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Ezra -> Best. Film. Ever. (28/4/2006 12:42:30 PM)
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A US Army Captain is sent up a river to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, an AWOL officer who served exceedingly well during his time. The Captain is journeying into the jungle, but is also taking his own, psychological journey through his own mind. Based on a novel by Joseph Conrad, Apocalypse Now swaps an African jungle for the dark, dangerous jungles of Vietnam and, eventually, Cambodia . . .
Films based on books have always entered into risqué formulaic territory when the film industry churns out what we've read, simply transplanted onto screen. It's equally possible to bring the horror or the magic to your mind via the screen, which is there only as a projector; this is when you know a masterpiece has been created. So it was a feeling of great joy when I came across Apocalypse Now, a film which I had then not even known it had been based on a somewhat ancient tome by some guy I'd never even heard of. The film ventured into the deepest, darkest places of my mind and heart, and touched the previously untouched. That's how much impact it had on me. Poetry in motion. But of a completely different kind.
One of the most appealing things about being a child was being able to play "armies". And to be able to watch people actually doing this wasn't as fun, nor was it supposed to be entertainment. But with Apocalypse Now, you can still play the game; it drags you right in and holds you like a barely 20 year old private on acid. We're on the journey too, and it's less entertaining than we thought, as we soon come to realise. But what it is is far from boring. Francis Ford Coppola manages to capture something can - if you want it to - entrance you. From the dramatic opening accompanied by an unforgettable song "The End" by The Doors, right up until the thought-provoking yet all-out exploding finale, you're experiencing "the horror" as it gradually builds up. The tension as the patrol boat crawls up the river amounts, as you become obsessiv
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