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Apocalypse Now Analysis

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Apocalypse Now Analysis
Apocalypse Now is based on Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness which is not about Vietnam. Heart of Darkness was written in 1902 and is about a journey up the Congo River into the heart of darkest Africa to find a power-crazed white trader named Kurtz. It is conceivable that an African tribe may have treated Kurtz as a god in the early days of colonization but I find it hard to believe the Montagnard tribesmen of Cambodia would have done so in the Vietnam War. And I don't really believe that in the Vietnam War soldiers were surfing while battles raged around them.
If you want to see movies about the Vietnam War I recommend the Oliver Stone movies Platoon, Born on the 4th of July and Heaven and Earth.
You should see Apocalypse Now for a spectacular depiction of the insanity of war and mankind in general. …show more content…
Coppola took note of this. 'The End' by the Doors is used to great effect in Apocalypse Now. Sixties rock music became de rigueur in movies about the Vietnam war.
Harrison Ford played a small role in Apocalypse Now, as he did in American Graffiti. His character was named G. Lucas.
Apocalypse Now could have been a classic but it is spoiled by a confused ending. Coppola brought in Marlon Brando to play Kurtz in the hope that he would repeat the success of his performance in The Godfather. Brando came in unprepared and improvised his role. The result was aimless mumbling and raving. Without Brando the movie would have been better and Coppola would have saved himself a lot of money and anguish.
Perhaps I am being too harsh in my criticism of Brando. Nobody could have saved the ending of Apocalypse Now. The real problem was that Coppola took on too much himself as producer, director, co-writer and financier. He even composed some of the music with his father Carmine. He really needed an independent producer to rein the movie
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