Apocalypse Now
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Francis Ford Coppola's long overdue, substantially over-budgeted, $30 million Vietnam war epic, Apocalypse Now, was finally released in America in the summer of 1979. For director Coppola, the film threatened to become a personal Waterloo -- both financially and creatively. Originally budgeted at $12 million, Coppola risked his own assets, by borrowing $18 million against his homes, yacht, properties and residuals on prior films, in order to complete the project. He also seemed to lose control over the direction of the film, at one point admitting, "the film was making itself", and it is easy to draw parallels between difficulties in concluding the movie and those encountered in ending the actual war (Dowling 28). But Coppola survived the risky artistic adventure. Partially due to Coppola's reputation, and partially due to public expectations that Apocalypse would be the ultimate Vietnam film, the movie did draw enough people to the box office to prevent financial disaster. In fact, the film became a financial success. However, substance is another matter, and it is unlikely that Apocalypse Now will ever be considered as being among Coppola's better works. For a relatively long movie, two hours and ten minutes, the plot remained rather thin. The theme Coppola developed was that America's Vietnam involvement was insane - a journey into madness. At least, that was the intent. Originally, the script was based on Joseph Conrad's Hear
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heds no light on those causes, and that was the biggest flaw in the film.
The film does not touch on the official insanity of the war, to differentiate it from other wars. Certainly the Vietnam War inspired acts of independent madness, but overall the U.S. involvement was not a matter of thousands of independent madmen, each carrying out detached acts of insanity. For the most part, officers were directed, and followed orders. Coppola failed to even hint at why we were there, or that the decisions that put us there were insane. If a film about World War II were designed similarly, we would witness death and destruction in the absence of any reference to Hitler or Hirohito, without mention of Pearl Harbor, totally without case or purpose. That is the essence of Apocalypse Now. If anything, Coppola avoided exploring the most important insanity of all - public acceptance of violence as a legitimate policy tool. It is this that allows government officials to instigate a slaughter in an illegitimate cause, and escape criminal sanctions; it is this that inspires young men to report to active military duty, even when national security is not at stake.
Despite flaws in substance, Apocalypse Now does reflect technical innovation
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Approximate Word count = 1791
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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