Apocalypse Now

[Zzzptm]

JtS asked the question, "Apocalypse Now or Platoon"...

Now I want to vent a little about Apocalypse Now...

I liked Sheen and all the actors on the riverboat. That was cool to watch. Robert Duvall was killer.

But two things pretty much ruined the film:

1. Marlon Brando
2. THE SOUNDTRACK

Brando's failings are well documented and the outtakes in the documentary about Apocalypse Now are hilarious when he just decides he's done mumbling for the day and wanders off. The SNL parody of the making of the movie is also great fun. Honestly, they could have done MUCH better if they put Duval in as Kurtz and gotten some other guy to do the Air Cav Colonel role, plenty of brass-hat types in Hollywood, but Duvall has excellent depth when playing characters that have gone off the deep end - consider his work in The Apostle as a shining example of that capability.

But... THE SOUNDTRACK... How much cheese is it possible to cram into one synthesizer? And am I the only one that goes up the wall every time it gets played? Why couldn't they have gone for South Vietnamese psychedelic rock tunes from the era? They would have made a perfect foil for the American/Western tunes used and would have played up the whole losing your way in the jungle theme.

It's interesting that the two movies I thought did a better job of the Heart of Darkness theme were both Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski efforts, and one of them inspired Coppola in making the film: Aguirre The Wrath of God was the inspiration and Cobra Verde was the one that, by far, does the best job of telling the Heart of Darkness story. Kinski even looks like the way Kurtz is described in Joseph Conrad's novella.

[Charger]

Yeah can't argue with anything...

I always found this movie to be one of the most overrated movies in history...along with Casablanca...But atleast Casablanca had Ingrid Bergman

Like I said in the other thread the length is what really destroys this movie...if Coppola would have just forgot his pompous side and tried to actually just tell a good story he would have cut the length to 2h max and it would have worked well...but now he just jumped straight off the deep end into the never ending muddy swamp of pseudo artistic sludge.

[Zzzptm]

Hey, I *like* Casablanca!

I agree about the length. The whole story could be told in 90 mins, but he had to add in tons of window dressing that really wasn't needed, or could have been a completely different film. The USO performers, for example. They didn't advance the plot at all, but there they are, doing their performance, getting evacuated, and then coming under fire later on. That's a totally separate movie. The AirCav scenes - iconic moments, but are simply out of the main narrative.