by Viktoria Sapanovich
POL128 - Ryerson University
“In this war, things get confused out there—power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity…because there’s a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph” - General Corman, “Apocalypse Now” (1979), played by G. D. Spradlin.
Many
factors play important roles in influencing our lives, and this can span from
our culture and how we have been raised, socioeconomic status, our material
possessions, as well as the relationships and community around us. But more
predominantly, we have factors such as politics which can shape our views and
beliefs on regimes in society around us. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979
film, “Apocalypse Now”, demonstrates
the shadowy emotional distress behind war, through its subthemes of the extinction
of a nation’s ethics, coupled with the depiction of madness, insanity, and
detachment as a result of political wars.
An
adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of
Darkness” novella, Francis Ford Coppola incorporates a similar storyline,
encompassing the film around the Vietnam War, sending a soldier to execute a
man of threat to the military. The protagonist, Army Captain Benjamin
L. Willard
(Martin Sheen), is sent by two army officials, Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford)
and General Corman (G.D. Spradlin), to terminate a man named Colonel Walter E.
Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a part of the Army Special Forces. The two men grow
concerned of Kurtz’s status and operations, stating that he has supposedly
become insane and now rules over his own troops, who he formed in neutral
ground Cambodia. Kurtz poses as a “God” to this group of people, and this is
the way in which he rules over them. The film follows the journey of Benjamin L. Willard and a group of men that travel
with him to his destination, while emphasizing the confusion, violence,
and fear of the Vietnam War with each scene.
When we think of
morals and beliefs, we associate this in a positive light, and when reflecting
on the film, distinct loss of these morals and beliefs begins to shine through,
as part of the political aspects depicted. The film incorporates the ethics of
surfing, provocative dancing by women, and the general association of drugs,
that have been integrated into speech and scenes. In particular, looking at the
introductory scene of the film, in which displays a film crew and American
journalists filming soldiers, death and all the surrounding air strikes,
essentially turning the war into means of crowd-pleasing entertainment for the
public. As we reflect on this, we can say this is quite inhumane, turning the tragedy
taking place and downgrading the importance of it, into entertainment. Simple
values and morals of respect and dignity seem to lack here. Moreover, another
scene in the film that strongly depicts the loss of a nation’s ethics, would be
during the time where Willard and his crew make a stop at a military post, where
an entertainment show was put on in the evening hours for all the men. The show
consisted of playboy ladies dressed in cowboy apparel, performing rather
provocative dances. While all the American soldiers hoot and yell over the
women up on stage, the camera incorporates a shot of the Vietnamese villagers
behaving very calmly and maturely, as they eat their rice, not being phased at
all by the performers, in contrast to the soldiers. This is evident of the
differing morals and ethics between the Vietnamese and Americans, showing just
how foolish the soldiers had behaved during this scene in comparison. The scene
concludes with the almost all the men losing any restraint on themselves, and proceeded
to climb onto the stage to harass the women while Willard is shown sitting back,
with facial expression in disgust. This facial expression is yet another cue
integrated into the scene to send a message of the loss of ethics,
demonstrating how, in fact, filthy the soldiers were. In addition, further into
the film, the audience is exposed to how Willard and his boat crew trade
barrels of fuel in return of receiving pleasure by the playmates. Once again,
this clearly demonstrates the degrading of values, of how these men give away
precious fuel in the midst of war and a long journey ahead of them, when they
need it most, to receive intimate attention from a woman. This essentially
depicts their priorities at the time. These
women that are integrated into the film serve as a very important symbol to
give across this message. From turning the war into means of entertainment, to
demonstrating the shallowness of the American soldiers when it comes to
provocative entertainment, emphasizes the loss of a nation’s ethics, as well as
serves to provide an interesting contract of these values to the Vietnamese,
also further underlining the absurdity of them.
As
we get deeper into the psychology behind war, the film perfectly depicts the
emotional and psychological deterioration of the soldiers, as well as the
protagonist himself, Willard. As Willard and his crew move further upriver, they
begin to experience enhanced emotional detachment with themselves as well as reality,
and ultimately reach some sort of change to their persona. In various scenes,
each crew member participates in this experience in their own way, with
whatever they might have encountered during a specific scene. One crew member
has an encounter with a tiger as he enters the jungle, which traumatizes him,
leading to where he appears to no longer be himself. Following, he then slowly withdraws
emotionally from the crew. Once a tragic death comes upon one of the crew
members, another breaks down and experiences vast emotional distress, and so
becomes an altered individual as a result. Face paint use became prominent as
the film went deeper into their adventures, indicating a “change” of self as
well. Ending with the protagonist, Willard, he also seems to become more
obsessed with his target, Kurtz, as the voice-overs used become more persistent
and analytical of Kurtz’s life and background, perhaps going overboard. Willard
continues to analyze Kurtz very deeply, almost trying to get into the head of
this “evil genius”, as they called him.
