New Hollywood Series: Apocalypse Now

For this Memorial Day, and in continuation of the ongoing New Hollywood series here on Maverick at the Movies, today's episode features a condensed version of the two-disc, 96 minute the soundtrack to Apocalypse Now released by Elektra Records, trimmed to fit within the show’s length and edited to conform to FCC regulations on content. The soundtrack album is unique in that it includes the music, dialogue, sound effects, and narration, making the album play very much like a radio drama.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now was released in 1979 amid press stories of a chaotic shoot in south East Asia and the film had the distinction of being one of the first studio pictures to deal with the Vietnam War. Based on Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now tells the story of Captain Willard, an American soldier back on tour in Vietnam, who is given a secret mission to assassinate an American colonel who has gone insane deep within the South East Asian jungle. On Willard’s journey he confronts his own doubts about the war, his allegiance to his country, and even his own sanity.

The picture is structured to take its protagonist through the Vietnam War, but also through civilization, gradually stripping away social and technological signs of human advancement and returning man to a primal state of nature. By doing this film is able to take a look into the origins of violence and the nature of warfare, making Apocalypse Now a deeper exploration of the Thanatos drive.

As a technical exercise, Apocalypse Now has some great examples of visuals and sound working together. The helicopter attack is an iconic piece of film history with a sensory overload of explosions, camerawork, and music that satirizes the contemporary war film (and is quite clearly referenced—without irony—in Rambo: First Blood – Part II).

There are some great performances in the film. Marlon Brando gives the last great performance of his career as Colonel Kurtz, a tortured soul burdened with terrifying insight into the truth of war and the worst elements of human existence. Martin Sheen stars as Willard, a conflicted army captain who has lost his way in the amoral nature of warfare. Willard’s journey and his narration of the tale provides the film with direction and shapes the themes of the story, making them much clearer than if they were just presented visually and Sheen’s performance is the glue that holds the film together. Apocalypse Now also has some terrific supporting performances by Robert Duvall as the reckless Colonel Kilgore and Dennis Hopper as an eccentric photojournalist.

In 2001, Francis Ford Coppola released Apocalypse Now Redux, a re-edit of the film that adds nearly an hour of footage. Unlike some other director’s cuts, Redux adds entire new sequences that build upon the themes and further develop the characters. The most interesting addition is a sequence on a French plantation in Vietnam. Admittedly, the new scenes to grind the narrative to a halt in places, but Redux makes for an interesting alternative cut of the film.

While it’s one of the most controversial war films of all time, it’s also one of best, a film that mixes art house style with Hollywood spectacle to create an engaging and sophisticated portrait of modern warfare set against the primeval barbarity of human nature.