comment

Rating: 8/10 (4 October 2008)

"Apocalypse Now" could very well be considered Francis Ford Coppola's "Hells Angels." Quite possibly anything that could have prevented the film to continue shooting happened. In the jungles of the Philippines, people got sick, people got hurt, and people got sent home. The story of "Apocalypse Now" is that of pure insanity. In the beginning of the film when Martin Sheen (Captain Willard) is dispatched by some higher ups in the army to go on a secret mission to assassinate a renegade Colonel everyone is relatively sane. As Coppola's epic film progresses and grows, so does the insanity of everyone on the boat taking Martin Sheen's character up river. Deeper and deeper into the jungle they go, the further away from "society" they get and the more primitive things become to them. Starting out with modern warfare such as napalm, planes, and machine guns quickly turn into rocks, arrows and spears. Willard narrates most of the movie as he reads his mission briefs or scouts upcoming bends in the river. Set on his mission Willard keeps in mind what he is after, thus making him more immune to the disease of insanity, whereas, his shipmates have no idea why they are going up river and what they are getting themselves into, hence why they start to lose it before Captain Willard. When they finally reach the camp of Colonel Kurtz, they find that the natives love him and his wisdom. Mostly because they probably haven't been subjected to such power before he came along. By the time the deed is done, Willard has become so immersed into his character of this guy who is suppose to kill this other guy, that he is completely unfazed by what he does and walks slowly back to his boat and goes home.