When in 1979, American director Francis Ford Coppola produced the film Apocalypse Now, he was creating a masterpiece and what has been widely considered one of the greatest films of all time.
This epic war film set in Vietnam War and starring Marlon Brandon, Robert Duvall and Martin Sheen followed the central character, U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Willard (M. Sheen) on a mission to find and kill the renegade and insane U.S. Army Colonel Walter Kurtz (M. Brando).
The screenplay was an adaptation of Joseph Conrad´s novella Heart of Darkness into the Vietnam War era. This is shown in Kurtz´s last words: "The horror! The horror!", which are taken, among many other things, from Conrad´s novels. Many other episodes in the film respect the spirit of the novel and in particular its critique of the concepts of civilization and progress.
The filming of the movie was very long and troubled: Marlon Brando showed up overweight, Sheen had a heart attack and extreme weather destroyed several expensive sets. All these setbacks postponed the film several times.
In spite of these problems, the film was met with with enthusiasm both by critics and audiences. Since then, it has been considered as one of the best movies ever by lots of specialised magazines and experts and we can say that the film has always had a pervasive cultural impact, as it is reflected for example in the picture below.
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| A 2010 cover of The Economist on European crisis with imagery of the film |
All in all, we are before a film that you shouldn´t miss as it has become a very important cultural reference in our time. To end with, here are two famous scenes of the film. In the first one, Coppola accompanied Lt. Colonel Kilgore´s (R. Duvall) division on a bombing of a Vietnamese village with Wagner´s Ride of the Valkyries. The second one shows the moment when Kilgore says: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning..." after ordering a destructive attack on a village. It is one of those sentences which belong now to the history of films.
That´s all! Enjoy the film!
Impressive, overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Cristina. Your comment is really encouraging.
ReplyDeleteThis film is one of my favourite movies and it is also a must.
ReplyDeleteWe come across so many references to it nowadays that we can miss the meaning of many things if we haven't watched it.
Apart from being an adventure story, the plot is also a journey into ourselves to find "The Horror, The Horror!"
This is a curiously election, Manuel, a perfect example of one of your favourits words: "oximorón". Apocalipse Now. Certanly, at first it sounds: "The end".
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, Óscar, I had never thought about the title as an oximoron. But you´re definitely right. It is a good example of one of my favourite words. Let´s hope it doesn´t stop being an oximoron. We´ll have to give up reading newspapers.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you write about oximorons in English? Please explain the concept with examples so our students can understand it.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best films in history, and one of the best films from Mr Coppola
ReplyDelete