Apocalypse Now Redux Analysis

 Apocalypse Now Redux 

Co-written, Directed & Produced by: Francis Ford Coppola
Based on: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1979

This film is set in the Vietnam war (which was changed from the book) and the premise is simplistic, a soldier is sent to on a mission during a war to kill a Colonel who has won the trust of a local tribe and has gone insane. This plot is similar to 1917, but the depths with which they deal the subject matter is interesting. In the beginning, we see Willard's face upside down dissolved with shots of war, and they instantly tell us that he's going through PTSD. I wonder why they don't use dissolves anymore, I think it's an effective tool - Paterson used it wonderfully to portray poetry in images. The production felt surreal, the sets blowing up, the helicopters and the scale of the film was visible and audible too - the sound editing by Walter Murch was too good, especially the way they overlap sounds of a chopper and a fan in the first scene - again portraying his psyche and his PTSD.

I should've watched the theatrical cut first and then the Redux version, and the film also depends on some level of understanding of war and the setting from the viewers. I couldn't understand a lot of conversations in the film, but I could feel the film because of the visual language of the film. I'll revisit the film some other time when I have a better understanding of the context and war in general. The ending scene was a horrifying cut - this scene encapsulates how the film doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of war. I was more interested to watch this film, because of the story behind it - about how this film meant life and death to Coppola. I'm going to watch the documentary, Heart of Darkness, a Filmmaker's Apocalypse.