@@andreao3879 yea I try to forget about that ha .... he's much more likeable as Capt. Willard . Also , as trivia the opening scene of the film he was actually drunk and punched that mirror and cut his hand . Coppola just kept filming his emotional breakdown . And all that was beFORE his heart attack during production there in the Phillipines . Masterpiece of cinema.
This movie still looks brand new, as if it was made yesterday. Brilliant scene; hypnotic, full of mystery, mood, atmosphere. Perfect music. Coppola was the preeminent director of 1970's cinema.
Absolutely, I was thinking the same thing . Sadly ,forty years on ,the genius of Collins shines through even more.And ,those that do get it ? Will understand, not just Coppolas subconscious vision of seeing who the true enemy is? With the classic veneer of Hollywood smoke,mirrors and napalm? Too sell the movie to the millions of blood and gut freaks!. It is now as famous as Conrads original 'heart of darkness' And nearly a hundred fifty years ago ? That was as controversial then with the MAD IMPERIALISTS trying to change and control people..AND maybe if you do understand that ? Then maybe we all understand Kurtz? And maybe we all right now, are facing the real Apocalypse Now.
Yep. Coppola was one of those directors that would tell prop guys to type the whole thing up as if it were real, even if it only showed on camera for a second or two. That's one way you make a movie like this.
Yes...the music. Oh that creepy music. I can still sit through this movie ANY time I see it on...that music just has always crept me out. Just like I'm sure the real Vietnam conflict went, there is/was always this underlying chaos...that at any minute things could go extremely south. Like when Kurtz talks about the VC cutting off the inoculated arms of vaccinated children...simple, yet effective...and if that was for the movie, imagine what they did in real life...phew...💀💀💀
I saw this movie in my early 20s on PBS . Taped it and watched it over and over wishing we coulda seen it on the big screen. Then it came out Redux and we got to see it.... in IMAX ! WOW!
Max Frankow Barely anything America has done is something to be proud of. I’ve read books by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, and they’re all critical of America’s crimes.
Concur, Coppola makes the exposition early, since he knew he had to, to tie the fantastic & fanciful story all together. FFC tortured himself to the point of suicide to make the THE Vietnam movie, realizing all the elements would fade if he didn't do it. Coppolla knew the audience does not give a flying fuck what it took to make it, but only the final cut - and the proof is that the re-release on 2001 did it worse, but no one cared! All of us knew A.N. stands the test of time & stands alone as a true and brilliant work then as now!
jennifersman, Me too. One of my My favorite part in movie and most memorable part as well. I found the scene very fascinating and have played it over again and again ! I like when Willard read's it in voice over narration and you hear the spooky music in background as well !
yes, mine too, absolutely... without the part where Willard morphs into Kurtz's ideology, there is no story. As tortured as he was during the production, Coppola knew this much: you'd have to throw all the military part away, completely, for it to work as a story. So Willard abandons any allegiance to US Mil starting with the Kilgore helicopter attack scene. It all had to go, since nothing after that made any sense otherwise! IF Willard had been a true US Army officer, he'd have killed Kurtz the second he could have done it (but even this is addressed in the movie! As Kurtz has his montagnards grab Willard, put him in a cage, and brainwash him indefinitely - so that might have affected anyone's mind-set).
My father, despite being Army, looked at the Air Force with hungry eyes. He saw suits and ties, a casual first-name basis with officers, and a much better standard of living and thought "damn, I wish I'd done that". He called them the "Corporation that Kills" and told me and my brother that if we ever enlisted, do it with the USAF
@@MrHorimiya its just a euphemism to emphasize the changing attitude both civilians and soldiers felt toward the military during this war. A lot of people against the war blamed the military and top brass for lying which came out even more with the Pentagon Papers. The game was rigged from the start.
@@CuttySobz I did airborne training at 22 years old in 1999 in July, and it was brutal. 38 years old in the 1960s? No thanks! The original comment is no exaggeration, as airborne training is both physically & mentally challenging.
Absolutely right, you can understand why those young soldiers were dropping acid , smoking weed and whatever? Having to face? Not just death at any moment but, just having to survive the tropical environment would have been a living hell. What made me chuckle about your comment was! back in the small town in the UK , where I come from , the young people are dropping acid ! Just to face having to pop down the shops nowadays....True hahahaha..
Apparently Willard was bad-ass enough to not fall under Kurtz's spell like the other 'assassins' sent to terminate his command. Willard represented the type of men Kurtz wanted to win the war, except Willard hasn't slipped quite as far down the rabbit hole. While Willard's character is indeed showing signs of trauma, he's been able to adapt and carry on. He still shows concern for others when he keeps an eye on tripping Lance, gets the Playmates for Chief's boat crew, and decides to escort Chef on his search for mangos. "You'd better let me go with you." Willard being able to sense a tiger about to ambush shows his survival/kill senses are razor sharp.
Willard did NOT fall into the Kurtz demise as he detached himself from the horror. Kurtz embraced it and it devoured him. As Willard says, "there was only 2 ways out for Charlie . . . death or victory." For Kurtz, it was a lose - lose situation as the military machine burnt its own garbage. Kurt's two ways out were either at the hand of the assassin or napalm. The grocery clerks like the Mafia chieftain:s ALWAYS collect.
All this is true until he just cold blooded killed the innocent injured girl in the boat instead of saving the girl's life. Willard was still a soldier and followed orders until the end.
@@healthycigarettes5088 He warned Chief DO NOT stop the boat plus he wasn't the one that wounded her-Mr. Clean did. Willard's narration then said "We cut them in half with a machine gun and try sticking a BandAid on them." He knew saving the girl would just produce another VC down the line killing GI's.
