APOCALYPSE NOW

(August 1979, U.S.)

I am writing this post on Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 theatrical release of the film and NOT the totally unnecessary "Redux"...

This is without challange, one of the greatest war films ever made! Based loosely on Joseph's Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", it is more than just Vietnam combat and drama. It's a dark journey into the nightmare of the jungle and those who have succumbed to it's temptations and its evils. The stories behind it's notorious lengthy and troubled production became just as infamous as the film itself (see the documentary "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse"). It is, in my opinion, the last truly great film of Coppola's career. It's also a film with as many quotable lines to compete with the likes of CASABLANCA, GONE WITH THE WIND, JAWS, STAR WARS and ANIMAL HOUSE.

One of the special things about APOCALYPSE NOW is that it features my all-time favorite opening sequence. If you've never actually seen this film, let me try and describe the sequence for you now...

A slow fade-in to an array of jungle trees. The soft, distant, slow-motion whirl of a passing helicopter blade. The delicate beginnings of the song "The End" by The Doors. For a moment, the scene is quiet and still. As Jim Morriosn begins to sing, "This is the end...", the world we're looking at explodes into Hell with a mass of destructive fireballs. This is no longer a quiet jungle. This is the Vietnam War! A battle rages on until it slowly desolves onto the face of Martin Sheen, who is lying in an almost catatonic state, slowly smoking a cigarette. The story begins with his intense voice uttering the words, "Saigon...shit. I'm still only in Saigon."

The rest of the film cannot be justifyably discribed. It must be experienced with a degree of patience and a true love of film and filmmaking. It must be understood as one might understand a great painting and all of the love, hate, pain and anguish the artist felt while creating it.

(What can I say? It's one the great films of cinematic history! You either know it or you don't. You either love it or you don't.).

And now, a more personal story. One of my best friends of 20 years from college whom I shall call Greg, (because that's his name. He's also the one who took that picture of me grilling) loves war films and war history. APOCALYPSE NOW was the first film he and I (and some others) ever watched on video shortly after meeting some 20 years ago. I can still remember how enthralled and mesmerized he was while watching one of his favorite war films of all time. So, it is to Greg that I dedicate this post. Thank you for 20 years of close friendship, support, laughs, insanity, and the patient ear to listen to more crap from me than anyone should ever have to endure. I love you, man!

Favorite line or dialogue: (okay, in this case, an entire SPEECH!)

Col. Kurtz: "I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror... Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies! I remember when I was with Special Forces... seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate some children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out; I didn't know what I wanted to do! And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it... I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, my God... the genius of that! The genius! The will to do that! Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we, because they could stand that these were not monsters, these were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment! Because it's judgment that defeats us."