Some surf lingo lesson: "A peak": The tallest part of the wave where it starts breaking first. "Point". Where the land juts out into the ocean relative to the other land around it. Think of a mini-peninsula. Points are renowned for producing good surfing waves. "Beach break": When the beach is long and straight and without feature (unlike a point), the waves all break in a short moment, making it difficult to get a fun ride. "Charlie don't surf". The Viets are not surfers, thus not worthy of having possession of a good Point wave. "Blown out": When the wind blows from the ocean to the land, it is called an "onshore" wind and is the worst wind condition for surfing. The sudden heat from the Napalm cause the air to move to an onshore wind. Thus it was "blown out". "Tide": The depth of the water, which changes with the tide, can radically change the quality of the surfing wave.
I believe he and Lance made it out, because at the beginning he said after this mission he would never want another, as in past tense like he was looking back
Regarding the sacrifice of the bull: Yes, it was an actual sacrifice. Cattle have tear ducts, like all mammals. They do not shed tears of sadness, that is a human reaction. My guess bulls shedding tears during sermonies probably do so due to the smoke and incense. But yeas, cattle feels pain fairly much like all mammals )including us). Bleeding a bull to death is very cruel. The cutting of the bull in the film looked more shocking, but at least it was quick.
The redux version with the French Army veterans is one of my favorite scenes in movie history. It's like they're ghosts hanging on to the past and it was really cool how they delved into the French Army's last stand at Dien Bien Phu.
I saw At the theater when it was first released and yes throughout the ending credits Kurtz entire compound was being destroyed from the air strike, my wife Lao/Thai, we eat a lot of sticky rice, love it , thanks
Actually in the original release, there were no closing credits, and the audience was given a printed program with cast and crew info. It was the subsequent mass release that had the air strike with the credits.
There's a bit of backstory to this movie that needs to be understood in relation to the Vietnam War: it was alleged by many that Vietnam had been unscrupulously exploited by the US government as a means of testing new weaponry and nourishing the Military Industrial complex with taxpayer dollars. This is probably a big factor in why the higher ups in the military wanted Kurtz dead - not only was he making them look bad with his unconventional techniques but he was ultimately threatening to 'work them out of a job' by winning the war completely. It's part of the thematic reason that Kilgore's character takes up so much of the story for early part of the movie - Coppola is going out of his way to show that there are a lot of people in the US military who simply don't want the war to end because it's so profitable/convenient for them.
That's why halfway through the movie, I wondered why they would want to kill Kurtz, since he has done such a good job. The only thing he did (which the higher ups didn't like) is he took action without waiting for orders.
WELL that sounds like something an out of work/on strike LA screen writer would produce...Their 1st premise supposes that the war mongers have sole ownership of the process and they had no blood in the 50,000 who perished and they hired Sirhan to kill RFK in `68 to allow Nixon to win and keep the lie going, Henry....BUT I agree, there is always a strong number in the US military complex who LUV war and always will as there is in Russia, so that is the easy point to make...NOW the 2nd part Kurtz is in the clandestine ( MACV-sog) part of the Army that went into Laos/Cambodia (Ho-Chi-Min trail) and teamed up with locals to use as guides where as Kilgore was regular Army, unfortunately Coppola takes freedoms with many scenes as an amalgamation of war crimes committed which they could`ve bypassed, but the movie types luv to " Poke The Bear ", I know of these 1st hand from my brother. who was drafted into serving along with many of his pals from our urban neighborhood...I loved the movie, the Doors were a perfect selection for this film and I agree about movie theatres today, too bad we can`t stay and watch the flick again & again as long as you aint got nothin goin on , right Man....really diggin your videos ,Henry...keep on keep`n on bro
What a fantastic commentary and also a great edit. It's a dark, weird movie. You completely understood it, about the insanity of war, the insanity of THAT particular war, the dehumanization, the out-of-control behavior......yes, people were conscripted. "Drafted". There was a draft. So they were drafted and not particularly interested in fighting a war they did not understand. (Nobody understood that stupid war). I hope you understand that this movie in now way glorifies the Vietnam War from the American perspective. Quite the opposite! The Vietnam War movies of the 70s were the complete opposite of the movies about World War 2. This movie shows the incompetence, the waste of human life, the waste of money and firepower and it must have felt like "apocalypse.....NOW." lol. You totally did the right thing watching the theatrical version! Many people (including me) had the same reaction you did to this movie when it first came out regarding the ending Brando section of the movie. There are many reasons why that are best explained by the excellent documentary about the making of the movie. That would actually be an interesting reaction unto itself! No one has ever done that before! The making of this movie is as wild as the movie. It's just as good....and half as long!
