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As soon as Jim Morrison opens his mouth to sing, the trees explode.
Apocalypse Now is widely recognized as the definitive Vietnam film. Where Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is appreciated for accurately depicting the rigors of U.S. Marine boot camp during that era, no other film besides Coppola's Apocalypse Now attempts to capture so much of the intensity, the chaos, and the madness of armed conflict, on both a personal and global level. This is Coppola at the height of his power.
I've seen Apocalypse Now three or four times. Even though I've owned the above version for a few years, I've actually never seen Apocalypse Now: Redux, which is the version Francis Ford Coppola endorses, and what I'm watching here.
I saw Apocalypse Now for the first time on television at some point in the 1980s — a viewing that I really don't remember at all except that my dad watched the film long after everyone went to bed. I eventually rented the film on VHS in my early twenties and sat through what had to be the most boring Vietnam film I'd ever seen — worse than Platoon and not nearly as good as Good Morning, Vietnam.
Funny how our perception of things change. (Now I think Platoon is a mess, though I still love Good Morning, Vietnam.)
I can only watch Apocalypse Now about once every few years, if that, and that's exactly why I love this film. Not many films have this much weight and power, beauty and chaos, and unforgettable characters in astonishing moments.
I'll never write a war film, but as a writer, watching this is like going to school all over again.
This version is so much more messed up that what was first released. The Playboy girls, for instance. What the hell? But I love it.
ReplyDeleteV and I saw the surfboard at Coppola's winery during our honeymoon. The Godfather's desk, too. And some other crap.
Had I not been invited to screen it, I'd probably never known about it, as I was satisfied with the original.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about screenwriting is rather ironic in reference to this film . . . Maybe you meant it that way. Given the legendary chaos of the process of making this film, I think most of the credit for what it became goes more to Walter Murch and the editing team than anyone else.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say that the Milius/Coppola script didn't have something do with it, nor would I denigrate the outstanding work of Vittorio Storaro, Dean Tavoularis, and the actors (Okay, in Brando's case, "unhinged" may have to stand in for "outstanding"). They got extraordinary material (hours and hours and hours of it) into the can for the editors to work with. But if you're looking for an example of film as a writer's medium, you've picked a very strange one.
Editing is storytelling, storytelling is writing. The two really aren't that far off IMO.
ReplyDeleteI don't fault Coppola for cutting out the scenes that he did.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a prerequisite for Redux is 2 viewings of the original release.