Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford, Scott Glenn
Screenplay by John Milius & Francis Ford Coppola
Based on “Heart Of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
I always knew that “Apocalypse Now” was a movie that needed special attention when it was being viewed. The way people talked about it gave it sense of importance and prominence. This is a very deep and thoughtful story. It’s not your shoot ‘em up war movie. There’s plenty of fighting and war scenes throughout, but there’s something much more intellectual here.
From the beginning challenge presented to the main character, Sheen’s Captain Willard: track down a brilliant and successful Colonel and kill him because he’s gone insane. The entire voyage up river to find this strayed officer, Brando’s Colonel Kurtz, takes place as Captain Willard educates himself about the Colonel and tries to understand the man by reading entries in his file.
In one of these entries, Kurtz says soMerging that really struck me. It’s as relevant today as it would have been during the Vietnam War. He was talking about a time when his unit went and inoculated children in a remote village. The local soldiers had come to town after the US unit had left and had cut off the arms of all the children where the had been inoculated. In trying to understand these soldiers, Colonel Kurtz came to this realization:
“These were not monsters. These were men... who fought with their hearts, who had families, who have children, who are filled with love - but the had the strength... to do that [cut off the children’s arms]! If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment... Because it’s judgment that defeats us.”
If the war in Vietnam was fought with soldiers like that, it could have been won very easily. But to have that kind of victory, there would have been a massive human rights catastrophe. Indiscriminate killing of anyone suspected of being an enemy. How would anyone be able to tell who was guilty or not? More than half of the population would have had to been slaughtered. And even then, that crime would only create further issues. The same reasoning can be said for both Afghanistan and Iraq. We never went to Total War because we knew that would have lead to much more devastation, destruction, and death.
One thing that really surprised me was how similar Martin Sheen looks like his son Charlie Sheen. I’d always seen Martin Sheen as an older actor, never young.
Robert Duvall was excellent as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore. He owned every scene he was in. The entire ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ scene with the helicopters was impressive. A great scene using a great piece of music.
This was a great movie and I’m glad I finally took the time to watch it.
