Apocalypse Now
Throughout the seventies , a pitch - black clowning about the Vietnam War directed by George Lucas morphed into a surreal cinematic odyssey through the Vietnam War directed by Francis Ford Coppola . Screenwriter John Milius accommodate the basic plot line of Joseph Conrad ’s literary classicHeart of Darknessinto the dense screenplay forApocalypse Now .
After a satanic output that give way overschedule , overbudget , and at times drifted into genuine participating warzones , Coppola turned out one of the greatest epics in film history . Revelation of Saint John the Divine Nowis arguably the best movie about the struggle , but while the war was rage on and beyond , plenty of chef-d’oeuvre got made about it .
Apocalypse Now Is The Best: The Filmmakers Went Through Their Own Vietnam Experience
During the bloodcurdling production ofApocalypse Now , the filmmakers went through their own Vietnam experience . Asthe qualification - of documentaryHearts of Darknesscan attest , they all went " insane " throughout the shoot .
Filming took station in actual warzones , actual human corpses were used or else of props , and Dennis Hopper got a 14 - twelvemonth - sometime Laurence Fishburne hooked on heroin .
Closest Contender: Hamburger Hill
While most Vietnam War movies utilize their story and characters in the circumstance of the entire war , Hamburger Hilltakes the opposite approach shot , pore specifically on one platoon carrying out one operation , which manager John Irvin uses as a microcosm of the entire conflict .
Irvin had previously shot a docudrama in Vietnam in 1969 , the yr in which this movie study place , so there ’s a shocking naive realism inHamburger Hill . It ’s a classical statement on the futility of war .
Apocalypse Now Is The Best: Heart Of Darkness Provided The Perfect Narrative Framework To Explore The War
It ’s a well - know fact that John Milius’Apocalypse Nowscreenplay was slackly accommodate from Joseph Conrad’sHeart of Darkness . The storyline of the U.S. Army sending a captain to murder a colonel was controversial , but it gave the flick a substantial narrative backbone .
Willard ’s journey up to Kurtz ’s frontier settlement in Cambodia provided Coppola with a pissed but flexible model to explore all the facet of the Vietnam War .
Closest Contender: Good Morning, Vietnam
Not every great Vietnam War moving-picture show is recite from the perspective of soldiers . In Barry Levinson’sGood Morning , Vietnam , Robin Williams star as Adrian Cronauer , a real - life disk jockey from the Armed Forces Radio Service who unwrap the mold of dry , uninteresting broadcaster by doing opinion and skit to entertain the troops .
As much fun as he has behind the mic , his time in Vietnam brings sober disclosure about the casualties of war . The collage set to Louis Armstrong ’s “ What a Wonderful humanity ” perfectly capsulise the movie ’s heartbroken stance on the warfare .
Apocalypse Now Is The Best: It Flows Like Visual Poetry
In two - and - a - one-half hours , Coppola does n’t waste a individual shape . The whole moving picture play out like one longsighted visual verse form , flowing seamlessly from one breathtaking , beautiful , haunting image to the next .
From napalm tearing up a jungle landscape to Willard ’s boozy meltdown to operatic displays of widespread furiousness , Coppola and his four editor program ( includingIn the Blink of an Eyeauthor Walter Murch ) cutApocalypse Nowperfectly .
Closest Contender: Platoon
Oliver Stone’sPlatoonhas the eminence of being one of the only Vietnam War movies made by a veteran of the Vietnam War . Stone made the film as a response toThe Green Berets , an adamantly pro - Vietnam War movie starring John Wayne , who did n’t process a Clarence Day of military service in his life .
Having actually serve in ‘ Nam , Stone had great deal of veritable , horrifying narrative to sabotage the nationalist myth peddled by Wayne ’s propagandic film . Platoonis one of the quintessential anti - war films along withPaths of GloryandAll Quiet on the Western Front .
Apocalypse Now Is The Best: It’s Morally Dubious
The ethics ofApocalypse Noware dubious , just like the ethics of the war itself . The graphic symbol who is technically the champion of the fib is driven by his loath seeking to assassinate one of his comrades .
American soldiers are seen blasting the music of Wagner ( Hitler ’s favourite composer ) from their helicopters as they shoot dozens of innocent Vietnamese civilians dead for playfulness .
Closest Contender: Full Metal Jacket
Stanley Kubrick ’s darkly comic Vietnam War epicFull Metal Jacketis split into two halves . The first half is set at rush camp as a drill sergeantplayed by real - life drill sergeant-at-law R. Lee Ermeystrips away every shred of identity from his newly recruited Marines as he prepares them to face the horrors of war .
The 2nd half pick out those recruits into Vietnam , where the loss of their individuality is get together by the loss of their man . The movie followsMatthew Modine ’s Private Joker , whose selection at the end is n’t a triumph , but rather a sign of the true horror of war .
Apocalypse Now Is The Best: It Reveals The Darkest Depths Of The Human Soul
Coppola ’s greatest accomplishment withApocalypse Nowis not recreating the horrors of the Vietnam War , but rather revealing the benighted depth of the human soul that only come out under the utmost circumstance of war .
Willard ’s fall into madness is a result of his wartime experience , but the moving-picture show take it beyond the context of warfare and digs into the human true statement buried in that craziness .
Closest Contender: The Deer Hunter
Michael Cimino’sThe Deer Hunteris over three hour foresightful and not a 2nd is wasted . Robert De Niro , Christopher Walken , and John Savage whizz as three small - townsfolk friends who get enlist to fight in Vietnam , are traumatized by their experiences ( including a flamethrower and a biz of Russian roulette ) , and come home irreparably changed .
The opening scenes enter their simple blue - collar spirit . Then , the Vietnam view — which only take up a small section of the film , but impart an unfaltering depression — depict all the injury that they ’ll channel with them for the rest of their lives . Then , after the war , they ’re all permanently damaged : De Niro comes home with survivor ’s guilt feelings , Savage comes home in a wheelchair , andWalken does n’t occur home at all .
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