“Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.”
– Captain Benjamin L. Williard
This notion can also be applied to the idea of reviewing “Apocalypse Now” 25 years after the original theatrical release. It’s a pointless endeavor, really, since the movie has already been deemed by nearly every critic as one of the greatest war films (if not the greatest war film) ever made. The critical success of “Apocalypse Now” is an even more impressive feat considering it was once believed impossible to make. Not even the illustrious Orson Wells could tackle such a monstrous undertaking, and so the task of adapting Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” fell upon “The Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola. And much like many of the great war films to follow (including “The Deer Hunter” and “Jarhead”), “Apocalypse Now” is less about the actual Vietnam War and more about the social and political ramifications that came as a result of it.
Once a highly decorated military officer leading a promising career, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) has finally snapped and is now hiding away in Cambodia as the leader of a local tribe. In response, the military enlists Special Forces agent Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) to lead a top secret mission to assassinate the renegade Colonel. Making his journey through Vietnam on a Navy PT boat, Williard is joined by the boat’s operator (Albert Hall) and his crew of hapless soldiers – including professional surfer, Lance (Sam Bottoms), New Orleans sauce cook, Chef (Frederic Forrest), and the gun toting youngster, Mr. Clean (Laurence Fishburne) – as they track down the war hero.
The film takes an entertaining turn when the men join the company of Lt. Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), a bloodthirsty air cavalry commander with a love of surfing and (you guessed it) the “smell of napalm in the morning.” Acting as Willard’s escort over some of the nastier areas of the conflict, Kilgore treats his guests to a front-row pyrotechnic extravaganza when he leads an air raid over a small Vietnamese village. Cut to the orchestral melody, “Flight of the Valkyrie,” the scene not only stands as one of the greatest cinematic achievements of melding images with music, but it also single-handedly promoted the advent of 5.1 stereo sound in American film.
“Apocalypse Now” begins to fall apart after Duvall’s departure, with a sudden interest in evolving the atmosphere into one that heavily reflects Lance’s psychedelic drug trip. The weaknesses aren’t nearly as noticeable until Brando walks on screen, though. His performance as the whacked out Green Beret is – for lack of a better word – god-awful, and it’s easy to see some truth behind the reports concerning Brando’s disregard for the project. Gaining 40 pounds and failing to read the script prior to shooting, the veteran actor doesn’t look nearly as lost as he probably was. The character of Kurtz comes off more like a sleepy-eyed beatnik than an esteemed military man gone mad, and though Dennis Hopper’s performance as a drugged-out photojournalist helps to save the final act from total collapse, it’s hardly enough to make you forget that Brando was an overpaid prima donna who took advantage of his power within the industry however he pleased.
Still, “Apocalypse Now” delivers one of the best character studies in the history of the medium. Not that Willard is terribly complex, but it’s interesting to watch as he journeys from broken man to broken soldier, and from sympathetic comrade to an early form of savage that heavily parallels Kurtz’s own demise. The two men aren’t nearly as comparable by the end of the film as they are in the beginning, however, and though Willard exudes some of same characteristics as the loony Colonel, he doesn’t choose the same path. Or does he? We don’t really know, since the film never actually addresses this question, but perhaps the answer can be found in the opening minutes of the film. Maybe this is all just the beginning of “The End,” or maybe it’s already over. Oh, the horror.
DVD Review – The Complete Dossier:
After being separately released on DVD, both versions of Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece can finally be owned in a compact, two-disc set. This isn’t, however, anywhere near the complete dossier it makes itself out to be. The glaring omission of the in-depth documentary, “Heart of Darkness: A Film-maker’s Apocalypse,” will surely disappoint hardcore fans of the film, but there’s still plenty of special features to keep you busy for some time. Along with Act One of both films (complete with director commentary), the first disc of the set also features a complete reading of the T.S. Elliot poem, “The Hollow Men,” by Brando in character as Kurtz, a three-minute “lost scene” (“Monkey Sampan”), 26-minutes of never-before-seen sequences (including more from Dennis Hopper) and an A/V Club featurette that chronicles the history of sound, demonstrates 3D stereo, and answers six frequently asked questions. The second disc of the film plays a much larger behind-the-scenes role, most notably the 50-minute post-production featurette that includes details on editing (“A Million Feet of Film”), sound design (“Heard Any Good Movies Lately?”) and the music of the film. Also included are a few short featurettes on the cast (“PBR Street Gang”), reflections on editing the new cut (“Apocalypse Then and Now”) and Technicolor.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the new release is the decision to split both films across two discs. I understand that the “Redux” version of the film is monstrous in length (202 minutes), and that the inclusion of an audio commentary track makes it virtually impossible to squeeze onto one disc, but they could have easily turned this into a three-disc affair, with the original film on disc one, “Redux” on disc two, and “Heart of Darkness” (along with all of the included bonus material) on disc three. Oh well, maybe we’ll see a more superior release in another few years. Until then, however, “The Complete Dossier” is certainly a must-buy for any fan of the film.
4 / 5 Stars
Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishburne, Albert Hall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Scott Glenn
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
