Analysis of Apocalypse Now(1979) Film
I have always watched movies as a form of entertainment. But with time, I began viewing them as a film critique will do rather than just enjoying for a few hours and forget about it. As I started to analyze movies critically, I could not stop thinking about “Apocalypse Now” as one of the best films of all time. The film was released in 1979. the film director Francis Ford Coppola, based it on Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness.” The movie is based on a mission the United States Army Captain commanded to kill a United States Army Colonel Martin Sheen who played as Captain Willard was sent to kill Marlon Brando, cast as Walter Kurtz. The film was shot a year later after the end of the Vietnam War. The movie was not entirely anti-war; however, it reveals the atrocities of war that America battled in the name of free will and democracy. This paper aims at examining the analysis of the film Apocalypse Now in
The movie depicts madness as an upshot of the war. The entire film is an analogy for an expedition into oneself and reveals how one darkens in the face of the war. The PBR crew and Willard become perturbed and disconnected from the reality as they move up the river. Chief’s personality totally changes. He is no longer himself after he run-in with a tiger in the jungle. Moreover, he further withdraws into drugs. The same case happens to Lance. He also transforms his face signaling transformation. Just like Chief, he also withdraws into drugs. Chief experiences a mental breakdown when Clean was killed. He becomes a completely different person. Willard, on the other hand, is obsessed with his target. Prior war in Vietnam has already changed him. The character in the movie responds to change and challenges by hardening themselves, transforming, and withdrawing. Therefore, the cinematography contemplates the character’s imminent madness by cloaking the expedition in fog and darkness, thereby fabricating a hallucinating atmosphere.
Secondly, the film also reveals the emptiness of the United States’ values. This can be argued to be true because the Vietnamese are fighting for their homes where else the American army is battling to go home. To those troops, home is an ambition of psychedelic rock and surfing. These principles are what the fighters in the movie live for, and Willard repeatedly reflects upon their absurdity and emptiness. It is indeed ridiculous that the American journalist film, the soldiers, while telling them not to face the camera. The movie casts essentially transform the war into a popular entertainment much as attested dailies of Vietnam once hegemonized the airwaves, exacerbating the antiwar movement. After the unveiling airstrike, Kilgore commands his soldiers to fight or surf. This indicates the confused priorities of the United States officers. Actually, th3 biggest absurdity is revealed when the PBR free and captain Willard happen upon a military supply post where the USO show is about to happen. The movie highlights the difference between the Vietnamese and the American’s rules by showing playmates in Vietnam.
The movie also emphasizes the absence of civilization, this showing darkness. Moreover, much of the film is obscured in shadows, and it gets gradually darker as the crew further ventures into the forest. The filming changes the river abroad shining waterway into a dark narrow stream surrounded by dense fog whilst the scene at the bridge is bathed with darkness. The only thing visible was the flares, and that appears to be a searchlight. Erratic lights bring about the sense of total confusion, thereby revealing that PBR is beyond civilization. When captain Willard gets to the colonel, the dark contrast increased. Kurtz’s face is always in shows; it can barely be seen. In the climax, the contrast of the movie is highly heightened, especially when Willard kills Kurtz. Therefore, the fighting scenes are always associated with darkness to show a lack of civilization.
The American troops in the film are longing for home. They are searching for anything that could remind them of their life in the United States. For example, at Kilgore’s strums a guitar. Captain Willard mentions that if the more they make sounds like home, the more they will miss it. In the film, women, and music act as the symbol of the home country. Moreover, the dance around the psychedelic took the sixties song “Suzie” in the film, also reminds the soldiers of home and how they are millions of miles away from home. When they received letters at the bridge, they all read it aloud. All these events in the film indicate that soldiers are constantly missing home.
In conclusion, the film indeed portrays the hypocrisy in Western imperialism, the soldiers act as if they own Vietnam, yet they are strangers. They do whatever they want without provocation. The film also depicts how military troops transform in times of war. Their encounter changes their experiences. Moreover, confusion arises where the American troops are missing home, and also they fight to go home where else the Vietnamese are fighting for their home. The film captures a lot of concepts in just a short time duration.
Work Cited
Tomasulo, Frank P. “The Politics of Ambivalence: APOCALYPSE NOW as Pro-War and Anti-War Film.” (1990).
Denzin, Norman K. “Apocalypse Now: overcoming resistances to qualitative inquiry.” International Review of Qualitative Research 2.3 (2009): 331-343.
Hellmann, John. “Vietnam and the Hollywood genre film: Inversions of American mythology in the deer hunter and apocalypse now.” American Quarterly 34.4 (1982): 418-439.
Bogue, Ronald L. “The Heartless Darkness of” Apocalypse Now.”” The Georgia Review 35.3 (1981): 611-626.