"Apocalypse Now" is without question one of the greatest, most fucked up films of all time. It stands in a tie with "Full Metal Jacket" for me as the greatest war film put to tape (although if forced i'd have to choose FMJ, just because i'm a Kubrick loyalist.) The films are similar in the sense that they really aren't about the war at all, instead they are about the way that the war and the ides of war change the protagonists and warp/scar them in deep psychological ways. And both are what i'd call psychedelic films, although "Apocalypse" goes way further down that road than FMJ, getting into some seriously dark, brooding, competely removed mindfuck territory, like the heart of a bad acid trip. So it seems especially weird after seeing this fine documentary on the making of film, as we watch Francis Coppola mirror the road travelled by his protagonist Willard as he attempts to create "Apocalypse" and bring his bizarre, grandiose vision to life. I was enthralled with this film from the beginning-i love to see how things were made in the world of music and film and especially love seeing the process of the creators in the field-and it's just fucking crazy to see Coppola follow the film's path. it's pretty simple: he started out with a script and a true narrative structure (much like Willard starts out with a clear mission in the film) and by the end of shooting, Coppola is not working with a script at all, totally shooting nothing but improvised footage between Brando, Dennis Hopper and MArtin Sheen with no clear idea of an ending or a theme or anything (similar to the degeneration of all reality at the end of the film.) Along the way we get to witness ritual animal killings by native indians and surprisingly funny/candid interviews with people involved, including Dennis Hopper, George Lucas (who makes very apparent the differences between his style of filmmaking and Coppola's) and others. These guys are really upfront about what went on and how they were directed by Coppola and how they got into character (most often: alcohol and drugs-lots of both.) It's pretty amazing to watch Sam Bottoms not even begin to dodge the question of wheteher he acted in the film while on acid (he did.) And it's equally amazing to watch Mrtin Sheen push himself into his nether realms of openness via enormous alcohol consumption and then commit an amazing performance to film. It's almost scary how much this project cunsmumed these people, and how terrified Coppola was that he was making a bad film, a pretentious film that no one would want to see, when instead he created one of the greatest studies of psychology decay and all out psychedelic horror that we as film fans have ever been exposed to. Of course the film's success is it's vindication. It's easy to draw comparisons netween "Hearts of Darkness" and Les Blank's study of Herzog, "The Burden of Dreams"-both directors were absolute creative whirlwinds struggling against every obstacle, themselves included, to bring to life these gargantuan ideas and images because it was in their hearts and that is what they do. I find immense inspiration in Coppola's final words in the documentary, because i think it really says everything that needs to be said about film (and please don't fault me too much-i'm paraphrasing): "...and now with 8mm cameras some fat 8 year old girl in Ohio is going to create this beautiful film and be the next Mozart...and when the professionalism of making films finally gets broken down and destroyed, that's when it will really become art." Magnificent.
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