Apocolypse Now

A detailed Summary of Apocolypse Now

Many film critics and movie goers alike say that Apocalypse Now is one of the best movies ever made due to its originality and trend-setting approach to cinema. The viewer, in the very first scene of this Francis Ford Coppola sensation, can see this. As most movies begin, the viewer is generally introduced to the cast and the production team that was involved in the film by way of credits or a title screen of some form. In Apocalypse Now however, The title of the film appears as graffiti toward the end of the film in the complex presided over by Kurtz. Instead of an orthodox opening scene, Ford Coppola provides a lyrical, slow moving opening sequence that is a combination of cinematography, music and hallucinatory images from the brutal war in Vietnam.

As the movie begins, the scene fades in from black to a darkened daylight or dusk period in a green-canopied jungle of palm trees that are swaying in the wind tranquil wind. There is a sound bridge, which starts as the screen is black and continues through the fading transition to place the impending helicopter sounds now in the middle of this Vietnam jungle. The (chuk-chuk-chuk) sounds of the helicopter are the only diegetic sounds that the viewer en

counters in this scene however the most prominent sound is in fact non-diegetic and comes in the form of The Doors song "The End." The first cymbal of this song is played as soon as a darkly painted helicopter flies low to the ground from the left hand side of the screen to the right and in between the viewer and the jungle. This creates the effect that a long shot is happening during the time the helicopter is passing. The passing of the helicopter signals the playing of the song and a yellowish haze is cast around the area, presumably napalm that had just been dropped. Ford Coppola begins his movie with this apocalyptic song, only to make the viewer wonder if what is in store lies after the "end" as the song suggests, or if the movie is about the events leading up to the apparent "end. The varied hues of the green palm trees also provide a contrast in terms of aesthetics as the blue sky makes the trees stand out to the viewer and emphasizes the movement going on in front of the trees and even by the air and the trees itself.

The angle in which the camera is shooting the Lieutenant and the fan are both very interesting in that they are shooting the exact way in which the fan or Martin would view the opposite image. The Lieutenant is being shot from above as if he is looking up at the ceiling and the camera and the viewer are looking down from above. In the same way, the fan is being shot from the Lieutenants perspective as if we as the viewers were on the bed with him or ground level looking up. This eerie change of positioning from one side of the screen to the other really makes the reader sense the intense pondering and seriousness of the situation accentuated by the passing of the fan blades and concerned look of the Lieutenant as he just lies and stares into the fan above. This particular scene ends by the fading out of the fan and the up-close face of the Lieutenant. As the next scene begins the jungle that was once the background becomes now the foreground and the music continues to play.

It is at this moment that the camera begins to use a type of mobile framing, which looks to be a tracking shot, right along the same axis of action as it was on before and also at the same tree-line level as it had formerly been placed. This camera movement was probably done using a dolly which makes the viewer feel like they are walking along the edge of the jungle and seeing the repercussions of war first-hand. As the camera c

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Approximate Word count = 1646
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies