Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Few days back, I got in a little tussle with Preacher Powell here, one of our TalkBackers who's finally gone over the wall and sent us something to post. He was hanging around some of the younger henchmen, showing them these knuckle tattoos of his and generally being all creepy-like. Following a brief exile, Preacher Powell and I had a meeting and buried the hatchet, and now... here he is... a banned TalkBacker back from the dead with something to say... proof positive that we CAN all just get along.
Except for TheWarrior. He's an ass.
APOCALYPSE NOW: REDUX
He may have been a movie brat, but he was a master of his art. Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola's pessimistic look at the limitless darkness of man's heart has lost nothing in twenty two years. I saw it here in France earlier this week. They ran the Pearl Harbor trailer before it, and I laughed about that later. Now amount of fancy CGI could prevent Pearl Harbor from already looking dated next to this, a colossus of a war movie. For every Coppola there's a Michael Bay.
Seeing Apocalypse Now again after some years was like paying a visit to an old friend. Watching scene after enthralling scene was like re-living old times that left me with indelible memories. From the moment the tail of a helicopter first steals across the screen, it is clear why this is considered a modern classic. A billow of flame engulfs the jungle, silent save for the ethereal voice of Jim Morrison. A little swarm of helicopters announces its arrival over a village with the glorious horns of Wagner and a hail of multicolored explosions. A mad lieutenant who loves the smell of napalm in the morning. A burnt-out captain muses on a decorated genius who "got off the boat." A chilling voice and a glimpse of a face in a dark room.
Never hitting one false note, Coppola fills a great movie with a great cast. Martin Sheen gives a career-defining performance which reminds us why he is the president and Charlie is just the deputy mayor. Robert Duvall chews any scenery left untouched by the napalm, and while reportedly troublesome on set, Dennis Hopper does well in reminding us that here's a villain who can turn a photojournalist into a jittery loon. Since Coppola did not foresee his villain being overweight, he had to shoot Brando mostly from the chest up and in darkness, and Kurtz fills the screen. "I am a little man," says Hopper; I am a little man, echoed this reviewer watching Brando.
What of the new scenes? Aside from a second, hilarious encounter with the Playboy bunnies, in which young, stringy Larry Fishburne is the standout, the feverish, menacing atmosphere is eased with a stop at a French plantation. The related scenes that follow offer some breathtaking imagery (such as when there hosts first appear in swirling, unfurling mist). A French woman circling Willard as he lies in bed foreshadows a later shot of Kurtz and a caged Willard, but also gives Willard (and the viewer) something else to think about for the remainder. In an unexpected surprise, Kurtz gets a new scene in broad daylight, which actually works well as it adds to his enigma and subtracts some of the pretentiousness. Overall, the new scenes provide momentary relief from the tension and introduce new moods, and work well.
Whether or not you're watching the 'Redux' version, Apocalypse Now remains a lesson in getting it right, even if it takes you sixteen months instead of sixteen weeks to do so, and a testament to the visionary genius that Francis Ford Coppola was and hopefully still is. I love every minute of it.