What I like about it iis how Willard evolved to the point where he agrees with Kurt's methodology. He becomes more and more like Kurtz as he travels up the river.
I heard from vets that Nam seemed to change them. Turn saints to savages. My cousin was a Seal in the Iraq war and he changed so much that I never speak to him. He turned cold to all.
I think the whole point of the movie is that those guys who send Willard on this trip say that Kurtz is operating with no restraint or ethics. Which is exactly how the war was being fought. Insane people accusing someone else of being insane. Kurtz was, but it’s ironic they can’t see it in themselves.
Indeed. Williard represents 'us', the viewer, and the Kurtz/Williard dynamic is raising the issue of whether we should indeed become 'like Kurtz' to win the war, or accept defeat, kill Kurtz, and so save ourselves like how Williard eventually did. The ultimate moral point of the movie is that if winning requires becoming like Kurtz, is it worth it to win at all?
@@jeffreycavanaugh1693 And it’s the same message he’s sending to his superiors. Either do what it takes to win or get the hell out of Nam. Considering what Kurtz became, we all know he’d prefer the latter.
I always thought this scene was creepy. Seeing the successes of Kurtz, and seeing how much respect he had, it was hard to foresee someone like him go mad. So many questions, so many unknown obstacles ahead, I find it downright terrifying. Imagine yourself, Capt. Willard. Your mission is to terminate Kurtz, an insane man, who's past hits you in the face like a bullet. And the thought "how the hell am I gonna do this?" comes in your head. What are you going to do?
Kurtz wasn't mad. He correctly evaluated what was required to win the war. That was the point of showing how smart and capable he was. Those waging the war didn't want to do what it would take to win. Whether or not what Kurtz was doing was distasteful or not, the insanity was expecting to win a war with methods/objectives that were not going to win it.
@@executivelifehacks6747 I completely agree with you, and I didn’t think he was engaging in wanton brutality either. He spent months tracking down the right spies in his area before killing them, after that enemy attacks were reduced to nothing. He was protecting the local population and avoided killing the wrong people. In regards to the heads when we meet him in his camp, I tend to think they were enemy casualties decapitated after the fact for theatric terror effect, essentially propaganda. He was training his own Army using native troops, which could then be replicated by another native leader trained by Kurtz. Improbable as it may seem, something like that,l could reasonably turn the tide of the war, if the army had to let him operate by himself. He became obsessed with the mission and in the end he couldn’t carry on.
FUN FACT: The photographs of young Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) that Cap. Willard is viewing in the dossier are actually pictures from the movie Reflection in a Golden Eye (1967) which Marlon Brando starred in along with Elizabeth Taylor. Francis was wise to use close up photos of Marlon potraying an army official from his early film work. Certainly fooled me :D.
Reminds me of a guy in high school. His grades were perfect. 100% in physics class while I got 51%. I heard he had a nervous breakdown in first couple months in college. Went nuts. I passed with an average of 52%.
So many of the smart kids were like that at my school. Straight As to college dropouts. As for myself I was a C student straight through high school to the end of my engineering degree
'Airbourne ... Why the f*** would he do that?' - I never had the chance to review and critique a resume yet, but that kind of scriptwriting is very superb omg.
'Apocalypse Now' is a masterpiece of cinema, a profound retelling of Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', and a meditative reflection on the horrors unleashed upon Vietnam. But I've always wondered if the line, "He was being groomed for one of the top slots in the corporation," was an accidental holdover from the novella. Or perhaps Willard is so disillusioned with the war that he sees the US Army as a mere company, rather than a higher organization of men? Either way, it's telling.
It's a metaphor for both the upper command levels of the US national security establishment and American society's 'Power Elite'. A character like Capt. Williard would never be able to be in such a position.
Albert Hall is just a brilliant actor. His role as Chief is perfect in his assessment of Sheen as a person who is as much a menace to his crew as the VC. The dread is his voice when he says “ That’s Cambodia captain “ is right up there as a standout with other classic lines from the movie.
Agree 100% Chief is often overlooked as a character. He understood exactly who Williard was and what he represented. Chief had this insightful old-warrior quality about him that made a deep impression on me. Well and convincingly played by Albert Hall.
@@jasonpeng33he was, even though he was a fool. That boat Massacre was all his fault, and he got himself killed because he refused to listen to Willard.
@@jasonpeng33 you mistaken my comment. I wrote that Chief got HIMSELF killed because he refused to listen to Willard informing him about arrows being fake, Chief decided to open real fire instead and got impaled by spear because of that. Should have had listened to Willard on both occasions.
They did a great job showing how brutally hot vietnam was with this scene. Filmed in philippines so that was easy I guess. My uncle used to tell me how the heat here in northwest Florida in the summer was nothing compared to what he experienced in Vietnam. Said its 10x worse. That's hard to imagine.
Michellemabelle Obamalamashoeshine True, for a last minute casting choice he was very good. But I wonder how it would've been with Steve McQueen in the lead. One of the great "what if" casting stories
Michellemabelle Obamalamashoeshine, i think that a lot of different actors could have played several different roles in this film. personally, brando would be the most difficult to justify having someone else play, but even kurtz’s role could most likely have been carried well by a few other heavy hitters from back in the mid 70’s. my reason for saying this is because the writing and direction are so awesome that the story just carries beautifully.
One of the things that really makes this scene work is the haunting, meditative music that plays while Willard reads the dossier. Since it’s primarily a solo flute performance I’m guessing it was the portion of the film’s score that was composed by Coppola’s father.
