Placement On Sight & Sound 50 Best Movies List: #14
Every single war in human history is a brutal affair from which no participant in it comes away unscathed. But the Vietnam War took on a whole other life of its own that made it a particularly gruesome affair. New innovations in cameras and TV news allowed people to see grisly first-hand footage directly from the battlefield, once that footage was actually allowed to be aired on TV that is. People were getting an up-close glimpse at the harshness of war for the first time and the fact that the Vietnam war ended in a loss for America only added a further layer of tragedy to what was already a cataclysmic affair.
Four years after this war ended, Francis Ford Coppola gave the world Apocalypse Now, a cinematic representation of the seemingly endless conflict from the eyes of Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen). He's a guy whose been engulfed in the ambiance of the Vietnam War for so long that he's no longer able to adjust to his surroundings whenever he returns home. There is nothing left in his being beyond the desire to continue the fight, to go on and rain hell down upon his enemies. He gets his wish to return to combat when he's sent off on a mission to kill Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a colonel whose gone rogue and is wanted for murder.
Benjamin L. Willard must travel down a long and winding river to reach Kurtz, a river that takes him through all of the deadly hardships that this war provides in spades. His journey is a terrifying one that offers no diluting of the horrors awaiting the souls who were shipped out into this war., Unexpected conflicts creep up around every corner, gunfire rains down like rain, there isn't a moment where Benjamin's life isn't on the cusp of being lost. Francis Ford Coppola goes to town and then some in the way he depicts the carnage of this war, putting together numerous sequences filled to the brim with warfare combat, all with a sense of scope fitting a war that seemed like it went on for an eternity for those fighting in it.
These wartimes scenes are not filled in a way that is supposed to elicit excitement from the audience, rather, they're obviously trying to depict the grotesque brutality that filled this war, never shying away from depicting the appalling atrocities that were common occurrences in the Vietnam War. In depicting all of these battles, one gets to witness some set pieces with extraordinary production values that stagger the mind. Coordinating all of the aerial transportation and numerous extras to move around on-screen in such a cohesive manner must have taken an eternity to put together and contemplating the amount of work that must have gone into all of this only left me constantly wondering how exactly they were ever able to film all of this.
In the midst of all those set pieces is Martin Sheen as the lead character. Then in his late-thirties, Sheen turns in a strong lead performance that makes great use of the characters isolated nature. For much of the movie, Sheen's character is trapped on a boat with a handful of far younger soldiers and their exuberance in the face of combat is emphasized by how well Sheen plays off the weary and disturbed Benjamin L. Willard. Robert Duvall (unrecognizable in his younger form) similarly leaves an impression in his limited screentime as a general who manages to carry his affinity for surfing even in the heat of battle.
And then, of course, there's Marlon Brando, a legend of the silver screen if there ever was one. He comes super late into the movie but he most certainly makes his presence felt once he enters the proceedings. Now, what's interesting to note about Brando's work here is that one of the most intriguing facets of his performance came about entirely by accident. Apparently, Marlon Brando showed up to the set of this movie significantly larger in terms of his weight than expected. Though something the crew couldn't have anticipated, it's actually something that fits the character of Kurtz perfectly. For so much of the movie, Willard has been poring over files detailing the past accomplishments and honors Kurtz had received before he went rogue and Willard quickly gathers the impression that this Kurtz guy must be someone truly special beyond belief.
After over two hours of building up Kurtz in both the minds of Willard and the audience as a mythic figure of grand importance, we finally get to see him and....he's just a normal schlubby looking dude. Brando's physique helps emphasize how Kurtz is far from extraordinary as a human being, he is an obviously deranged, psychopathic and rambling fool. This comes as a crushing blow to Willard who was looking for some sort of symbol of hope he could turn to in a war chock full of turmoil. But there is no sanity or clarity to be found in this war, just varying degrees of insanity. Apocalypse Now digs deep into all of that violence-covered craziness and winds up becoming an incredibly powerful movie in the process.
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