Awe-Inspiring Look into Apocalypse Now Redux

[BicycleTree]

Never until now have I seen Apocalypse Now. It was Apocalypse Now redux, with some extra scenes in it.

This movie is wonderful. Awesomely wonderful. The whole experience is magic. You have to see it and appreciate it.

It does not follow Heart of Darkness very closely. I see that malaria has been replaced by violence and the whole theme of soft decay of human edifice has disappeared, replaced by human insanity. Also, most of the characters have names; a big point in Heart of Darkness was that only Kurtz and one other person (forget who) were named.

The scene where the colonel attacks with his helicopters blaring music is powerful. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I could feel both impulses rising in me, but with effort I did neither, because it was depiction of human slaughter. Usually when someone says they do not know whether to laugh or cry, it means that something very happy has just occurred relieving a long pain. But in this case, I wanted to laugh at it because it was all so incongruous, so strange, and I felt like crying because it was all so assaultive to the senses, so impossible and shattered.

 

[marlon]

I Love the smell of Napalm in the morning

marlon

 

[zoobyshoe]

A well written review BT. I think you articulately captured some essential reactions most people have to that movie.
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I have an old wallet I stopped using years ago, but tucked into one of the pockets is a very tattered, almost illegible piece of paper, that I was required by law to have with me at all times for a couple years back when I was in high school: a draft card.

The card was proof you were registered for the draft. It wasn't to be feared so much as the ranking of birthdays. A person's chances of being drafted were determined by pulling the days of the year out of a big jar one by one, once a year. If the first date they pulled out was, say, July 4, then all the guys with that birthday who turned 18 that year were dead meat. They were the first ones who'd be drafted that year.

They continued till all 365 days were pulled. The more toward the beginning of the process your birthday came out of the jar, the more likely you were to be drafted. The more toward the end, the safer you felt.

The year I turned 18, my birthday, April 1st, was the 354th birthday pulled. I had almost no chance of being drafted.


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As for quotes from the film, this bit of dialog has always stayed with me:

"Are you an assasin?"

"I'm a soldier."

"You're neither. You're a delivery boy, collecting a bill, for a bunch of grocery clerks."

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[Echo 6 Sierra]

Charlie don't surf!

 

[zoobyshoe]

The horror! The horror![/color][/size]

 

[marlon]

horror has a second name...

 

[loseyourname]

Never until now have I seen Apocalypse Now. It was Apocalypse Now redux, with some extra scenes in it.

This movie is wonderful. Awesomely wonderful. The whole experience is magic. You have to see it and appreciate it.

It does not follow Heart of Darkness very closely. I see that malaria has been replaced by violence and the whole theme of soft decay of human edifice has disappeared, replaced by human insanity. Also, most of the characters have names; a big point in Heart of Darkness was that only Kurtz and one other person (forget who) were named.

Marlowe was the other character named in Heart of Darkness. This has been my favorite movie (either this or The Graduate) since I first saw it when I was 15 or so.