FUCKING GREAT SCENE!! "Airborne, he was 38 years old.... Why the Fuck would he do that??" Friggin Awesome!!!....."Well Air Mobile, those boys just couldn't stay put..." ABSOLUTELY LOVE THESE LINES!!!!
I'm former Army, (Infantry Officer, the same branch as Kurtz and Willard) and seeing the attention to detail in this particular scene is absolutely amazing and feels authentic - The forms look right, the right color, font, the correct paper, watermarks, etc. One gig I noticed in the mission scene and on one of these forms, is the incorrect use of dates 0:53; it's always xx day, month, year as correctly shown later in the scene. Reminds me in a way of "Dr. Strangelove", concerning the scenes inside the B-52. They had to guess at its design as I remember reading... The USAF was surprised at how well they did the rendition having never seen the inside of a B-52.
First saw this at 18yo, went WHOOSH over my head. Then watched it 10 yrs later and UNDERSTOOD. His journey upriver, away from all restraints of civilization. Fonda's line: his mind is clear but his soul is mad.
They way the film would weave in and out of the sounds of the environment and we would hear carmines score with sheen's explanations, what a movie experience
@@TastyChickenWing Fun fact. The voiceover work was done by Martin's brother, Joe. Martin was unavailable so Joe was brought in having an almost identical voice.
@@georgegray171 I'm sure that's not true. In the conversation between Martin Sheen and Francis Ford Coppola , he talks about some memories where Martin Sheen was in the recording room with Michael Herr and his lines were "beautifully read".
The best part of the movie is the mission itself, it's not what happens it's just the idea that what he is ordered to do & the type of individual that he's sent to go do it to is what makes this movie so interesting & intense & entertaining!!!!!! He's basically going to terminate Vito Corleone if Vito was a renegade insane special forces army leader that is basically a god in a foreign country thats deeper into the jungle than Vietnam is!!! This movie plot is insane & I fucking love it!!!!!!
I'll argue with anyone that this is not the greatest feat in cinematic history. The photography is as good as anything ever put on film (and I'm a huge Barry Lyndon and Malick apologist). The shot of Sheen smoking and sweating with the river behind him just totally gives the entire mood of the film in one shot. The images, along with the narration and music, are basically their own characters in the film. This scene leads into what is perhaps the greatest half-hour in movie history. Every scene with the 9th Air Cav and Duvall are as close to perfect as a film gets (especially the Redux version). Duvall should have won an Oscar, easily for his brief screen time. He has the best dialogue in the film (and that's no easy feat). John Milius should have also won for bets adapted screenplay.
Fascinating to see Brando recite the whole of Eliot's The Hollow Men on set as a voice over , he totally caught it's tone , an epitaph for the West. Even more so than The End.
Kurtz was a brilliant man who knew how to win the war, but it wasn't meant to be won. At least not by traditional methods and definitions of victory. That's a dangerous place for an officer of Kurtz' mindset and genius to be in.
Sheen should have won the Oscar for this. Not only was he perfect, but suffered a heart attack before filming wrapped, came back afterwards against doctors orders and finished the damn film! Utterly robbed.
I love this scene - the initial intel that was the basis for how he ended up. Kurtz realised that far back he couldn’t win within the regular army structure, only with special forces could he fight the enemy on his terms.
Coppola's wife made her own film about the making of this film called Hearts of Darkness. It's even more fucked up than her husband's one. It took nearly three years to make and nearly bankrupted them. It's a miracle it ever got finished at all. But I suppose it was worth it in the end. This is probably the best film about what happened in Vietnam.
I love how this scene clearly represents the main theme throughout the movie. Willard trying to figure out Kurtz and realizing he is much like the Colonel.
This scene is one of the most captivating in film to me. Sheen's voiceover, the details in the dossier, the tense music in the background. This entire movie just sucks you in and keeps you watching. Most would say Coppola's best work is The Godfather pt 1 and 2, but I definitely feel like Apocalypse Now is.
You know, it was based on a Joseph Conrad novel, Heart of Darkness, which was written around 1894, the river was the Nile, and Willard was recovering Kurtz, who was a colonist gone native. When I was at Uni in the 70s, one of my professors said it would make a good Vietnam movie.
Don't think the river in "Heart of Darkness" is the Nile, rather some river like the Congo or a tributary thereof. No jungle along the Nile river, only desert.
Not a weak scene in the entire movie. What I like about this scene, is that Willard realizes if it Kurtz can go rogue, what's to stop anyone from doing so?
"Airborne?.....He was 38yrs old.....Why in the F did he do that for?" I am laughing! I attended US Army Airborne School when I was 32yrs old. Why? Because I wanted to be Bad A**
Don't think ive ever seen a war film as good as this, my oldest brother got me into it in the mid 80s... its a strange but compelling beautiful horrendous film.. i fucking love it.... for me the best war film ever made. The thin red line comes a very close second
Kurtz realised that after what the Vietnamese did to their own people in the camp Kurtz and his men inoculated that to beat them he had to become them. Only way was to apply for Special Forces training and become a badass Green Beret. In reality the Vietnamese feared the Green Berets and Navy SEALs duing the war, nicknaming the SEALs 'The men with green faces'
Seals had to hold in their farts when on night missions, any smell or sound of farts would give away their positions. Once The Vietcong could tell the difference in the smell of farts, between regular American G.I's and SEALS, the Vietnamese soon became very scared of smelling SEAL farts at night. Even the sound of a SEAL ripping farts in pitch black haunted the Vietnamese dreams
I've always loved this little segment of the movie. Something very intriguing as Willard tries to make some connection to the man he's been ordered to kill.
