Coppola is a truly unique director in several ways. Perhaps the one thing that really defines him is that he is NOT defined by his gimmicks. When you watch a film by Martin Scorsese, he may surprise you, but you know that you're going to get some exotic camera movements, some fast paced editing and, if it's set in modern times, "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones will play at least once. Apocalypse Now defines Coppola's unpredictability.
The film is allegedly based on Heart of Darkness, the novel, but outside of a few key parallels, the two are very different stories, albeit sharing a similar nihilistic tone and a few moments. We follow Martin Sheen as the alcoholic Captain Ben J. Willard, a secret operative who has grown more and more psychotic in his time away from the action.
All he wants is to be put back in the field. "Every day, Charlie grows stronger while I grow weaker". He thrives on the blood lust of battle and can't take another day cooped up in this room. The opening scene is immediately gripping, with the choppers flying overhead and Willard simply going insane in a bedroom somewhere in Saigon, waiting for his next mission.
When Sheen punches the mirror, that wasn't in the script. In fact, the entire production of the film is a tale of legend, of insanity, of incredible difficult and of more odd and unusual happenings than even occur in the film itself. We could discuss them more in depth, but that would take more time than we have for this review, so we'll just focus on the film for now.
The movie is loaded from end to end with unforgettable scenes and incredible characters. Before we even get into the main cast, we have Cockroach, who appears for a single scene in the film during a fight over a key bridge in Vietnam. He sleeps through the battle while the others defend, but when a lone V. C. Sits amongst his friends bodies in the dark, shouting insults, Cockroach is awoken, he fires a grenade into the air which arcs perfectly and silences the V. C. Immediately, and then Cockroach goes back to bed. Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore is one of the greatest one-scene characters ever, ordering his men to surf while mortar fire hits the waves.
This isn't even getting into the main cast, these characters appear for one scene and then disappear from the film forever. Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz doesn't even appear until the very end, but his presence, his mere existence, casts a shadow that commands the entirety of the film, despite his limited screen time, or perhaps, mythologized by his non-presence.
The movie is a success on literally every level. At times it can be quite endearing, when you see the love and camaraderie between the men on Captain Willard's boat. It's often funny, and Coppola has even described it as a comedy. It's exciting, with "Ride of the Valkyries" being amongst the greatest action scenes of all time. But Kurtz's nihilism is what overwhelms the film in the end.
Coppola himself claims Rumble Fish as his personal favorite amongst his own work, but his fans are typically split between Apocalypse Now and The Godfather Part 2. It's up to the individual viewer, but this one is, at the very least, his most insane. - 40731
The film is allegedly based on Heart of Darkness, the novel, but outside of a few key parallels, the two are very different stories, albeit sharing a similar nihilistic tone and a few moments. We follow Martin Sheen as the alcoholic Captain Ben J. Willard, a secret operative who has grown more and more psychotic in his time away from the action.
All he wants is to be put back in the field. "Every day, Charlie grows stronger while I grow weaker". He thrives on the blood lust of battle and can't take another day cooped up in this room. The opening scene is immediately gripping, with the choppers flying overhead and Willard simply going insane in a bedroom somewhere in Saigon, waiting for his next mission.
When Sheen punches the mirror, that wasn't in the script. In fact, the entire production of the film is a tale of legend, of insanity, of incredible difficult and of more odd and unusual happenings than even occur in the film itself. We could discuss them more in depth, but that would take more time than we have for this review, so we'll just focus on the film for now.
The movie is loaded from end to end with unforgettable scenes and incredible characters. Before we even get into the main cast, we have Cockroach, who appears for a single scene in the film during a fight over a key bridge in Vietnam. He sleeps through the battle while the others defend, but when a lone V. C. Sits amongst his friends bodies in the dark, shouting insults, Cockroach is awoken, he fires a grenade into the air which arcs perfectly and silences the V. C. Immediately, and then Cockroach goes back to bed. Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore is one of the greatest one-scene characters ever, ordering his men to surf while mortar fire hits the waves.
This isn't even getting into the main cast, these characters appear for one scene and then disappear from the film forever. Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz doesn't even appear until the very end, but his presence, his mere existence, casts a shadow that commands the entirety of the film, despite his limited screen time, or perhaps, mythologized by his non-presence.
The movie is a success on literally every level. At times it can be quite endearing, when you see the love and camaraderie between the men on Captain Willard's boat. It's often funny, and Coppola has even described it as a comedy. It's exciting, with "Ride of the Valkyries" being amongst the greatest action scenes of all time. But Kurtz's nihilism is what overwhelms the film in the end.
Coppola himself claims Rumble Fish as his personal favorite amongst his own work, but his fans are typically split between Apocalypse Now and The Godfather Part 2. It's up to the individual viewer, but this one is, at the very least, his most insane. - 40731
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