"The horror... The horror..."
"War. War never changes" is a phrase we often hear. Maybe the means in which we make war are different, but in essence it hasn't changed at all. It doesn't matter the context, war is always horrifying and trying to portrait it in the big screen is challenging. Some show war as a place where heroism can take place, because freedom is on the line and there are men who are willing to make great sacrifices for their country, while others show hell; a place where there is neither honor nor salvation for people. Thankfully (?) Apocalypse Now (1979) belongs to the second category.
Apocalypse Now (1979) is a war/horror/psychological film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starred by Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper. Loosely based on the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the movie tells the story of Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Sheen) who is sent to Cambodia, Vietnam to kill American Colonel Kurtz, whom is believed to have gone rogue.
It all starts with Captain Willard, a broken man, scarred by previous battles, who aches to return to war, and his prayers are answered when he is given the mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, an allegedly insane traitor. The story is narrated by Willard while he travels through Cambodia with his platoon and watches all the horror during the American occupation in the country. His group is mainly composed of amateurs and young lings who do not know about war and the more they go into the wild, the crazier everything gets.
When I talk about war I try to be respectful, because war is not something really funny. We can have fun video games, book, series, comics and movies about war, but a real-life battlefield is a nightmare on Earth. I don't think it really matters which side you're on in a war, because the winning side is just that: Someone who won, and it doesn't necessarily mean that it is the right one, since losers don't get to write history. The scars that war leaves inside the body and the mind sometimes are beyond repair and AN shows the true damage war inflicts on soldiers, the cruel things people do to survive, and how civilians whose lives got caught in the middle of it all deal with something beyond their understanding. Vietnam changes into a land in which Richard Wagner's “Ride of the Valkyries” or The Doors' "The End" accompany destruction made by helicopters, guns, grenades, and men who have welcomed insanity into their very souls.
I believe that AN is more than a war movie, since it doesn't show a lot of action compared to other war films I have watched (Hacksaw Ridge or Fury being more recent examples), but I see it more as a journey into the human soul and the horror that dwells in the hearts of men. The way Willard is an observer inside the film instead of having a more active role is really interesting and how he makes his way to Kurtz while trying to get inside his head is something I really enjoyed. Willard tries to rationalize how Colonel Kurtz, a man who had everything turned into a traitor and he doesn't really understand until he gets to him.
Marlon Brando as Kurtz is powerful acting, considering that Kurtz just appear some minutes at the end of the film and that's it. Brando is truly a great actor by portraying Kurtz as a broken soul. Kurtz is a man who looked into the horrors of war and the human soul and understood that maybe there is no hope left for us: This will always be who we are and we don't deserve redemption. "This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper" is a fitting line for a hauntingly dark and beautiful ending. Coppola showed us a journey in which men struggle to be the best version of themselves in an existential prison and failed.
Apocalypse Now is an epic war/horror/psychological movie in which a man faces the nature of the human spirit and loses. A walk into the depths of a war-torn country, created by a rich photography, incredible soundtrack, powerful acting and masterful direction to show us how we can become demons if we blink at the abyss.
PS: The version I watched is the Redux version, which lasts 3 hours and 23 minutes.
When I talk about war I try to be respectful, because war is not something really funny. We can have fun video games, book, series, comics and movies about war, but a real-life battlefield is a nightmare on Earth. I don't think it really matters which side you're on in a war, because the winning side is just that: Someone who won, and it doesn't necessarily mean that it is the right one, since losers don't get to write history. The scars that war leaves inside the body and the mind sometimes are beyond repair and AN shows the true damage war inflicts on soldiers, the cruel things people do to survive, and how civilians whose lives got caught in the middle of it all deal with something beyond their understanding. Vietnam changes into a land in which Richard Wagner's “Ride of the Valkyries” or The Doors' "The End" accompany destruction made by helicopters, guns, grenades, and men who have welcomed insanity into their very souls.
I believe that AN is more than a war movie, since it doesn't show a lot of action compared to other war films I have watched (Hacksaw Ridge or Fury being more recent examples), but I see it more as a journey into the human soul and the horror that dwells in the hearts of men. The way Willard is an observer inside the film instead of having a more active role is really interesting and how he makes his way to Kurtz while trying to get inside his head is something I really enjoyed. Willard tries to rationalize how Colonel Kurtz, a man who had everything turned into a traitor and he doesn't really understand until he gets to him.
Marlon Brando as Kurtz is powerful acting, considering that Kurtz just appear some minutes at the end of the film and that's it. Brando is truly a great actor by portraying Kurtz as a broken soul. Kurtz is a man who looked into the horrors of war and the human soul and understood that maybe there is no hope left for us: This will always be who we are and we don't deserve redemption. "This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper" is a fitting line for a hauntingly dark and beautiful ending. Coppola showed us a journey in which men struggle to be the best version of themselves in an existential prison and failed.
Apocalypse Now is an epic war/horror/psychological movie in which a man faces the nature of the human spirit and loses. A walk into the depths of a war-torn country, created by a rich photography, incredible soundtrack, powerful acting and masterful direction to show us how we can become demons if we blink at the abyss.
PS: The version I watched is the Redux version, which lasts 3 hours and 23 minutes.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario