1)
Relate
what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.
Have you ever seen
a movie or show that you just wanted to end already, not because you did not
like it but because you wanted to know how it ends? Well then you probably have watched Apocalypse Now at some
point. We have reached the
end of the seventies and the beginning of movies from our modern era. With more gruesome violence and
language, this movie gives you and inside look at not only what the war in
Vietnam looked like but also the fears and worries of those stuck in the middle
of the crossfire. Movies during
the seventies were freer to use real life themes like war and violence.
Set
during the Vietnam War, those of us who were not alive at the time just get to
assume this is how hard it was.
Arial strikes for breakfast, and ambush for lunch and dinner and all-out
battle. It seemed wherever you
went you had to fight for your life and some lost that battle. The movies themes are all
dark. Throughout film history, we
have seen that many directors during the 40s and 50s tried to stay lighter but
by the sixties directors were not afraid to show real life. Although fictional, movies like The
Graduate, The Godfather and Apocalypse Now somehow all managed to deal with
real life.
The
movie, that is rather long deals with a secret mission that begins by showing
the desperation of an off-duty soldier, or captain The movie narrated by Martin Sheen’s character let’s us go
inside the mind of someone in a dangerous mission throughout a dangerous place.
Plagued
by many production issues, including health issues, Martin Sheen suffered a
heart attack in the middle of shooting postponed much of filming and the
ultimate release of the film.
2)
Find a
related article (on the film, director, studio, actor/actress, artistic
content, etc.) and summarize the content.
You may use the library or the Internet.
Apocalypse Now is a movie that is all
about controversy. Not only is it
set during one of the most controversial wars in American history, it also
deals with a controversial military captain that goes crazy, but most of all
production dealt with their own controversy. According to the article, The maddest movie ever: Why Apocalypse Now is the finest film of modern
times by Tony Rennell, the craziness and madness surrounding the film is
what makes it a genius work of art. “Chaos” was the word Martin Sheen used to describe what he
felt while on set filming Apocalypse Now (Rennell, 2009). The film, whose final product can be
described as a marvelous adventure of a movie that takes you from the mind of a
soldier to the perils of being engulfed in a dangerous war, didn’t seem to have
a straight direction.
During an
interview, director Francis Ford Coppola admitted that at times he did not know
where he was taking the movie that little by little they “went insane”
(Rennell, 2009). Weather also caused delays in productions; winds almost
destroyed their set in the Philippines.
The movie seemed to not have the best luck, many A-list actors did not
even want to participate, which drove Coppola near insanity allegedly throwing
out his five Oscar statues out his window (Rennell, 2009).
When Sheen was
brought in to star in the film, he had demons of his own to battle like
alcoholism and halfway through filming Sheen suffered a heart attack. This brought Coppola near crisis, having
invested his own money to the film, he was loosing badly. The madness of the entire movie making
process kind of of seeps it’s way into the emotion and one can feel how this
war can make one go mad.
3)
Apply the article to the film screened in
class. How did
the article support or change the way you thought about the film, director,
content, etc.?
An adventure is always fun, but the
mission Captain Willard was sent on was a mad one. He was to “terminate with extreme prejudice”. The movie is extremely prejudice in it’s
own right by only showing the American side of everything. But we did see the harsh strikes that
plagued the people of Vietnam.
The article really put the mood of the film in context for me. I felt as though that the movie had
some type of insanity in it that made all the more real. You can just feel that with the mystery
surrounding his mission he was slowly but surely going mad as well. Not knowing anything about what he has
to do, what he was going to do or he was going up against was driving Captain
Willard insane.
Controversy usually follows some of the
most prolific movies throughout history. From It Happened One Night, and the way women dressed and the
rules place on films, to Citizen Kane and William Randolph Hurst to The
Graduate and the release from any type of limitations. If the darkness during production did
not follow the film I do not think the emotion and mood would be the same for
the film.
The film also does a good job of showing
the gruesome deaths of civilians and soldiers. The ambush attacks were filled with not only excitement but
nervousness as well. Once the number in the group began to
dwindle down one began to increasingly get worried that everyone was going to
die. Whether it was the mood on
set or the mood created on film, the madness is prevalent throughout the entire
three hour long film.
4)
Write a critical analysis of the
film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of the
screening, class discussions, text material and the article.
In one of my favorite and least favorite scenes is where “Mr. Clean” is
killed after hearing a voice message from his mother and how she is
anticipating his return. It is one
of the saddest most melodramatic scenes that really hits the audiences. You can see the tensions on that ship
as one by one group members being killed off by the “enemy”.
Apocalypse Now is a film that could be a lot shorter, but its marvelous
mind games makes it one of the top movies we have seen this semester. Apart from being an adventure, action
movie it is a psychological movie.
You go into the mind of a soldier trapped in Vietnam in what seems to be
a suicide mission, where you don’t know where you are going, what or who awaits
who or even a plan of what you are going to do. One can definitely understand why this film is always
rated as one of the top films of modern times, from it’s scenery to mood
setting it’s a movie that makes you feel for every character. While watching the movie you can’t help
but go insane little by little.
And that’s a wrap.
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM
1) ( x ) I
have not handed in this assignment for any other class.
2) ( x ) If I reused
any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly
explain that in the paper.
3) ( x ) If I used any passages word for word, I
put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the
text.
4) ( x) I have not padded
the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text
of the paper.
5) ( x ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I
personally read.
6) (x ) I have
used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another
way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.
7) ( x ) I
did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or
originality.
8) ( x ) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been
fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.
Name: ______Juan Ortiz______________ Date: ______5/12/14____________
Reference:
Rennell,
Tony. "The maddest movie ever: Why Apocalypse Now is the finest film of modern
times." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 5 Dec. 2009. Web. 11 May 2014.
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1233293/The-maddest- movie-Why-Apocalypse-Now-finest-film-modern-times.html>.
No comments:
Post a Comment