Apocalypse Now (1979)

Apocalypse Now, nominated for Best Picture of 1979, is a fever dream of a movie. For me, it's always been all about the imagery. I know that some people come away from this film confused about its plot; I don't have that particular problem, but I can see how it would be easy to be lured away from the details by the stunning visuals that float throughout this movie. From the images of palm trees being napalmed to the strains of The Doors' "The End" that open the film to the intercutting of the ritualistic slaughter of an ox and the death by machete of Col. Kurtz near the end of the film, the filmmakers have made a stunning visual masterpiece about the war in Vietnam and our role in it.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, best known for the Godfather movies, Apocalypse Now is the story of Capt. Willard (played by a young Martin Sheen), who is sent to "terminate" the command of Col. Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando) after the colonel has abandoned army protocol and gone into the jungles of Cambodia to carry out his own version of the war. Much of the film follows the travels that Willard and the four men assigned to help him on the mission as they slowly navigate a river through Vietnam into Cambodia, where the United States was not "officially" supposed to be. It's the trip itself that provides much of the visual splendor of the movie.

By the way, I don't think it's truly a spoiler to tell you that Willard succeeds in killing Kurtz at the end of the movie. That's his sole purpose in the mission anyway, and I think it's far more interesting and suspenseful to see how much he learns about Kurtz as he's reading the documents provided to him about the colonel's history. Knowing that Kurtz dies doesn't detract from the way the film ends in any way. I've seen this film several times now--including its longer incarnation as Apocalypse Now Redux--and knowing how it ends has never left me feeling dissatisfied during the rest of the movie.

Here are just a few examples of the kinds of images I'm talking about: Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. Kilgore has his men play Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkries" as they descend upon a village; he claims playing opera from the helicopters scares the native people. A crowd of GIs swarms the stage as three Playboy Playmates try to dance to the song "Suzie Q," so overcome by lust are these men who have been trapped fighting in Vietnam. Boatloads of Cambodians with their bodies painted white greet Willard and his remaining men when they reach Kurtz's camp, and all around the camp are the heads and bodies of those Kurtz has ordered slaughtered. And everywhere in this movie there is smoke and mist, some of it from the weapons the men are using. I'm assuming that Coppola is making a point here about the "fog of war," but he never has any character comment upon it (thankfully). It's a beautifully rendered metaphor, though, and we as viewers are constantly struggling to see a clear path just as the characters in the film are.

Apocalypse Now is, certainly, a comment upon the insanity and ineptitude of the military leadership during the Vietnam War, and there are examples beyond the obvious one of Col. Kurtz (of course, his "insanity"--so described by the military brass--is also questionable). I'll just point out one: Duvall's Lt. Col. Kilgore. Duvall actually gives my favorite performance in this film and was deservedly nominated for Best Supporting Actor. He never flinches when shells land near him. No amount of gunfire can rattle him, it seems, and that's a rather scary trait in a man who should be somewhat more concerned about the safety of his men. It's as if the prospect of death holds no power over him any longer. He's also obsessed with surfing, paying more attention to the ways that the waves break than to the helicopter maneuvers he is supposed to be guiding during the attack on the Vietnamese village. I don't even think I need to comment on his most famous line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." Everyone at the top, it seems, is crazy, or perhaps the war makes everyone at the top crazy. Either explanation is, I think, appropriate.

Sheen is very good here, but I'm still on the fence about his voice-over narration. I know we can't be privy to his thoughts in any other way at times; he is, after all, reading classified information. And the film is consistent in its application of this conceit, moreso than a lot of other films using the same device. I just wanted, at times, for there to be more direct interaction between Willard and some of the other characters. Yes, I do know that's not the point of the film, particularly on that long, rather silent journey up the river. I understand that it isolates us the same way that Willard isolates himself.

If you've read Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, you might understand the film in a different way. If you've read T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" or some of his other poetry, you might understand the film in a different way too. (I suppose if you've read both, you might understand it in a third way.) However, if you pay close attention to the plot, you won't get lost. It's a bit of a jungle, sure, just as you would expect a movie that trafficks in metaphors to be. But I'm not sure that you aren't just supposed to sit back and be dazzled by the way the story unfolds on a visual level anyway.

Oscar Wins: Cinematography and Sound

Other Nominations: Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall), Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, and Film Editing