Considering the darkness of the subject matter it is only appropriate that the opening imagery reflect the tone of the film. The central character, Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) is in an almost catatonic state as he wastes away in a skuzzy motel room. Despite the fact that there is no dialogue, text or any other way of presenting hard information we are able to deduce a lot of things just off the power of implication. Willard’s dog-tags make it obvious that he is a soldier, the images of army helicopters, napalm strikes and the Vietnamese jungle suggest that he was in the war and the state of duress both he and the room are in make it evident that he is suffering from some serious PTSD. The disturbing sights are superimposed over close-ups of dead-eyed Capt. Willard so that it appears the fire is inside Willard’s head. All the stereotypes are there; the bottle of liquor, the gun on the pillow and what seems to be the obligatory breakup letter from the girl back home.
When the narration finally kicks in, Willard explains that he has one more mission left in him; leaving plenty of room for interpretation as to whether or not he means he thinks this one will be the one that kills him or that he is going to walk away from the military or any other number of scenarios. When he is brought before a small group of fellow officers (including an unmistakable Harrison Ford hiding behind a pair of goofy glasses) Willard gets very hush-hush orders to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who is described as a charismatic and militarily ingenious turncoat. He is protected by a band of Cambodian loyalists who he has a deity-like command over. A nonsensical, rambling audio recording of Kurtz is played for Willard and a primary theme of the film is uncovered. Willard is being sent on the mission because of his complete expendability, disregard for his own well-being and a very implied extension of the cliché of using a psycho to catch a psycho.
Willard is given a small crew of younger misfit troops who accompany him to a rendezvous point where they are supposed to link up with an escort, Lt. Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall) who turns out to be yet another mentally disturbed individual, I haven’t decided if Francis Ford Coppola is trying to say that Vietnam messed everyone up, everyone who went was a psycho to begin with or if he just wanted all the characters to be eccentric.
Kilgore is the stereotypical “gung-ho” solider who overkills Vietnamese civilians, leaves calling cards on corpses so that the NVG troops will know it was his handiwork and has a bizarre fascination with surfing. When he discovers that one of the men in Willard’s squad is a renowned surfer Kilgore gushes over him like a starstruck kid, even though Kilgore himself is much older and higher in the chain of command. Kilgore’s surfer-groupie mentality is also the deciding factor in his willingness to transport Willard’s team to a beach where they can access the river that leads to Kurtz’s creepy compound, because it apparently has excellent surfing.
The sequence of events leading up to the storming of the beach is now historically significant to cinema. The ominous strains of “Ride of the Valkryies” as they “bomb it (the village) to the stone-age,” the ensuing declaration by Kilgore of his love for the “smell of napalm in the morning” and the disturbing contradictory visuals of the gorgeous treeline and sunrise over the beach transposed over the horrific images of the burning village. In order to eliminate any doubt that Kilgore is slaughtering innocents, the primary focus of the attacks are small children in school uniforms, all the while Kilgore cheers his men on, offering them rewards for excessive destruction.
“We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won’t allow them to write ‘fuck’ on their airplanes because it’s obscene.” (Col. Walter Kurtz, “Apocalypse Now”)
Scenes depicting Willard’s perception of events begin to take on a psychedelic effect and he begins to express an almost obsession with Kurtz. As he internally attempts to draw a separation between himself and Kurtz it becomes more and more obvious that the two are going to be more alike than we think. The closer Willard and his team get to Kurtz, the more deeply he digs into Kurtz’s personal life via his file and begins to respect his target; almost to the point of being one of his disciples.
After many deaths in his squad Willard finally reaches Kurtz’s hideout and it is even creepier than the narrative implies it might be. The place is strewn with slaughtered human remains and skulls and resembles a crude Buddhist temple. Kurtz’s “mouthpiece” is a fried-out American hippie who discusses Kurtz the same way a cult member discusses their leader. The temple is guarded by an army of guerrillas and adorned with graffiti proclaiming the film’s title “Apocalypse Now,” of course suggesting an impending end of days.
Willard is finally granted entry to the temple where he meets Kurtz face to face. The dramatic half lighting and shadowing effects building up to the climactic revelation of the bloated, shaved-headed Kurtz is the first major flaw of the film. While this scene needs drama, it needs the perfect amount of drama, which these shots exceed to an obscene amount. Of course, Brando plays Brando; mumbly, brooding and self-indulgent but as a cult-leader it is appropriate as it gives Kurtz’s character the proper amount of mystique. Though he does imprison him, Kurtz takes a liking to Willard and almost makes him a sort of personal valet.
Kurtz begins to espouse his beliefs on the war to Willard and elaborates on his reasons for desertion and seemingly leading something of a rebellion. Oddly, this is the first time he or any other character actually starts to make any sense. Willard wrestles with his conscience, his newfound respect for Kurtz, his sympathy for his far-gone state and his sense of duty before finally carrying out his orders. He brutally hacks Kurtz apart with a machete- jump cutting back and forth to scenes of the villagers ritualistically doing the same to a buffalo. This is also symbolic as it harkens back to Kurtz’s unshown beheading of one of Willard’s men, and many others given the abundance of hacked up skulls. As Willard strolls through the sea of Kurtz disciples fearlessly, they all silently step aside for him; suggesting a mental weakness on their part, being lost without a leader, or silently grateful to have had their trance broken.
As the boat speeds away from the temple a rainstorm breaks out, which seems to imply the exact opposite of the typical connotation of rain- rather than doom and gloom, it seems more like a washing away; of sins, of blood on our moral hands and even washing away the fog around Willard’s mind. This open-ended implication is left completely unexplained as the screen simply cuts to black and ends abruptly. In all honesty it is the only way this movie could have ended without cheapening the whole rest of the film. It NEEDS to be left to the individual to decide how things turned out after that and, to be true to the title of the film, the abrupt and incomplete ending is essentially apocalyptic.
The content of the film is great, the cinematography is better than anyone could ever ask for and the length never feels like an issue except for some of the scenes in Kurtz’s temple seemingly dragging a little too long. Like I said before, “Apocalypse Now” is NOT just another Vietnam movie and, even though the plot is, for the most part, pretty absurd, I do mean that in a very complimentary way.
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