I wish Ford would make "Apocalypse If" when Colonel Kurtz joins the NVA , inspires half the American troops to join him and end the Vietnam War in 6 months. December 1970 ❤️
I would assume "Restrcted" means Kurtz wanted to deploy troops to Cambodia to block off the NVA from the west BUT Pentagon refused and then he decides to request Airborne and then Special Forces training to try to take direct command of troop in Vietnam his way with no fear of punishment.
*LINE MISSING THERE* (i think ?)(in bold ) "Airborne ? He was 38 years old . Why the fuck would he do that ? *I did that course when I was 19 and it damn near wasted me* . "
![The Best Acting of All Time - Compilation Part IV [HD]](/img/n.gif)
There’s something about Martin Sheens voice that I can’t explain, but it just makes Willard so much more intriguing. His voice is just mesmerizing.
its not his voice, its his brothers.
@@jesselivermore2291 really
I agree. And yet, all I can think when i hear or see him is his radical Left views.
@@lavishpatel9708 yes
@@andreao3879 yea I try to forget about that ha .... he's much more likeable as Capt. Willard . Also , as trivia the opening scene of the film he was actually drunk and punched that mirror and cut his hand . Coppola just kept filming his emotional breakdown . And all that was beFORE his heart attack during production there in the Phillipines . Masterpiece of cinema.
"They were gonna make me a Major for this...and I wasn't even in their fuckin' army anymore."
This movie still looks brand new, as if it was made yesterday. Brilliant scene; hypnotic, full of mystery, mood, atmosphere. Perfect music. Coppola was the preeminent director of 1970's cinema.
Show this to any movie-goer today and they'd be yawning, "boringggg!" and all that. Too much detail, right down to what's typed on the paper.
Absolutely, I was thinking the same thing . Sadly ,forty years on ,the genius of Collins shines through even more.And ,those that do get it ? Will understand, not just Coppolas subconscious vision of seeing who the true enemy is? With the classic veneer of Hollywood smoke,mirrors and napalm? Too sell the movie to the millions of blood and gut freaks!. It is now as famous as Conrads original 'heart of darkness' And nearly a hundred fifty years ago ? That was as controversial then with the MAD IMPERIALISTS trying to change and control people..AND maybe if you do understand that ? Then maybe we all understand Kurtz? And maybe we all right now, are facing the real Apocalypse Now.
Yep. Coppola was one of those directors that would tell prop guys to type the whole thing up as if it were real, even if it only showed on camera for a second or two. That's one way you make a movie like this.
Yes...the music. Oh that creepy music. I can still sit through this movie ANY time I see it on...that music just has always crept me out. Just like I'm sure the real Vietnam conflict went, there is/was always this underlying chaos...that at any minute things could go extremely south. Like when Kurtz talks about the VC cutting off the inoculated arms of vaccinated children...simple, yet effective...and if that was for the movie, imagine what they did in real life...phew...💀💀💀
@@AllhailtheUS, ask a vet, the ones willing to talk. They'll tell you. They don't have to imagine.
The cinematography in this film is simply phenomenal.
The entire film is simply phenomenal.
I saw this movie in my early 20s on PBS . Taped it and watched it over and over wishing we coulda seen it on the big screen. Then it came out Redux and we got to see it.... in IMAX ! WOW!
What i wouldn't give to see this in a theatre with surround sound
This film looks like 40+ years ahead of it's time in terms of cinematography
Most people wouldn't believe this film was made in 1979
I mean perfect
Pause the video to read the entire dossier. It's really impressive. Kurt had a Masters degree in History from Harvard.
Maybe too impressive...I mean perfect.
Will Francois
And his thesis was on the Philippine Insurrection from 1898 to 1905.
He was probably using tactics and 'unsound methods' from his study of this.
James Robert very good eye and even better knowledge of history; not exactly our country’s finest moment... 😢
Max Frankow
Barely anything America has done is something to be proud of. I’ve read books by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, and they’re all critical of America’s crimes.
Probably my favorite parts of the film, when he's reading all the info on Kurtz and wonders what happened to him
likewise
Concur, Coppola makes the exposition early, since he knew he had to, to tie the fantastic & fanciful story all together. FFC tortured himself to the point of suicide to make the THE Vietnam movie, realizing all the elements would fade if he didn't do it. Coppolla knew the audience does not give a flying fuck what it took to make it, but only the final cut - and the proof is that the re-release on 2001 did it worse, but no one cared! All of us knew A.N. stands the test of time & stands alone as a true and brilliant work then as now!
jennifersman, Me too. One of my My favorite part in movie and most memorable part as well. I found the scene very fascinating and have played it over again and again ! I like when Willard read's it in voice over narration and you hear the spooky music in background as well !
yes, mine too, absolutely... without the part where Willard morphs into Kurtz's ideology, there is no story. As tortured as he was during the production, Coppola knew this much: you'd have to throw all the military part away, completely, for it to work as a story. So Willard abandons any allegiance to US Mil starting with the Kilgore helicopter attack scene. It all had to go, since nothing after that made any sense otherwise! IF Willard had been a true US Army officer, he'd have killed Kurtz the second he could have done it (but even this is addressed in the movie! As Kurtz has his montagnards grab Willard, put him in a cage, and brainwash him indefinitely - so that might have affected anyone's mind-set).
just a small insight what war dose to a guy and the breaking point to where you just say FUCK IT
Martin Sheen was perfect for this role! Mesmerising performance.
yes. he is amazing in this
He doesn't have much dialogue because his eye says it all.
