‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning…’
There are films that you love and films that are great. Occasionally the two overlap. I consider the crowning glory of all cinema to be 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now and the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings. They aren’t my favourite movies. I’ve only returned to each of them a handful of times. But they exude an artistry that is unmatched anywhere else. Apocalypse Now is a film that I can only sit down with once a decade, but every time I do I am staggered by its ambition, its splendour and most of all its beautiful, terrible darkness…
The magnificence of Apocalypse Now stems from the fact that on the surface it’s a very simple film. Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is tasked with travelling deep into the Cambodian jungle to retrieve a rogue Colonel who has seemingly gone insane (Marlon Brandon). That’s pretty much it. But sitting just out of sight of the basic plot like a gargoyle atop a church spire is the horror. Oh, the horror.
Loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now attempts to somehow make sense of man’s deepest and darkest desires. The bottom of the truth is that the darkness, the horror, never ends. Kurtz understands this from the start, and by the end, Willard understands it too. Throughout the film, Willard is haunted by the ghost of Kurtz. You can see it in Sheen’s eyes. The thousand-yard stare. Indeed, the behind-the-scenes stories for Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece (this is different to his other masterpiece, of course) are legendary. Sheen had a nervous breakdown and a heart attack during the shoot and was regularly reduced to tears. A typhoon destroyed most of the sets. Dennis Hopper and Marlon Brando nearly came to blows. This adversity is what makes Apocalypse Now what it is, however. An unimpeachable triumph. A sensational gem. Truly cinema as art. It’s there in the sound design. The seamless editing. The masterful use of light and shadow. This is Vietnam noir. Pure cinema.
As I finish this review I know that I will depart the Cambodian jungle not to return for at least another decade. But in idle moments, the sound of a ceiling fan or the smell of cognac perhaps, Apocalypse Now will come roaring back to me. Like any great film, it sits on your shoulder. You can never truly shake it off.