgore

The film has a blatant anti-war message which is why I am so surprised that some critics thought that the film was pro war. The best example is when Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) orders a search and destroy mission on a village, killing lots of women and children, purely so he can see a famous surfer at work on the better waves in that area. During the previous scene there are blatant anti war images as well such as a Vietnamese soldier lying on the floor holding his guts in when Kilgore comes across him, offers him water and then is immediately distracted by the news that a famous surfer is in the company. The fact that death has become so much the norm that you could leave a dying man just to see a sports star just shows the baseness and depravity of war. Another example is when two American soldiers are standing in the village centre telling the villagers 'we're here to help you' as the rest of the US forces destroy these peoples homes.

One of the main themes in Apocalypse Now is that why is the destruction of entire villages with Napalm less mad than Kurtz's own brutal methods? Again the only difference is that Kilgore remains in the arbitrary laws set down by the US military whereas Kurtz doesn't. This theme of the lies of war are again shown here. This is why Willard is so drawn to Kurtz- because at least Kurtz is open about his methods, he does not seem false.

Basically I could rattle on for days about Apocalypse Now without even touching the surface of all there is to say about this truly amazing film. But for those of you who are perhaps less intellectually minded Apocalypse Now is also a brilliant film in 'regular' film terms. Production wise it is epic- everything looks completely real. It has a compelling plot and it is shot with beauty which is ironic concerning the brutal content of the film (that's another point- during the famous search and destroy scene Kilgore plays Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. The juxtaposition of this highly artful and skilled piece of music with the complete and brutal destruction of a village again shows the films anti war leanings).

So in conclusion, this film is utterly compelling, tense, intelligent and on rare occasion moving. After watching Apocalypse Now you will never think the same way again.

Ratings: Entertainment: 10 Technical: 5 Intelligence: 5= 20/20 *****






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