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 Hollywood.
Damn, I'm still only in Hollywood.
Every time,
I think I'm gonna wake up in the middle of a terrible movie. I thought
it was bad last year, but this year, it's worse. It's been weeks
now, just waiting for a great movie. My brain keeps getting softer.
Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, while every minute
a bad movie makes a lot of money at the box office, a hack producer
gets stronger.
Everyone gets
everything they want. I wanted a great movie, and for my sins they
gave me one. It was a real choice movie, and when it was over, I'd
never look at movies the same way again. I was going to see a new,
longer version of "Apocalypse Now," Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece
and what is undoubtedly one of the greatest, most intensely provocative,
mesmerizing, and haunting movies ever made.
It's no secret
that "Apocalypse Now" was plagued by production problems unlike
any a director had ever seen (or would see again until James Cameron's
"Titanic" in 1997). In fact, those problems--a typhoon that destroyed
the sets, a budget that spiraled out of control, a script that didn't
have an ending, a shoot that lasted 238 days, and a star who had
a heart attack in the middle of principal photography--were preserved
for all to see in Eleanor Coppola's engrossing 1991 documentary
"Hearts of Darkness." Ultimately, it didn't matter. It was all worth
it. The adversity paid off with a film that ended up being the cinematic
equivalent of a religious experience.
Loosely based
on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," "Apocalypse Now" tells the
story of Willard (Martin Sheen), an emotionally battered US soldier
who drinks himself into oblivion while awaiting orders for his next
mission. He finally gets one, and boy is it a doozie. Deep in the
heart of the Cambodian jungle, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando)
has broken from the program and is recklessly commanding a group
of renegade soldiers who worship him like a God. Willard's orders
are to proceed up the Nung River into Cambodia, infiltrate Kurtz's
compound, and terminate the Colonel "with extreme prejudice." As
he sets out on his journey, Willard becomes fascinated by what he
learns about Kurtz, but in the process, he confronts his own heart
of darkness amidst the horror, the horror of the Vietnam war.
The original
version of "Apocalypse Now," which came out in 1979 and clocked
in at about 2 1/2 hours, contains what has to be some of the most
shocking images in Hollywood history. Who can forget Colonel Kilgore's
(Robert Duvall) ambush on the Vietnamese village with "Ride of the
Valkyries" blasting from his attack helicopters? Who can forget
the riot that ensues after a morale boosting USO visit by Playboy
Playmates spirals out of control? Who can forget the haunting and
hallucinatory images at the Do Lung Bridge, the last outpost before
Willard and his crew find themselves in no man's land? Finally,
who can forget the moment of truth, when Willard finally confronts
an insane Kurtz, whose ominous, bulky figure weaves in and out of
the shadows?
As if the
original version wasn't effective enough, the new version--renamed
"Apocalypse Now Redux"--is something of a holy grail for movie buffs.
By remastering the sound and restoring 53 minutes of additional
footage, Coppola accentuates what was already an enormously engrossing
experience to begin with. The four new scenes--the theft of Kilgore's
prized surfboard, a romantic encounter with the Playboy Playmates,
a stopover at a Flying Dutchman-like French plantation, and Kurtz's
mockery of a news report heralding the end of the war--allows the
film to reach bold new political and narrative heights.
If there's
any character who benefits the most from the restored footage, it's
Martin Sheen's Captain Willard. In the original release, he was
simply an observer--a passive character whose only real action took
place at the end of the film. In the new version, he's much more
proactive, beginning with his theft of Kilgore's surfboard and culminating
with his seduction of a young widow (Aurore Clement) at the French
plantation. The problem is that even though he was emotionally detached
in the original version, at least he was consistent. In the new
version, he blows hot and cold, bonding with his crew one minute
and shutting them out the next. It's hardly a complaint, but it
is worth mentioning.
After the
death of Mr. Clean (Laurence Fishburne), the crew--now consisting
of Willard, stoned-out surfer Lance (Sam Bottoms), strung-out saucier
Chef (Frederic Forrest), and morally-bound Chief (Albert Hall)--encounters
what appears to be an abandoned village along the river. Like ghosts
from the past, a group of French soldiers welcome them and offer
to bury their dead. The patriarch of the compound (Christian Marquand)
invites the crew to dine with them, but he soon ends up lecturing
them for fighting "for the biggest nothing in history." It's a powerful
scene that gives the film tremendous political depth, and it's easy
to see why Coppola left it out of the original release.
There's no
doubt that the making of "Apocalypse" took the wind out of Francis
Ford Coppola's sails, and as a result, many would argue that on
a creative level, he--like Kurtz--simply got off the boat. Coppola
would never again reach the artistic nirvana that he achieved in
the 70's with "The Conversation," both "Godfather" movies, and "Apocalypse
Now," and in that sense, it's safe to say that the rest of Hollywood
got off the boat as well. The new revolution that defined the decade
was over, and in its place was a more conservative mindset that
focused on the bottom line. That wouldn't have been such a bad thing
if these new filmmakers didn't forget one important rule: When making
movies, never get off the boat.
Never get
off the boat? Absolutely Goddamn right.
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