Sunday, January 26, 2014

Blind Spot Fixed: Apocalypse Now


Choosing 12 films out of the hundreds of 'must-sees', 'masterpieces' and 'classics' that waited like blank sheets of paper for me to put my stamp of opinion on was a difficult task in itself. The fortunate person I am, the first film I chose proved even more difficulties. The main one: there exist two versions of it, the shorter one being 'only' 153 minutes long. Still, the 200+ minutes 'Redux' (what does that word even mean) cut might be much better than the original one, think of Blade Runner. Luckily, my helpful blogathon host Ryan McNeil immediately responded with the wise recommendation of the shorter cut - apart from the expected 'You're in for a treat', which he knew because everyone except me has seen these films already. In I went then, used to the 90-110 minute features I have stuffed myself with this whole past month. And you know, I've come to realize that watching movies is quite similar to doing sports - you've got to alternate. Now I do ballet, so 'Don't just do the allegro and ignore the adagio' would be my personal interpretation of the lesson that the Apocalypse Now experience taught me. I guess it translates to 'Don't forget to build up your muscles when training for a marathon'. 

Apocalypse Now is not just a long film - it's  a long war film. Happy times. War films need to be long, seems to be the general consensus. I don't think so, actually, I think war films can work perfectly fine with a running time below 2h. But indeed, Apocalypse Now is a movie that needs room to unfold itself in order to build up its eerie and disturbing atmosphere. Surprisingly, the plot isn't that important - nor are its holes. Basically, it's about great actors delivering great performances in an impossible environment, framed in the most fascinating way you can imagine (Oscar nod: deserved). If you really *have* to have a synopsis though; half-crazy Captain Willard (Michael Charlie Martin Sheen) is sent on a secret mission to exterminate Colonel Kurtz's (Marlon Brando) insane reign over a group of insane people near the Cambodian-Vietnamese border. The film currently ranks #1 at the website moviemistakes.com and deservedly so. You can't expect anything else from a cut-down from more than 200h worth of filmed material, filmed in 16 months though. Famous production history? I didn't know S about this film's production history. However, it was one of the most interesting things I read since researching Blade Runner.


Like I said: happy times.

It almost seems like a mistake, or at least a coincidence, that Apocalypse Now exists in its current form. It could've been directed by Lucas, a documentary-style thing filmed during the actual 'Nam war, it could've featured a haggard Marlon Brando instead of a fat one (no Stanley Kowalski phantasies left there) and it could've featured Nick Nolte in the leading role - hell, it could've been a M*A*S*H style comedy featuring Clint Eastwood or Al Pacino. They could've made 100 different films out of the filmed material. Admittedly, many movies have a troublesome production history, and all of them face the weird coincidences and dictate of nature that other art forms don't (necessarily). But you get the feeling that *everything* went against Apocalypse Now; money, climate, several egos... the list goes on. This makes the end result feel so very precious and delicate to me.

Is it just me or does every good (anti-) war film need a great soundtrack? Full Metal Jacket had 'Paint it Black' and 'Hello Vietnam', Schindler's List had that famous fiddle thing, The Pianist had Chopin's 'Nocturne' and Apocalypse Now has The Doors' ingenious 'The End' (as used in ATU's Apocalypse Movies episode, remember?). It sets the film off to a great [apocalyptic] start in the jungle and is used again in the rather psychedelic-esque close-before-end scene if I remember correctly. Out of the films and songs mentioned, the collaboration of my Blind Spot film and Jim Morrison's beautiful voice + those electric guitars must be my favorite. It's so perfect, I want that song to be played at my funeral. That's how perfect it is.

Me after watching this movie.

Does it seem like I'm avoiding to write about my opinion on the film itself? After all, I started this review by saying these movies lay in front of me like blank sheets of paper. I scribbled on my Apocalypse Now sheet all right, I sure did. And it's less difficult than I had imagined to build up my own opinion on a movie that has been talked about so much even though I've read all I could find on it both online and on my bookshelf, before sitting down to write my post. Still, the production history and the circumstances this movie was made under are so fascinating that I forget to think about it in a less influenced way. Also, it doesn't help that my future depends on how much I know about the Vietnam war - in a way - since it's one of the big topics for my history exams. But there's much to be said about Apocalypse Now without regards to setting, subject matter and its actual making.

