Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice.
In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
Apocalypse now is a loose adaptation of English author Joseph Conrad’s book "Heart of Darkness" written in 1902 and deviates from the book in many ways. The movie, originally released in 1979, shows U.S. Army’s Captain Willard(portrayed brilliantly by Martin Sheen) located in Saigon being sent on a mission to Cambodia where Walter Kurtz, a green beret colonel who has gone completely insane is located. Colonel Kurtz’s methods are no longer considered to be sound and Willard’s mission is to find and kill him in a covert operation.
Although popular opinion says it is a War movie I think it is first a movie about what war does to the minds of people involved in it and THEN its a war movie. At the same time it makes for excellent drama in human suffering during war and although this particular story is told in with the Vietnam war in the backdrop it easily could have been ANY war in ANY setting.
The film then shows us the journey that Captain Willard and a group of people undertake in a navy patrol boat on a river in Vietnam, in their search for Kurtz. The hypocrisy, the lies people tell themselves in order to be able to live with what they do during war is depicted very well by the following dialogue.
"We cut them in half with machine guns and then offer them a band aid."
As the boat progresses through the river, we see the riverbanks covered in mist on either side. In regular intervals we are shown through voice over(Captain Willard reading from a dossier sent to him by the US army) little bits of information about colonel Kurtz. At one point we see the change in Willard’s mindset when he admits that he admires the colonel. We find out that Kurtz wrote his son a letter wanting him to understand that the charges of murder against him are unjustified. He also wants his son to know why he did what he did. In addition to this, Willard receives a letter from the army telling him that the special forces officer sent before him on an identical mission is now suspected to be working WITH Kurtz and is now one of his boys.
The film in parts is shot in shades of vibrant colors. The especially liked the haunting quality of the background music. One of my favorites is the scene where Colonel Kilgore(Robert Duvall) says to the group, near the beach they just claimed, while some of his soldiers are surfing, the now iconic dialogue,
"Smell that? Do you smell that son? That’s Napalm."
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
And then,
"I walked up and the whole hill smelled of napalm. It has a gasoline smell. The whole hill smelled like . like gasoline.like Victory."
The movie is shot in layers of meaning and is very absorbing for lovers of intelligent cinema. The whole journey in the boat can be interpreted in various ways and qualifies for multiple viewings. It can be seen as just the physical journey of Willard through the river in search of Kurtz or can be viewed as the journey that the human soul makes in order to find the evil that resides in the human mind and eliminate it. Which ever way one interprets it, the fact that it is the journey that is more important than the destination itself comes clearly across.
During this journey, as the boat sails farther away from the civilized world deep into the jungle, the mindset of people on the boat seems to gradually change, they begin to lose touch with reality and are more inclined towards violence than before. There is very well shot scene of an encounter with a tiger when some men go in search of mangoes into the jungle, which leaves one of them(chef) coming apart.
The film raises questions of morality and abuse of power during a very confusing time in modern history, the Vietnam war. It presents us with philosophical ideas without choosing one over the other and leaves the audiences to ponder. It also succeeds in showing us the faces of horror that soldiers as well as civilians see during war set in a crazy world and the viewer is reminded of this again when Marlon Brando whispers "The Horror. The Horror" right at the surreal and complex finale.
After crossing the last American outpost and entering Cambodia, the search comes to an end when, Willard comes across the mysterious colonel, Kurtz(Marlon Brando in a powerful performance) who is treated like a God by his men and the natives, all dressed in tribal outfits. What followed was excellent and complex dialogue where Kurtz tells Willard his amoral views. This scene left me with a feeling of admiration for Marlon Brando’s short but powerful performance. Especially appealing was the brilliant camera work with different combinations of light and shadow, making only parts of Brando’s face visible at first.
After being tied up by Brando’s men, released a while later, Willard though free to run, stays on. It is during this stay that he comes to know of the incident that served as a trigger for Kurtz’s break down. After a stay of several days here, Captain Willard completes his mission of assassinating Kurtz in a terrifically shot horrifying climax. Like the journey by boat through the river, this also can be interpreted in different ways and more than one conclusion seems fitting.
He then grabs Lance who is the only one surviving from the gang apart from Willard himself, and sets sail in the patrol boat, while Brando’s men throw down their weapons and watch him depart in awe.
Note that there are some(not many) graphic scenes in this one, but they are all justified. The version I watched did not have the much talked about scene showing an air strike on Kurtz’s cantonment.
Excellent cinematography, powerful performances, good characterisation and a tight script make this a masterpiece. This is a film that could have only taken shape under the direction of a genius, Francis Ford Coppolla.
Please comment and let me know what you think of my review.
:-)