Coppola voleva Al Pacino per la parte...
"he was being groomed for one of the top slots in the corporation" that line EEEESH
My father, despite being Army, looked at the Air Force with hungry eyes. He saw suits and ties, a casual first-name basis with officers, and a much better standard of living and thought "damn, I wish I'd done that". He called them the "Corporation that Kills" and told me and my brother that if we ever enlisted, do it with the USAF
Implying it isn't. Son, you got some book learning to do.
what does that mean?
@@MrHorimiya its just a euphemism to emphasize the changing attitude both civilians and soldiers felt toward the military during this war. A lot of people against the war blamed the military and top brass for lying which came out even more with the Pentagon Papers. The game was rigged from the start.
it should be quite clear to anyone with eyes to see that the world is run by a massive cartel
I did Marine boot at 18. Nearly killed me. Airborne at 38? Fuck man. That would kill me.
How did it nearly kill you or were you being dramatic
I did HM field medical service school at 22. Maybe a little dramatic effect but I get you.
@@CuttySobz I did airborne training at 22 years old in 1999 in July, and it was brutal. 38 years old in the 1960s? No thanks! The original comment is no exaggeration, as airborne training is both physically & mentally challenging.
@@antiguanetwork5726 Jumpers on the brown bench... HIT IT!!!
I remember this line in the movie. But I can't find it anymore??
I'm not a smoker but I love all the smoking in this film, takes you back to the old days.
Dude.
Lol agree
Back then I was, and it killed me seeing it in the theatre because I couldn’t light up.
"I loved you in Wall Street!"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Nice reference.
Chips Handon topper harley
Somebody once wrote, "Hell is the impossibility of reason." That's what this place feels like. Hell. ^_^
@@ragingjaguarknight86 Well, nowadays it looks like its the whole fucking world like that, not only "Vietnam was".
Absolutely right, you can understand why those young soldiers were dropping acid , smoking weed and whatever? Having to face? Not just death at any moment but, just having to survive the tropical environment would have been a living hell. What made me chuckle about your comment was! back in the small town in the UK , where I come from , the young people are dropping acid ! Just to face having to pop down the shops nowadays....True hahahaha..
Airborne...he was 38 years old----why the fuck would he do that?
And yet at 39 years old I am stronger, fitter, faster and more crazy than I was when I was 22. Bring it on!
Skillmaster hell yeah
1966... joined the Special Forces... returns to Vietnam
Because he's nuts. No he's sane. The horror. The horror
really im turning 39 in a month and am fatter but more stronger but now i have a gut
I wanted a mission, and for my sins.. they gave me one.
I'd be scared to death going after Kurtz. Just being in nam was bad.
That line fits really good with the SS death skull.
Apparently Willard was bad-ass enough to not fall under Kurtz's spell like the other 'assassins' sent to terminate his command. Willard represented the type of men Kurtz wanted to win the war, except Willard hasn't slipped quite as far down the rabbit hole. While Willard's character is indeed showing signs of trauma, he's been able to adapt and carry on. He still shows concern for others when he keeps an eye on tripping Lance, gets the Playmates for Chief's boat crew, and decides to escort Chef on his search for mangos. "You'd better let me go with you." Willard being able to sense a tiger about to ambush shows his survival/kill senses are razor sharp.
Willards a lad
Willard did NOT fall into the Kurtz demise as he detached himself from the horror. Kurtz embraced it and it devoured him. As Willard says, "there was only 2 ways out for Charlie . . . death or victory." For Kurtz, it was a lose - lose situation as the military machine burnt its own garbage. Kurt's two ways out were either at the hand of the assassin or napalm. The grocery clerks like the Mafia chieftain:s ALWAYS collect.
@@FrostedSeagull Spot on.
All this is true until he just cold blooded killed the innocent injured girl in the boat instead of saving the girl's life. Willard was still a soldier and followed orders until the end.
@@healthycigarettes5088 He warned Chief DO NOT stop the boat plus he wasn't the one that wounded her-Mr. Clean did. Willard's narration then said "We cut them in half with a machine gun and try sticking a BandAid on them." He knew saving the girl would just produce another VC down the line killing GI's.
I've always liked how Jerry (CIA agent) seals the deal with Willard by offering him a Marlie.
What I like about it iis how Willard evolved to the point where he agrees with Kurt's methodology.
He becomes more and more like Kurtz as he travels up the river.
I heard from vets that Nam seemed to change them. Turn saints to savages. My cousin was a Seal in the Iraq war and he changed so much that I never speak to him. He turned cold to all.
I think the whole point of the movie is that those guys who send Willard on this trip say that Kurtz is operating with no restraint or ethics. Which is exactly how the war was being fought. Insane people accusing someone else of being insane. Kurtz was, but it’s ironic they can’t see it in themselves.
Indeed. Williard represents 'us', the viewer, and the Kurtz/Williard dynamic is raising the issue of whether we should indeed become 'like Kurtz' to win the war, or accept defeat, kill Kurtz, and so save ourselves like how Williard eventually did. The ultimate moral point of the movie is that if winning requires becoming like Kurtz, is it worth it to win at all?
@@jeffreycavanaugh1693 And it’s the same message he’s sending to his superiors. Either do what it takes to win or get the hell out of Nam. Considering what Kurtz became, we all know he’d prefer the latter.
I always thought this scene was creepy. Seeing the successes of Kurtz, and seeing how much respect he had, it was hard to foresee someone like him go mad. So many questions, so many unknown obstacles ahead, I find it downright terrifying.