Tying
this all together, we can see the underlying psychological effects and the loss
of precious ethics, that politics bring upon individuals and society. The
Vietnam war consisted of the clash between two political beliefs, with North
Vietnam being supportive of the communist regime, and the South being
supportive of the democracy regime (Encyclopedia Britannia, 2016). The war
between these two political systems depicts the casualties it brought upon,
both death and psychological casualties in individuals throughout the duration
of “Apocalypse Now”. Further back
into history, we can evaluate and see that the Vietnam War can be considered as
a chain reaction to the Cold War, that was once between the United States and
the Soviet Union, both with differing political views on how to run a society.
The tragic effects of these political battles are not only depicted in this
film by the detachment and insanity of soldiers, but also the amount of
casualties it has brought in history. Innocent people have lost their lives,
and these political fights have changed the lives of many. Thus, war films like
“Apocalypse now” are a great source of depicting how politics causes grief and
insanity, as well as the deterioration of values and ethics.
Francis
Ford Coppola’s incorporation of various symbols in the film such
as masks, fog, darkness and the river, all serve to additionally emphasize the
psychological journey Willard and his crew go through. Masks can bring upon the
message of changing one’s individuality. It can depict an alteration in persona
or an incorporation of a new identity in order to deal with the emotional
trauma that war brings to these soldiers. During the opening scenes of the
film, Willard is shown breaking the glass showing his self-reflection. This can
be interpreted metaphorically as breaking his old persona. The voice-overs used
during this scene further enhanced the understanding of why he is doing so, essentially
underlining that his experiences in the military changed him as a man, for the
worse. Towards the end of the film, numerous characters began to incorporate
the use of face paint, as mentioned previously, to metaphorically camouflage
into their “new” individuality. The intense fog coupled together with the river
and many dark scenes, serves a message to the audience of the characters
swimming further into the abyss/darkness of war, swimming towards the
terrifying unexpected. The fog also adds an additional meaning of confusion and
estrangement from reality to the crew, and this is evident through the scenes
in which they are floating through the river and they cannot see anything. The
crew members get quiet and expect the unexpected. This causes a sense of fright,
shown in their facial expressions, as well as overall confusion. This heavy use
of fog puts the characters in a “vulnerable” state, which further portrays
fear, also shown by the use of close-ups onto facial expressions.
Cinematography
was successful in this film, with the fusion of many extreme close-ups and
regular close-ups, music to emphasize emotions and action build-up, eye-level
shots, and many more. Extreme close-ups of character’s facial expressions allow
for a deeper understanding and relation to emotions being emphasized, as
discussed in class (Moura, 2016). This allowed for the audience to gain a
greater understanding of what the character might be thinking in the situation,
and was incorporated very well. Music in certain scenes allowed for the
build-up of action, whether the tempo would be fast and dramatic, or slow and
suspenseful. Certain pieces of music also served as a symbolic approach in the
film, such as the music female performers danced to. It symbolized the typical
American style songs which served the soldiers a memory of home they so longed
for. Eye-level shots were increasingly used as well, specifically in
conversation, that gives the audience the feel that they are seeing and
understanding from the eyes of the character, as also examined in class (Moura,
2016). The fade-in and fade-out of scenes, especially in the opening parts of
the film, made the beginning quite unique and enticing. With the use of these
elements, some scenes overlapped each other, with one scene in the background
showing the continuation of war, while having a faded image on top showing
facial expressions and various actions. Furthermore, long shots and wide shots
also played a vital role in cinematography of “Apocalypse Now”. This was most often used in shots of landscape,
and flying military aircrafts. They were used to portray the whole environment
of the scene. Political objects were also integrated, such as the American flag
and U.S military uniforms. In addition, the first half of the film heavily
unified colorful cinema with the use of various colored smoke bombs that
enhanced the picture, while the second half of the film transitioned into the
heavy use of fog and darker-toned colors. Overall, cinematography was
integrated quite well within the film, and did a fantastic job displaying
environments and emotions, and the use of rich colors.
Politics
can shape who we are as individuals and our beliefs, but more predominately,
shape our society and play a vital role in how a nation is run. The clash of
different political views between nations has caused tragic impacts on
individuals both physically and psychologically. Thus, taking Francis
Ford Coppola’s 1979 film, “Apocalypse
Now”, and looking deeper into these factors, the film does a fantastic job in
demonstrating the shadowy emotional distress behind war, through its subthemes
of the deterioration of a nation’s ethics, coupled with the depiction of
madness, insanity, and detachment as a result of political wars.
References
Vietnam War. (n.d). In Encyclopedia Britannica online.
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War
Francis Ford
Coppola: Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2016, Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000338/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Dirks, T. (n.d.). Apocalypse Now (1979).
Retrieved October 10, 2016, from http://www.filmsite.org/apoc.html
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