Apocalypse Now (1979)

User Review

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  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Apocalypse Now is - like many Vietnam stories - a study of the affects of war on the human mind. That's some very difficult real-world subject matter, and generally it could be said that there are two ways of tackling serious things like that on screen - either by portraying them frankly, or through a fantasy context. The majority (and by far the most successful part) of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now utilises the former technique to the max, as we see a soldier (Martin Sheen) on a secret mission to find a defective Colonel by travelling through the deepest depths of the most horrific warzone imaginable.
  He witnesses the death and destruction of Vietnamese villages and their peoples, the death of countless fellow soldiers, and the horrors of every detail of the war, and that's not only a truly harrowing thing to watch but it also ultimately brings home the affects on Sheen's character extremely well because it's all executed so perfectly by Coppola. The environment is utterly all-consuming thanks to the unbelievable attention to detail and commitment to making everything as authentic-looking as possible, and Vittorio Storaro's cinematography exposes it all brilliantly whilst Walter Murch's atmospheric sound-design and the score brings it all to life. Then of course there's Sheen's excellent performance as a soldier who - like most - has become numb to the horrors but is still troubled by them deep down in his psyche, and thus as he learns about the defective Colonel on his journey, he starts to sympathise with him.
  Ultimately then, what this film does is build what is probably the most brilliantly-realised and all-consuming depiction of a warzone ever put to the big screen and develops a character within it that translates the central theme perfectly, and nowhere is that more so epitomised than in the infamous opening shot. We see the destruction of an area of forest realised in breathtaking fashion intercut with Sheen's character in a hotel room prior to his assignment struggling with his traumas and life outside the clearly horrific warzone - but it's the way it's executed that means it works so spectacularly as the sound design makes it all flow seamlessly and disorientates the audience as the noisie of helicopters fades into ceiling fans and background noise emerges into the sound outside the hotel room. It's movie-making gold that really does bring the affects of this horrifying warzone environment home, and that's ultimately what the majority of apocalypse now is all about.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The only problem is that (even if it's arguably an issue that's unavoidable with this particular narrative) when Sheen's character finally tracks the Colonel down, the film goes from frank portrayal to pure fantasy to further its point about the psychological affects of war, and that's not only a huge and jarring leap, but it's also an entirely unnecessary one. We've already seen those affects portrayed absolutely perfectly with Sheen, so all that delving into Marlon Brando's crazed Colonel with his strange tribe and meaningless poetry does is unnecessarily drive that point further into the ground by shoving the fact that war can turn people mad down everyone's throats. "Look there's an ex-soldier with a bunch of people who worship him look what the war has done to him he thinks he's god!" It's not a problem of suspending disbelief (any film can suspend your disbelief if it does things well enough), it's just a very overt and awkward way of exploring the central theme when it's already been explored absolutely expertly. Ultimately, even if Brando does deliver quite a captivating performance, the whole final act is frankly jibberish, and tarnishes what would have otherwise been a near perfect war film.
  
  VERDICT: Until it drives its point home in the most awkward way imaginable, 'Apocalypse Now' is the perfect portrayal of war and its affects on the human mind because Coppola builds such an all-consuming environment and such a well-developed central character within it.

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