Apocalypse Now is a *raw* movie. I've used this term before in describing some films that I absolutely love, most insistently in talking about my favorite film of all time, Dil Se... It's an adjective that I connect most prominently with the visuals of these films, but also the performances, the soundtrack, the mise-en-scene, lighting - many things. Raw also equals to real in that way, but more in a sense of reality mixed with poetry. Let's take this example; there's a scene in the film where Willard and his secret-mission-crew visit a sort of military base and enjoy an all-American group of girls performing some sort of arousing dance choreography for entertainment. At some point, the horny soldiers start running on to the platform where the girls perform their 'dance'. We all know that this is what happened in Vietnam, so it's real, but we've never been there (most of us anyway). However, we get an impression of the importance of this little show for the soldiers, we (beautifully) get to feel what they feel for an instant, the sadness, the loneliness, the longing - and this is the poetic aspect. And then, those feelings transform into an animalistic, dangerous action - a raw action. Nothing is polished, neither glamorized nor dragged through the mire.



There's been said enough about the cinematography of the film that I needn't dwell on that. It's haunting and as unique as it gets. The purple haze scene is enough to defend Vittorio Storaro's winning the golden statue (got to watch Reds and The Last Emperor now). All the actors are wonderful, Martin Sheen bringing just the right (huge) amount of insanity to his character to stand out next to Marlon Brando's all-over-the-place presence. The latter is only in the movie for 15 actual minutes but his presence can be felt in each second of the two and a half hours. His character is savage yet intellectual, bearing similarities to Vito Corleone but being completely different nonetheless. There are several other great actors - Robert Duvall, Little 'Larry' Fishburne... And in contrary to many other films, I wasn't bothered by the lack of female characters. It was realistic in this one (not like stupid Seven Samurai), it made sense.

Watching Apocalypse Now was such a rewarding, full experience that I'm starting to question my binging 2013 movies habit of the last weeks. Sure, it was necessary (to keep my you-gotta-be-up-to-date ego happy) but I'm looking forward to a more classic, refined month of February.



APOCALYPSE NOW 
1979 • USA • English, French, Vietnamese, Khmer
          

dir. Francis Ford Coppola
authors Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius
★ Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall
final frame STRAWBERRY EXPLOSION



 NEXT IN THE SERIES: MEMENTO

18 comments:

  1. "Redux" never made sense to me because it reminds of reduced, so I've thought many times, stupidly, that the redux version would be the shorter one.

    YAY classics!! And yet, I haven't seen this one. It's one of my biggest crimes, and that title on the shame list that I never seem to find the courage to watch. Anyway, good article Mette!

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    1. That's just my train of thought! It's weird... I mean, there's probably an explanation somewhere but I'm too lazy to look it up.

      I'm so jealous of you for watching and having watched all those classics. But it's my own fault, of course. So I'm kinda happy that you haven't seen this one yet, haha. Not sure whether you'll love it but there'll be something for you to like, definitely. Thanks!

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  2. Excellent piece. It's certainly an engrossing film. It appears to be a crazy film built out of crazy times if the stories from the set are to be believed. But I think that's its greatest beauty - that it captures the madness of war in a way that immerses the audience in it, leaving any hope of closure, or indeed peace, to other lesser war movies.

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    1. It's one of the very best war films I have ever seen. And you're right, it's a crazy film about crazy stuff... and I guess that craziness kind of spread to the actual filming. Or maybe it was the other way round. Glad you enjoyed the article, Dan.

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  3. For me in either version (though I prefer the Redux) version, it's still a fucking masterpiece. A war film like no other. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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    1. Hell, yes. I'm wary of that word, but here I'd probably use it (masterpiece). I've made my mind up about watching the Redux next year.

