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Mental Minor 
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TITLE |
Apocalyse Now (1979) |
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DIRECTOR |
Francis Ford
Coppala
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NOTES |
The story
fashioned from Conrad's Heart of Darkness is very |
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simple.
Capt. Willard (Sheen) is charged with finding Col. |
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Kurtz (Brando)
who is out of control. His task when he finds |
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From this
Coppala has made a masterpiece. We see a |
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vision of
the Vietnam war which we would never have |
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imagined
unless we had been there. The journey up the river, |
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which is the
only way to reach Kurtz, is a series of tableaux |
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each of
which show soldiers on the edge of insanity. Willard |
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himself is
on unsteady ground in that respect. But all this |
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builds up to
the meeting with Kurtz. Even before we see |
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Kurtz, and
then only in the shadows, it is clear he has gone |
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over the
edge. And what better entree to the mad Kurtz than |
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Dennis
Hopper's photographer. |
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Not a
picture of shell shock but something different and |
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perhaps
peculiar to jungle warfare where the soldier is in a |
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state of
constant alert and in a country where he doesn't |
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accept the
enemy as human beings. |
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The
difficulties of filming ( Martin Sheen had a heart attack)
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are
documented in "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's |
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Notes
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