Imagine yourself, Capt. Willard. Your mission is to terminate Kurtz, an insane man, who's past hits you in the face like a bullet. And the thought "how the hell am I gonna do this?" comes in your head. What are you going to do?
I'd go AWOL!
Kurtz wasn't mad. He correctly evaluated what was required to win the war. That was the point of showing how smart and capable he was. Those waging the war didn't want to do what it would take to win. Whether or not what Kurtz was doing was distasteful or not, the insanity was expecting to win a war with methods/objectives that were not going to win it.
Some people have this innate urge to go against the grain, and the more you try to put them on a chain, the more they resist.
It is of no measure of Health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society
@@executivelifehacks6747 I completely agree with you, and I didn’t think he was engaging in wanton brutality either. He spent months tracking down the right spies in his area before killing them, after that enemy attacks were reduced to nothing. He was protecting the local population and avoided killing the wrong people. In regards to the heads when we meet him in his camp, I tend to think they were enemy casualties decapitated after the fact for theatric terror effect, essentially propaganda. He was training his own Army using native troops, which could then be replicated by another native leader trained by Kurtz. Improbable as it may seem, something like that,l could reasonably turn the tide of the war, if the army had to let him operate by himself. He became obsessed with the mission and in the end he couldn’t carry on.
FUN FACT: The photographs of young Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) that Cap. Willard is viewing in the dossier are actually pictures from the movie Reflection in a Golden Eye (1967) which Marlon Brando starred in along with Elizabeth Taylor. Francis was wise to use close up photos of Marlon potraying an army official from his early film work. Certainly fooled me :D.
Interesting.
TobieSoft, Thanks for telling us. I alway's figured the pictures of Brando were from an earlier war movie of his or so. Thanks. :)
TobieSoft Aha! I thought the same thing about that photo!
Duh !
Reflections in a golden eye, one of my all-time favorites from that era.
"Welll Air Mobile, those boys just couldn't stay put" I don't know why I love that line so much.
HerosTheme I'm with u . I think it's the delivery he just nails all the naration
HerosTheme cause he empathizes the word 'Well'. And . Those boys !
DreyfussTheCrusader they'd go tear assin' around 'nam lookin' for the shit
DreyfussTheCrusader u can forget the colonel crap my name"s bill im a goofy fuck
is this guy with you ?
Jeff Baker that woulda been just fine for the boys on the boat. Id been there. and it just didnt exist anymore
Reminds me of a guy in high school. His grades were perfect. 100% in physics class while I got 51%. I heard he had a nervous breakdown in first couple months in college. Went nuts. I passed with an average of 52%.
So many of the smart kids were like that at my school. Straight As to college dropouts. As for myself I was a C student straight through high school to the end of my engineering degree
It's the 'B' students that run the world.
"When I was here, I wanted to be there, when I was there all I could think of was getting back into the jungle."
"If I had 10 soldiers like that instead of these diletants this war would be over...but they say my methods are unsound. Are my methods...unsound?"
"I don't see any methods . . . . at all, sir."
'Airbourne ... Why the f*** would he do that?' - I never had the chance to review and critique a resume yet, but that kind of scriptwriting is very superb omg.
I love how the clip refers to the US military establishment as "the corporation". Perfect!
Thought he was referring to the CIA
Gets an airborne slot at 38 , that's f***ing cool, hardcore sir.
1:18 "Seems they didn't dig what he had to tell em" ......I like how he says that;)
'Apocalypse Now' is a masterpiece of cinema, a profound retelling of Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', and a meditative reflection on the horrors unleashed upon Vietnam. But I've always wondered if the line, "He was being groomed for one of the top slots in the corporation," was an accidental holdover from the novella. Or perhaps Willard is so disillusioned with the war that he sees the US Army as a mere company, rather than a higher organization of men? Either way, it's telling.
c'mon now, we all know by now that it's a big cartel, not a government
It's a metaphor for both the upper command levels of the US national security establishment and American society's 'Power Elite'. A character like Capt. Williard would never be able to be in such a position.
Albert Hall is just a brilliant actor. His role as Chief is perfect in his assessment of Sheen as a person who is as much a menace to his crew as the VC. The dread is his voice when he says “ That’s Cambodia captain “ is right up there as a standout with other classic lines from the movie.
Agree 100%
Chief is often overlooked as a character. He understood exactly who Williard was and what he represented. Chief had this insightful old-warrior quality about him that made a deep impression on me. Well and convincingly played by Albert Hall.
@@DaisyLee1963yup..Chief was great
@@jasonpeng33he was, even though he was a fool. That boat Massacre was all his fault, and he got himself killed because he refused to listen to Willard.
@PolishGod1234 how did Willard get him killed? What was up with Cambodia in those days anyways?
@@jasonpeng33 you mistaken my comment. I wrote that Chief got HIMSELF killed because he refused to listen to Willard informing him about arrows being fake, Chief decided to open real fire instead and got impaled by spear because of that. Should have had listened to Willard on both occasions.
Platoon was a fantastic realistic Vietnam War movie. But THIS, was a masterpiece
They did a great job showing how brutally hot vietnam was with this scene. Filmed in philippines so that was easy I guess. My uncle used to tell me how the heat here in northwest Florida in the summer was nothing compared to what he experienced in Vietnam. Said its 10x worse. That's hard to imagine.
How was Martin Sheen not even nominated for an Oscar for this? Still the best war movie ever for my money.
Martin Sheen HAD to play this part; Redford would not have been believable.
