Apocalypse Now (1979)
The greatest war film ever made.
Presentation:
Forget the Godfather, this is Francis Ford Coppola’s greatest contribution to film, and it is nothing short of spectacular. This 3 hour masterpiece war epic with several theatrical cuts is incredible no matter which you watch, though I recommend the longest one. It captures the horrors of war and the dark descent of madness you would see in a Kubrick film. It’s a psychological film at its core that is lifted up by its setting in perfect harmony complementing each other. The film looks incredible, I think better than Saving Private Ryan with its wider field of view capturing the beauty of Vietnam’s tropics littered with military entourage of helicopters. The warm grade and soft focus perfectly encapsulate this fever dream of a hallucinatory tone and futility of the unpopular war. War, depravity, madness, an experience of a generation of filmmaking. FUBAR!
Story:
The criticism I can conjure for this film is the Playboy scene. It feels like Coppola was really fishing here, finding an excuse to include sex and a strange arc to this fever dream. I don't think it took away from the experience, but it was a bit forced and i see why some cuts took these scenes out. The French planatation scene felt the most unnecessary.
Analysis:
Does the premise really make any sense? Could a rogue colonel really be able to still have control over his command? The film makes you think its believable due to all the disorganized shit that goes on. Maybe an airstrike could have solved this all along, they had rough coordinates anyway. As iconic as Marlon Brando's performance is with his shadowy entrance, I think they could have improved the subversion by making him seem less crazy with more merit. After all, he doesn't immediate kill the captain, but does the other. Perhaps he could have made sense of the chaos, but it was clear that Coppola wanted a more positive ending, which I think ultimately makes this more of an anti-war film. But the politics are not really relevant as the core of this story is the psychological aspect of a descent into the waters of an unknown hell.
Conclusion:
Although this film doesn’t have the visceral violence of Saving Private Ryan or subversion of Full Metal Jacket, it has the greatest impact of the three greats with a powerful script aside from the war. All war films kinda glorify war because of how exciting and cinematic it looks, but this film might be one of the few that truly captures the emotional toll and feeling of going to war and make you truly detest it. The gifts don’t stop once you start researching the filming process, with the real life sacrifice, Martin Sheen’s mental breakdown, 1 year production hell, Marlon Brando’s prima-donna antics. It’s not only significant in filmmaking, it’s significant in its controversial production. This is one of Clever Ghost’s greatest films of all time.
Recommendations
Perhaps the best gangster epic of all time.