Purified film making

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2009)

When I watched this film for the first time at a reissue screening of the Redux cut, I was utterly devastated because of the never ending destruction within this picture. Everyone seemed to be dead inside, lost in fear and regret, gone crazy because of the experience of unspeakable things. I pitied them so much and learned to dislike war for what it is - it only causes devastation in any respect. Later I watched it again and again and still this film puts some kind of a spell on me. It took me some time to figure it all out. Well, there is this outstanding cinematography which I could never enjoy again in this quality. Combined with the editing all the pictures are more like music, very sensual and very attached to the characters' feelings and notions. Somehow a lot of the story is told by the images whereas the music is more subtle and only underlining what the images try to tell you. When it comes to storytelling, this film is very classical in a sense that we just follow Cpt. Willard's descriptions and we can only learn what he knows. So after a while we become his mate and begin to judge the things from his perspective. Well, he does some questionable things and we still do not know if he is really reliable, so we keep distance all the way. Finally, we are attracted and repelled by his weary appearance all the way, so here comes the suspense from. Really nice technique to keep the audience focused on the plot. Furthermore, the cast is incredibly talented - actually they do not even act in this film. They become as real and authentic as anybody. Due to their performances I felt like I was on this very boat, I was scared with them and I was happy for the mail to arrive. Maybe this is the great and outstanding nature of the film: That it feels so real. There is not so much deception in it - as a matter of fact everybody was in the jungle, everybody was fighting a little war there and everybody seemed to despair of their deepest horrors. I reckon that is what the film is all about: What we are looking for lies within and we cannot cover up what we are with shams and lies. To my mind this is film making in a very purified manner.