Michellemabelle Obamalamashoeshine True, for a last minute casting choice he was very good. But I wonder how it would've been with Steve McQueen in the lead. One of the great "what if" casting stories
Harvey Keitel
jennifersman Clint Eastwood was also considered for Willard!
Michellemabelle Obamalamashoeshine, i think that a lot of different actors could have played several different roles in this film. personally, brando would be the most difficult to justify having someone else play, but even kurtz’s role could most likely have been carried well by a few other heavy hitters from back in the mid 70’s.
my reason for saying this is because the writing and direction are so awesome that the story just carries beautifully.
@@4redniwediS Clint turned the film down.
Great scene. One of the best movie ever
"I'd heard his voice on the tape and it really put the hook in me... "
Martin Sheen smoking like a boss. It may not have caused his heart attack, but certainly contributed.
In later years he has readily admitted that his life was almost out of control. He was drinking heavily and doing drugs as well.
Probably all the booze, cocaine, etc. Everyone did blow back in those days.
Haunting but also very calming. Love this part..
One of the things that really makes this scene work is the haunting, meditative music that plays while Willard reads the dossier. Since it’s primarily a solo flute performance I’m guessing it was the portion of the film’s score that was composed by Coppola’s father.
Francis Ford Coppola’s father, Carmine Coppola plays the flute in the background of this scene
Really? What a great factoid. He did a super job--it's eerie.
The audio..... the music.... just takes it up another level.
FUCKING GREAT SCENE!! "Airborne, he was 38 years old.... Why the Fuck would he do that??" Friggin Awesome!!!....."Well Air Mobile, those boys just couldn't stay put..." ABSOLUTELY LOVE THESE LINES!!!!
My cousin Luke was in the 1st of the 9th Air Cav and sent to Vietnam in 1967. He still screams and cries in his sleep.
I'm former Army, (Infantry Officer, the same branch as Kurtz and Willard) and seeing the attention to detail in this particular scene is absolutely amazing and feels authentic - The forms look right, the right color, font, the correct paper, watermarks, etc. One gig I noticed in the mission scene and on one of these forms, is the incorrect use of dates 0:53; it's always xx day, month, year as correctly shown later in the scene. Reminds me in a way of "Dr. Strangelove", concerning the scenes inside the B-52. They had to guess at its design as I remember reading... The USAF was surprised at how well they did the rendition having never seen the inside of a B-52.
ReALLi, i WAS ec-i135[_] = LOOKiNG GLASS=WWABNcP= MSeT
0:20 Narrates "Third generation West Point, top of his class" while document shows "second in class"
First saw this at 18yo, went WHOOSH over my head. Then watched it 10 yrs later and UNDERSTOOD. His journey upriver, away from all restraints of civilization. Fonda's line: his mind is clear but his soul is mad.
I myself didn't get to see this incredible film until '85 on HBO. I was 21. I don't remember speaking at all during the entire film.
This is probably my favorite scene in the film.
Amazing exposition.
Very memorable.
"At first I thought they handed me the wrong dossier..." Wow!
My favorite detail is that Krutz got his Master's degree writing about the filipino insurrection. That was a guerrilla war that United States won.
I’m glad somebody else noticed that
Perfect role for Martin Sheen.
They way the film would weave in and out of the sounds of the environment and we would hear carmines score with sheen's explanations, what a movie experience
This scene so well builds the mystique and legend around Kurtz, awesome scene
Thank you. This man has a great voice.
Alonzo Stanway Martin Sheen
@@bonniewatts4922 That's right
@@TastyChickenWing Fun fact. The voiceover work was done by Martin's brother, Joe. Martin was unavailable so Joe was brought in having an almost identical voice.
@@georgegray171 I'm sure that's not true. In the conversation between Martin Sheen and Francis Ford Coppola , he talks about some memories where Martin Sheen was in the recording room with Michael Herr and his lines were "beautifully read".
The best part of the movie is the mission itself, it's not what happens it's just the idea that what he is ordered to do & the type of individual that he's sent to go do it to is what makes this movie so interesting & intense & entertaining!!!!!! He's basically going to terminate Vito Corleone if Vito was a renegade insane special forces army leader that is basically a god in a foreign country thats deeper into the jungle than Vietnam is!!! This movie plot is insane & I fucking love it!!!!!!
" Airborne...he was 38 years old, why the f**k would he do that ?"
😎
I'll argue with anyone that this is not the greatest feat in cinematic history. The photography is as good as anything ever put on film (and I'm a huge Barry Lyndon and Malick apologist). The shot of Sheen smoking and sweating with the river behind him just totally gives the entire mood of the film in one shot. The images, along with the narration and music, are basically their own characters in the film.
This scene leads into what is perhaps the greatest half-hour in movie history. Every scene with the 9th Air Cav and Duvall are as close to perfect as a film gets (especially the Redux version).
Duvall should have won an Oscar, easily for his brief screen time. He has the best dialogue in the film (and that's no easy feat). John Milius should have also won for bets adapted screenplay.
There should have been 3 Oscar acting nominations for Apocalypse Now:
Sheen for Best Actor, and both Duvall and Brando for Supporting Actor.
I'm sweating just watching this...
Fascinating to see Brando recite the whole of Eliot's The Hollow Men on set as a voice over , he totally caught it's tone , an epitaph for the West. Even more so than The End.
Kurtz was a brilliant man who knew how to win the war, but it wasn't meant to be won. At least not by traditional methods and definitions of victory.
That's a dangerous place for an officer of Kurtz' mindset and genius to be in.
This is more of a horror movie than a war movie.
Sheen should have won the Oscar for this.
