Feature Article on Coppola

             Apocalypse Now! – Just another war movie?
             At first glance, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now! seems to be just that – a lot of bombs, guns, and explosions. But his insightful interpretation of the actual experience of war hits a chord with many, and the in depth themes of the film offer a different perspective. Many areas of war are grey and ambiguous, and the film's very characters prove it, offering something of substance for the world's cinemas.
             The most obvious theme in Apocalypse Now! is the destruction of war. Right from the beginning, the very opening sequence impresses this upon the audience. A shot of a beach is seen to explode in a fiery blaze, along to the music and eerily relevant lines of "The End" by The Doors – "This is the end. The only end, my friend." And so the stage is set, for 197 minutes of death and destruction, which is an integral part of Coppola's realistic interpretation of war.
             Different characters, soldiers in the war, realise the destruction they wreak, and yet continue to speak in a violent manner, which belies their attitudes. Colonel Kurtz, for example, a military leader believed to have gone insane, shows his attitude towards the war through a tape-recorded voice over – "We must incinerate them [the Vietnamese]. Pig after pig, cow after cow, village after village, army after army." His destructive words show us that the Vietnam War became like a disease to those who fought in it, warping their minds and hardening their hearts. Willard, too, a soldier sent on a secret mission to eradicate Kurtz, comments on his order to assassinate, through his narrating voice over – "Charging a man with murder in this place is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500." He reflects on how death and murder were so commonplace, that punishing one scapegoat would do little to change anything.
             Yet one of the most ...

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Feature Article on Coppola. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 12:03, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/8746.html