Amazing Achievement

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2002)

I have very little to add about this remarkable, powerful, incredibly demanding film. But I would like to draw special attention to the performance of Marlon Brando as Col. Walter Kurtz. I know, everyone talks about how great Brando is, but I want to really focus on what it is that makes him so great in this particular role.
While the character of Kurtz is utterly central to this film, Brando does not appear (except as a disembodied voice on an audio recording) until the final act of the film. In the meantime, as we follow Capt. Willard on his journey, the image of Kurtz in our minds becomes bigger and bigger. Like Willard, the more we here about Kurtz, the more fascinated we become, and the film quite cleverly intersperses the various episodes of the journey with additional information on Kurtz, thus constantly building the tension toward the ever approaching finale.
When Willard finds Kurtz's followers (including Dennis Hopper's memorable photojournalist), our image of Kurtz changes and grows again. What sort of a man could inspire this sort of reaction in these people. When Willard finally meets Kurtz, the dramatic tension has been ratcheted up so high, no one has any idea what will happen. Will Willard kill Kurtz, or become another of his followers the way his predecessor did?
After having kept the audience waiting for so long, the introduction of Kurtz has got to at least fulfill, if not transcend, the expectations of the audience. If not, the last act will be a terrible anti-climax, and the film as a whole will be a dramatic failure. Has there ever been a film which put so much pressure on one performance? If there has, I don't know it.

But Brando nails it. He takes our expectations and he trounces them. The image of that massive hand on top of that bald head will stay with me forever. The voice, almost ethereal. To build an entire film as a massive, gradual build to a climax, and have that climax surpass even the promise of the build-up... it's an exhilarating movie experience.

After the climax, Willard walks slowly back to his boat. Kurtz's followers first make way, and then follow him. Clearly, the idea is that, in their eyes, Willard has no attained the God-like status of Kurtz. In their eyes. Not in ours. We get the point, we understand the message, but we don't feel it in this way. Why? Because Martin Sheen just walks back to the boat. He just walks back to the boat. There is nothing about Sheen's performance here that makes the audience see him as a God-like figure, the way we saw Brando. We get the God imagery from the way the others respond to his walking back to the boat. Sheen isn't acting like a character who is seen as a God. Sheen is walking back to the boat. The others are acting like characters who see him as a God. So, the perception of Willard as God-like has nothing to do with Sheen's performance.
But what about the prior perception of Kurtz as God-like? The most remarkable thing about it is that we barely see Kurtz interact with anyone except Willard. While the long, gradual build-up certainly helps to build up the mythology around Kurtz, in the final analysis, Brando is solely responsible for bringing it on home. [Well, to be fair, the lighting helps a great deal too.] Because we don't see hundreds of extras treating Kurtz like a God, Brando has to act like a God in order for us to get it, and in order for the film to work.
It's stunning.