Not only was he perfect, but suffered a heart attack before filming wrapped, came back afterwards against doctors orders and finished the damn film!
Utterly robbed.
do you know he wasn't even nominated
I love this scene - the initial intel that was the basis for how he ended up. Kurtz realised that far back he couldn’t win within the regular army structure, only with special forces could he fight the enemy on his terms.
Coppola's wife made her own film about the making of this film called Hearts of Darkness. It's even more fucked up than her husband's one. It took nearly three years to make and nearly bankrupted them. It's a miracle it ever got finished at all. But I suppose it was worth it in the end. This is probably the best film about what happened in Vietnam.
1:13
To me this explains Kurtz in a nutshell
I love how this scene clearly represents the main theme throughout the movie. Willard trying to figure out Kurtz and realizing he is much like the Colonel.
This scene is one of the most captivating in film to me. Sheen's voiceover, the details in the dossier, the tense music in the background. This entire movie just sucks you in and keeps you watching. Most would say Coppola's best work is The Godfather pt 1 and 2, but I definitely feel like Apocalypse Now is.
“I loved you in Wall Street! 👍!”
You know, it was based on a Joseph Conrad novel, Heart of Darkness, which was written around 1894, the river was the Nile, and Willard was recovering Kurtz, who was a colonist gone native. When I was at Uni in the 70s, one of my professors said it would make a good Vietnam movie.
Don't think the river in "Heart of Darkness" is the Nile, rather some river like the Congo or a tributary thereof. No jungle along the Nile river, only desert.
Greatest war movie ever made. A masterpiece
Like how Sheen called it the Corporation.
Well it is, and much worse in present day
Not a weak scene in the entire movie. What I like about this scene, is that Willard realizes if it Kurtz can go rogue, what's to stop anyone from doing so?
I think the French Plantation scene drags a little too long in the Redux. Apart from that, everything is just perfect.
That music is so eerie
Zach Glen I love the creepy flute lol
Everytime I do something crazy for my age, I hear Capt Willard say, "Airborne? He was 38 years old. Why the fuck would he do that?" @ 1:33
Brilliant movie..... Best scene Capt willard reading about Col. Kutrz. Narration also topclass
“Every day I wake up I think I’m back in the jungle”
These breaks, with Willard doing research on Kurtz, were perfect setups for their inevitable encounter. The American hero gone wrong.
I cant believe this was made in the 70s. It looks so good and holds up even by today's standards.
0:27 wow Brando looks like Billy Zane in that photo
I've just been out on a run and Christ, I know how Kurtz at that age must have felt LMAO.
“Every time I hear that something terrible happens.”
When a girl farts in your bed
He was being groomed for one of the top slots in the corporation
The military slang in this movie is authentic.
Doubt it was present in war films previously.
Great voiceover its almost like a parody " i was given the wrong dossi ay"
Dripping with sweat, and then dry as bone when he is given the binoculars, LOL.
Or when he's cleanly shaved upon his arrival to get his mission orders, and then has a five o clock shadow later on during the scene.
"Airborne?.....He was 38yrs old.....Why in the F did he do that for?" I am laughing! I attended US Army Airborne School when I was 32yrs old. Why? Because I wanted to be Bad A**
The more I remembered who I was, the more I hated who I became; and the person who made me that way.
This movie is simply hypnotic. Movie still looks brand new as already stated in the comments.
Don't think ive ever seen a war film as good as this, my oldest brother got me into it in the mid 80s... its a strange but compelling beautiful horrendous film.. i fucking love it.... for me the best war film ever made. The thin red line comes a very close second
Is it just me or does the man on the right at 1:51 look exactly like General Westmorland?
Kurtz realised that after what the Vietnamese did to their own people in the camp Kurtz and his men inoculated that to beat them he had to become them. Only way was to apply for Special Forces training and become a badass Green Beret. In reality the Vietnamese feared the Green Berets and Navy SEALs duing the war, nicknaming the SEALs 'The men with green faces'
Seals had to hold in their farts when on night missions, any smell or sound of farts would give away their positions. Once The Vietcong could tell the difference in the smell of farts, between regular American G.I's and SEALS, the Vietnamese soon became very scared of smelling SEAL farts at night. Even the sound of a SEAL ripping farts in pitch black haunted the Vietnamese dreams
I would like to leave that impression when someone reads my curriculum vitae 😆
To finally Kurtz who has gone insane deep in the jungle.
Going in to the new year, I won't forget how great this scene or movie was
I've always loved this little segment of the movie. Something very intriguing as Willard tries to make some connection to the man he's been ordered to kill.
Perfect career however he was not prepared for the horror of war.
I’ve always thought of Colonel Kurtz as Big Boss, and Captain Willard as Solid Snake....😁
I wish Ford would make "Apocalypse If" when Colonel Kurtz joins the NVA , inspires half the American troops to join him and end the Vietnam War in 6 months. December 1970 ❤️
I would assume "Restrcted" means Kurtz wanted to deploy troops to Cambodia to block off the NVA from the west BUT Pentagon refused and then he decides to request Airborne and then Special Forces training to try to take direct command of troop in Vietnam his way with no fear of punishment.
"What's that?!?"
"ARC LIGHT"
"Hate that"..."Every time I hear that, Something Terrible Happens."
Lmfao...Goddamn Right It Does... ;>)
*LINE MISSING THERE* (i think ?)(in bold )
"Airborne ? He was 38 years old . Why the fuck would he do that ? *I did that course when I was 19 and it damn near wasted me* . "
This movie ages better than fine wine.
"I loved you in wall street."