Because this is so late, just thoughts on Apocalypse Now

First, sorry this is extremely late; I forgot the fact that the movie was still in fact something we were studying and thus we would have to write a blog post for it still. So since this is so late, I’m just going to spew out some of my thoughts about the movie.

-As Jon said in lecture, the movie is quite dense visually, more so in the beginning as Willard and his troop are at the start of their journey such as when they arrive at their first shore; there’s a film crew, people running around  , a flame throwing tank, helicopters, etc. Then the scenes with Kilgore are even more dense such as the ride of the Valkyries scene? They jump cut quickly to scenes of them shooting at the village, the villagers shooting back, the soldiers excited faces, vertigo-inducing POV shots of the helicopter racing through the sky. This all adds to the dizzying, dream like quality the film portrays.

-Another interesting thing Jon brought up was the aestethicthication (that is not correct spelling!) of violence. The ride of the valkyries scene can be considered beautiful; the addition of Wagner exalts the scene from its initial cruelty into something majestic. Even the controversial animal sacrifice scene could get considered. You don’t really want to look at it happening, yet it still has a mesmerizing quality as it is shown next to Kurtz’s murder which is also beautiful in a way; by comparing the killing of the cow to the killing of Kurtz, it to is exalt from its initial cruelty, now to something highly symbolic and charged, appropriated to a new idea different from its original. Kurtz’s murder is varying shots between Willard swinging his machete, through the half-light and Kurtz swinging, bloodied through the darkness; it is a highly cinematized, chorea graphed death, thus beautified.

-the movie was also much more clear about the ironies inherent in the portrayed ‘superior’ people (in this case the Americans) than Heart of Darkness. both Willard and Kurtz continuously comment on the hypocrisies of the army (soldiers can’t write ‘fuck’ on their helicoptors because it is obscene yet they are taught to drop napalm) and we see how idiotic and unserious some of them are about war like Lance openly sunbathing on the boat or Kilgore trying to catch a good wave after destroying a village, complaining that the dropped napalm ruined the wave.

well, I think that’s it for now, so, so long and thanks for Arts One, as this is my last blog post, this is the end, my only friend, the end…