Classic Flicks: Apocalypse Now

By Joseph Allencherril     5/16/10 7:00pm

Film should not be thought of as merely a visual medium. The best films are gesamtkunstwerken - that is, they expertly fuse the arts of photography, music, writing and theater. However, in some of the greatest films, one or more elements often take precedence over the others.In the case of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, photography - the fruit of the labors of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and film editor Walter Murch - is the most vital component of the film. The camera translates Coppola's grand statement on the madness that stems from war into a visual narrative which portrays the grim psychological and physical realities of war; it is the camera of a documentarian sensitive to human emotion; it is an observant yet naive camera, which, like the characters on screen and the audience in the theater, is unaware of its ultimate destiny. This transforms Apocalypse Now beyond historical fiction into the realm of fictional nonfiction.

John Millius and Coppola took much liberty in adapting their screenplay from Joseph Conrad's 1902 novella Heart of Darkness. Much like in Conrad's work, the protagonist, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), travels up the fictitious Nung River into Cambodia with a motley crew of soldiers in search of the decorated Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has apparently gone insane.

Like one might find in the novella, the contrast between darkness and light is developed throughout the film. As the plot unfolds and the crew travels further upriver, the images are increasingly shrouded in darkness and fog. By the second act of the film, the dazzling river is transformed into a dark, murky stream - darkness seems to represent the absence of human civilization.

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One sees the contrast between darkness and light especially during the scenes inside Kurtz's compound. While Kurtz is perpetually covered in shadow, the existence of light counters the darkness and seems to indicate a possible escape from the madness of war.

Coppola's camera, like a reporter, is curious and does not avoid recording the atrocities of war: The documentary nature of the cinematography in Apocalypse Now underscores the realism of the action in the film. In one rather comic scene, a war documentarian, played by Coppola himself, shouts at the fleeing combatant soldiers, "Don't look at the camera!"

To further add to the documentary feel of Apocalypse Now, sequences of pure nonfiction occur at the beginning and end of the film. The scene in which Captain Willard is alone in his hotel room was not actually scripted; both the broken mirror and the blood on Sheen's hand are real. The slaughter of the water buffalo during the ending montage was also not originally intended to be used in the film. Both of these unplanned scenes augment the film's meaning; the shots of an intoxicated Sheen add a more intense psychological dimension to the background of Willard's character. In both cases, Murch has deftly woven these "accidents" into the narrative of the film and consequently created unforgettable scenes.

Coppola's use of surrealistic film sequences does not detract from his portrayal of the realities of war. Film is by its very nature a surreal medium, and Coppola's dreamlike sequences throughout Apocalypse Now add to the psychological realism of the film. Quite notably, the hazy opening sequence intersperses a panoramic shot of a forest Vietnam with shots of Willard, set to the psychedelic rock 'n' roll of The Doors.

In Apocalypse Now, the fundamental role played by the camera seems to take precedence over the other elements of the film. Storaro's expert camerawork translates Coppola's interpretation of the horrors of war to the audience. This innovative cinematography is precisely what distinguishes Apocalypse Now from other notable Vietnam War movies, such as The Deer Hunter, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket.

Apocalypse Now is indeed a work of total cinema, but the visual ingredients dominate the artistic stew of smart dialogue, perceptive acting and rock 'n' roll, making Apocalypse Now, like all great art, both of its time and for all time. More than 30 years after its release, Coppola's sublime epic still manages to capture the zeitgeist of the Vietnam War era while also making a statement about the horrors of war and about the horrors of life itself.

Joseph Allencherril is a Will Rice College sophomore. Classic Flicks is a new column reexamining and rediscovering the best that cinema has to offer.

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