I'm glad to hear that 😊 I believe this is my first Vietnam War movie (I don't include movies like Forrest Gump because it doesn't show the war throughout the whole movie). So I don't have a personal comparison to other Vietnam War movies. It took me a while to feel the "madness" in the movie. I do agree with you regarding war being a waste of life and resources (regardless whichever war it was). I've added the Heart of Darkness documentary into my list, along with the Attica one, so I'll watch them in the future 👍🏻
'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse' is one of the best documentaries that you can watch. Hearts of Darkness in the book, in the real war and in making the film.
It talks about the things that Coppola and his crew faced during the filming of Apocalypse Now, right? It's going on my list right next to the Attica documentary then 😊
All of the reviewers seem to forget when the “sweet little innocent” Viet Cong village girl threw the grenade in the helicopter and burned everyone (wounded included) to death. That kind of stuff happened all the time in Vietnam. You might be getting your shoes shined in Saigon and a little eight or 10 year old boy has a grenade hidden in his shoebox and blows your legs off. Chef didn’t want to board the sampan because that could easily happen or that entire crew could be V C, and could all pull out weapons and open up or toss grenades aboard the PBR. Stopping the Sampan and searching it for VC and for arms and munitions was the reason the boat crew was on the river in the first place. That was their everyday job. But chef and the rest of the crew were scared, and we’re on the razors edge just like they were every time they stopped a boat to search it when suddenly, for no obvious reason the girl charges screaming across the boat at chef committing what to everyone appears to be a hostile act. She could’ve been going to kill Chef, or perhaps trigger a Claymore, a grenade, or some other type of bomb that the VC regularly converted into what we would now call IED‘s. Clean did exactly what he was supposed to do and wasted her and the rest of the supposed VC crew before she or they could kill or maim the PBR crew. The Vietnamese girl should have known better than to do that. She had lived her entire life in a war zone. The fact that her action was so unexpected by everyone made her actions even more likely to have been the actions of someone who meant deadly harm to the crew. In a combat zone often you don’t get to wait and see what someone’s going to do, as waiting that long means you and your friends die. Afterward they wanted to help the wounded girl, which shows that they didn’t bear height toward her and didn’t shoot those people out of Malas. They did it out of fear and past violent experiences. But by this point, Willard has seen so much of what he feels is hypocrisy of ripping the enemy apart, and then giving the enemy medical care that he just blows her away because she’s getting in the way of his mission and he probably figures she would die anyway she was hurt so bad.
I understand your reasoning for that. Hesitation usually leads to death in a battlefield. There are innocents, and there are enemies. But there's no way to tell them apart. Innocent people die during war, especially if they live close to the war zone. It's inevitable. I know that, and it's sad. I'm not even surprised Willard shot the girl. She wouldn't have made it, and it would only prolong her suffering.
"The Vietnamese girl should have known better than to do that. She had lived her entire life in a war zone. " your reasoning is incredible, since when do kids do logical things?
The bull that was sacrificed in this movie was in fact bought by Francis Coppola as a gift to a certain jungle tribe which at that time were still cannibals. The gift was to honor the tribe and their spirit ancestors because the area where these movie shots were being taken was near that tribes home and the bull sacrifice was meant to be part of this movie to parallel that scene with Kurtz being sacrificed at the same time by Capt. Willard was. There is a documentary that explains all of this.
There is one version of this movie that doesn't exist on any format which I watched at the theater when this movie first came out in 1979. In fact I watched it about half a dozen times over a 2 week period with myself and at later times with a good friend because back then you could stay in the theater and watch it over and over without being kicked out. The version I saw at the end of the movie is when the US army bombed the hell out of Kurtz's compound with everyone in it as Capt. Willard slowly sails away in the PTU boat with Lance. It wasn't clear if Capt. Willard ordered the air-strike or if the military already had the co-ordinance. But during the end you see a red flare slowly falling down in the distance and then suddenly everything explodes and lights up and you hear a creepy electric guitar playing in unison with the explosions as they destroy that compound and obliterate the entire sector one bomb after another while the subtitles roll past until it's finished. I don't know why they didn't have that ending as one of the version of this film because I thought it made sense when you see what Col. Kurtz had written in this manuscript he wanted Willard to give to his son on that one page is says, "drop the bomb, exterminate them all", in large red ink. The Redux version has the creepy electric guitar music I'm talking about but it's far more faint and of course the visual bombing of the compound isn't seen.