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  4. Oh I haven't seen this one, that's cool that you chose this for your BlindSpot series. I'm not fond of war films but I feel that this one is so iconic I should give it a shot.

    Curious to hear what you think about MEMENTO, Mette, that's one of my faves from Nolan.

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    1. Yes, me neither, it's my least favorite genre I think. But there are some good ones out there, and this is one of them, definitely. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

      I'm so excited about Memento too, it's been too f-ing long now.

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  5. I watched this a couple of months ago and it is a very hard film to watch because of the eerieness and the length, but I agree – it's rewarding.

    Oh, and Memento was my Blind Spot for January! :D Great minds think alike, huh? I hope you'll like it at least as much as I did. ;)

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    1. I still find myself thinking about it a couple of times a day! Love it when that happens.

      Oh, that was you! Yes, I saw someone had that, need to go back and read some of the posts including yours. I'm very sure I'll like it. Even liked the supposedly meh Hindi remake :)

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  6. The trick here is going to be leaving a comment that isn't the length of a post all its own...

    This is an all-timer for me, and seems to exist on a plain all its own. Besides the fact that it is capital-E-Epic, it is both stunningly gorgeous and deeply depressing all at once. In so many ways, it feels like few other war films ever made since it's less interest in the actual conflict the soldiers are part of, than the senselessness of it all. Maybe that's what allowed the book to be so seamlessly adapted for this film.

    How crazy is that? That a story written about a WWI was grafted so seamlessly into the Vietnam conflict?

    The next time you have time to kill, do check out HEARTS OF DARKNESS - the documentary about the making of this film. It's amazing to see all of that insanity come to life and see just how close FFC came to losing complete control. Once you've done that, check out the Redux sometime. It's a little more operatic...drawing out certain sequences and giving the whole thing an even broader canvas. It's beautiful in its own right, but could have seem like 'too much' if it was your starting point.

    Sidenote: You've actually inspired me to restore an old post. I'll have something you might find interesting up in the next few days.

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    1. And you did it! ... Jokes aside, I love long comments!

      I had no idea this was *such* a big favorite of yours, but you've read my post, so you know I understand you. It's absolutely mind-boggling that they just transformed the story like that. We read a part of Heart of Darkness in class, so when I first read the synopsis for the film, I was like 'Ehm... sure you got your sources right there?'. But yeah, I definitely will read the novel AND watch the documentary. I think I wrote this in some other comment, but I've decided to check out the Redux version in a year's time. I think that's enough time for me to really want to rewatch this one again.

      Oh, that's exciting! I'll hang around and wait for it.

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  7. You definitely get a sense of war from watching this movie and it isn't pretty. I really enjoyed how you related it to a raw feel. It fit the movie perfectly. Cheers.

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    1. Well, I can't recall a 'pretty' sense of war in any movie, but you're right ;) Cheers to you to.

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  8. Happy you dug it! Probably my favorite FF Coppola film. I love the journey, and I love the ending. Considering what you say, that 200 hours were recorded, the editing can't have been easy, and commendable it was even completed.

    Like Ryan, I can also recommend the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)about the troubles making it, I think that doc is even in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

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    1. I can't decide whether it's this or The Godfather (1 or 2). Anyway, I always wondered why so few of FF's films were actually popular but then I found out he spent so much on this film that he had to work on more mediocre ones for many years after that.

      Oh, that's cool! One more film to scratch off the list.

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  9. I don't remember which version I have seen but I like it all the same. As crazy as everything in this film is, Robert Duvall, for example, is absolutely NUTS, I think it validates it all by creating an atmosphere where such things might actually happen or at least I am ready to believe that they do.

    And yet, this is probably my least favourite of Coppola's run in '70s. Goes to suggest what a phenomenal decade he had and also why he declined so much after. I haven't seen many of his later stuff but how do you top something like The Godfather or The Conversation or even this one?

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    1. Well, I haven't seen many of his other films - actually, I think I've only seen this and the two Godfathers. Gotta catch up on that.

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Let the discussion begin!