Movie Review: Apocalypse Now, By Carlos A. Calderon

APOCALYPSE NOW

(Movie review)

By Carlos Andres Calderon Valencia

This movie tries to take the audience into those years of war with an environment of destruction, violence and horror; Apocalypse Now, was directed and produced by the American director Francis Ford Coppola, in 1979, five years later after the war in Vietnam. The cast of characters was formed by Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest Dennis, Hopper Harrison Ford and Scott Glenn.

The movie is developed in Vietnam, when a commandant named Willard has an important mission: kill the Coronel Curt, who has become completely crazy. Willard would have to travel by boat in the river that flows into the Cambodia’s frontier, accompanied by four more soldiers.

The way I see it, all of the actors of the movie, portray their role in a very strong way, especially Marlon Brando (as the Coronel Curt) and Martin Sheen (As the Captain Willard), who are the main characters of this violent story during the Vietnam war. The Coronel Curt, was a completely crazy man, but inside his insanity he had another conception about war and even about life itself. Willard, on the other hand, was a man really brave, he seemed to be very clear with his duty, and he did not have time for distractions or having fun.

Regarding to film techniques used in the movie, I have to say that they were amazing, even during the long trips by the river, the camera angles were perfectly filmed and also the ones in the aerial attacks by helicopters. The cuts between each scene were accurate, every transition for the next scene was well structured and well defined.

Apocalypse Now conveys the environment of the Vietnam war and involves the audience into the drama that the main character has to live. He has his mind involved into the horror of the war and the dilemma about what to do when he faces the Coronel by first time. All the misery left by this cruel war is conveyed in the most real and also cruel way possible during the whole movie.

Although the movie conveys his main idea completely real, there are some moments of the story which are not quite clear and it turns confusing, in other words, it is difficult to understand some scenes because they are not clearly connected with the plot of the movie.

You must be an open minded person to watch this kind of movies in order to enjoy, to understand and appreciate Apocalypse Now, which is not a commercial flick. It can be boring after a while you start watching it, but the end of the story is shocking and you will feel as the USA soldiers felt fighting this war in the 70´s, you will understand better how cruel and how hard was the war especially for Vietnamese people.