Yesterday I have seen Apocalypse Now, first time in my life... What is all about?

Question

Some deeper explanation than - It is about war...

Answer 1

its about war an the destruction

:> peace
.

Answer 2

Well you just watched the movie -- so what did you get out of it?

Obviously, Apocalypse Now is about the horrors of the Vietnam War. But you must have gotten more from the movie than that.

What did you discover about Kurtz (Brando) and WIllard (Sheen) and Kilgore (Duvall) as officers? What did the dawn helicopter attacks symbolize? What was the message of the government (USA & Vietnamize) regarding the war? What part did greed play? How do soldiers reconcile the need to search and destroy with the need to preserve life?

Come on -- put your little gray cells to work and really think about this film? It's a masterpiece of method filmmaking.

Answer 3

What's it about? War is hell, like all war movies. However, there's no denying the exhiliration of the "Ride of the Valkyries" helicopter attack on the Vietnamese village, the photography, editing and music are breathtaking in that scene. Like Saving Private Ryan, it shows that although war is hell, it can be damn exciting at times too.

It has a healthy dose of satire in the form of Robert Duvall's outrageously tough Air Cavalry leader (Writer/Director Coppola also wrote the Oscar-winning script for Patton).

You were probably confused by all the nonsense Marlon Brando was spouting at the end ("Horror and moral terror must be your friend...if not, they are enemies to be feared."). He improvised it all and it's not for us to understand, it's just to be enjoyed really. Dennis Hopper's rants also add to the weirdness of the film. I think it's a brilliant film let down by a bad ending. They didn't know how to end it, so they improvised and hoped it would come together, it didn't really. It became a bit of a meandering mess, but what went before is still filmmaking of the highest order.

Answer 4

Unfortunately, when you get polaticians involved in war, they start dictating silly rules of engagement. Since there was no declaration of war, Vietnam was a conflict.

Because Vietnam was a conflict and the role of US troops was a peace keepers, helping the legitimate government resist overthrow by the nasty communists (Sound Familiar?), the troops rules of engagement were political, rather than strategic. One rule, for a long time, stated that, since this was not a war, North Vietnam could not be bombed, or attacked. Another stated that US troops could not enter Cambodia, even though the VC (Communists) were using this as a springboard to launch attacks.

One US officer does not like this and goes bush, rounding up locals to help him and his troops, who also go crazy, to raid into Cambodia. He and his troops go totally renegade.

The US don't like this, nor that negative publicity which a public attack on this officer, who was now guilty of not following orders and, therefore treason, would bring.

They dispatch one PT boat to go down river and relieve said officer of command. Unfortunately, the Vietnam experience does not have a wholesome effect on it's participants and the arrest warrant turns out to be of the 9mm variety.

Good music as well.

Answer 5

Amazing film isn't it ?

This is what i personally think it shows.

The desensitising of human nature through war. Human beings are being removed of emotion by killing in such a way that isn't focusing on taking a human life but just killing to win. Removing human emotion is creating an animal like existence to humanity. It also shows for fear can drive people to worshipping whatever regardless of the morals and values behind them they will worship just to be saved just to be controlled. As humans have a need to be a leader or a slave. It shows how power can corrupt and affect humans to become barbaric. It shows the duality of man the bad and the good within all of us. Essentially all grown from war creating a post traumatic stress disorder but the film uses Kurtz to show the fatal floors in humanity and the effects of war and power on humans as a whole.

surprisingly its actual based on war veterans true accounts ... chilling

Answer 6

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American film about a soldier's journey during the Vietnam War. It was directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr. The script was inspired by Joseph Conrad's classic novella Heart of Darkness and T. S. Eliot's The Hollow Men.

Set during the Vietnam War, Apocalypse Now tells the story of Captain Willard, a taciturn American sent to infiltrate the compound of rogue United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter Kurtz, and terminate the colonel's command "with extreme prejudice"—in other words, kill him. The narrative of Willard's journey upriver and its culmination are studded with increasingly surreal and bizarre episodes, some of which, while seemingly unbelievable, are in fact based on real stories told to the filmmakers by Vietnam veterans . As the film continues, it becomes increasingly hallucinatory and unpredictable, to the point where Willard loses sight as to what he is supposed to be doing in the jungle, a clear and stated metaphor for what happened to the United States in Vietnam. Much like the novel on which it is based, many critics see the film's subtext as a journey into the darkness of the human psyche.

The film features performances by Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard (who is named Marlow in Conrad's novel), Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz, Dennis Hopper as a fast-talking hallucinogen-imbibing, burned-out photojournalist, and Robert Duvall in an Oscar-nominated turn as the gung-ho borderline-psychotic Lt. Colonel Kilgore. Several other actors who were, or later became, prominent stars had minor roles in the movie including Harrison Ford, G.D. Spradlin, Scott Glenn and Laurence Fishburne. Fishburne was only fourteen years old when shooting began in March 1976, and was credited as "Larry Fishburne." Apocalypse Now took so long to finish that Fishburne was seventeen (the same age as his character) at its release.

The movie became notorious in the entertainment press long before its release due to its lengthy and troubled production. Director Coppola financed the film completely with his own money, earned from the blockbuster The Godfather films, and faced the possibility of bankruptcy if the film was not a success. The making of the film was chronicled by Coppola's wife, Eleanor, in the book Notes and in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, which uses her documentary footage shot during principal photography. The tempestuous story of the film's production has now passed into Hollywood legend.

Answer 7

you need to read the book of revalations

The film refelects catastrophic upheaval in the context of the destruction of war and its destuction of the person consequential in war - the destruction of life and moral values are protrayed in the film holding out the vietnam war as a cataclysmis and violent event rflecting the end of humanity and the final judgement - a prophetic event

Answer 8

What becomes of human nature during war .

Answer 9

I think that some of the answers have danced around it, but the true answer is it is about the futility of war, order bred chaos and from chaos came order.

classic film that stays with you

Answer 10

The horror, the horror sums it all.

horror of war.