Back then, you could stay in the theatre and watch it over and over? Why don't they do that anymore... Capt. Willard didn't order the air-strike in this version I watched. If he had, then the ending will match the beginning of the movie. Start with a bang and end with a bang. Thanks for sharing! 😊
When the movie was to be released to video, Coppola decided that Willard would have been changed by his experience, and wouldn’t want to kill everyone in Kurtz’s compound, so he changed the original ending and credits scene. But, you’re correct, the original ending did bookend nicely with the start of the movie.
My father was in Vietnam as an advisor in the early 60s. By the time I was a senior in high school, the war was still going on and I was in danger of being drafted myself!
That thing was the tail of a crashed B-52 bomber. Yes...the US military used conscription from 1940 until 1973, but they did not draft people under the age of 18. There were a couple of ways that people younger than 18 could serve in the military...one way was that people as young as 16 could volunteer, but I believe that they would need the permission of a parent or guardian. In some cases while the draft was still going on, 16 or 17 year old kids who committed non-violent crimes and were facing trial as adults could choose to serve in the military as an alternative to going to jail...I think that was usually up to the Judge to decide whether that was an option. Or kids could lie...like Clean did.
So it was a B-52 bomber... Right, I was shocked that Clean wasn't even 18 years old. There must've been a shortage of manpower if they would even allow 16 year old teenagers to volunteer themselves to fight on the front lines (thankfully they still need a parent/guardian's permission). I believe Clean joined the military because he thought it would be "cool and fun". That didn't end well for him...
@@henryellow There was somewhat of a shortage of men, and that did make the folks in charge of taking in volunteers like Clean less likely to look very hard at whether they were really old enough to serve...and I believe Clean indicates that he lied about his age. One thing the military did do to try and increase the amount of men they could draft was called Project 100,000. It was a project started by Robert McNamara to see if men who were a bit outside the normal standards for physical fitness, or mental fitness, or intelligence quotient could be trained to be successful soldiers. If you have seen Full Metal Jacket and/or Forrest Gump, you have seen characters that portray men who were almost surely part of Project 100k.
@@iKvetch558 Oh yes, I have watched Forrest Gump. I get what you're referring to 👍🏻 Thanks for reminding me of that Project 100k, I've almost forgotten there was such a thing.
The scenes where Sheen's brother was a Stand In for him only sowed his back. Only 18 and above were drafted. If you were under 18 you either volunteered with parental consent, or you were ordered into the army by a judge as an alternative to jail. Willard wasn't killed, since he is telling the story. In the theatrical release, though they don't show him calling in the air strike, it's assumed because the closing credits are of the ruins blowing up. That was cut from later versions. It was a plane. Many F4s and B52s were shot down in North Vietnam. Yes, the movie is fictional, however many of the characters and events are based on real people and events. I'll leave it to you to research.
What happened on the sampan is the young girl (possibly VC) charged across the boat at Chef. She would have known better than to do that, so as you observed, WHY DID SHE DO THAT? Clean did exactly what he was supposed to do and that is to protect Chef and the rest of the crew. Had he waited and had she been VC she could’ve triggered a grenade, grabbed a weapon or perhaps, distracted everyone so the rest of the VC on the sampan could grab their weapons. The reason Chef was scared out of his mind and refused to get in the sampan is that doing so was an extremely dangerous thing to do because a lot of the people were in fact VC. THAT WAS VIETNAM have you forgotten the young “harmless” Village girl that tossed the grenade into the helicopter and burned everyone on it alive, including the wounded? That happened because no one shot her when she charged toward the helicopter. Don’t judge people until you’ve stood in their shoes.
I'm happy to be watching another video of yours, young Harry. Lots of great actors in this film like Laurence Fishburne (Clean), Frederick Forrest (Chef), Dennis Hopper (Photo journalist) and so on. Fishburne is a kid in this but he has done great work these last 40 years like Boyz in the Hood and my favorite film with him, Deep Cover. I like Redux because I prefer more complete versions but you aren't missing much in comparison to this. Brando was actually aged up a little to play Vito in answer to your quandry about why he looks so different considering this was released about 6 years after Godfather. Also, I've always interpreted Roach's reply to mean that he thinks the VC is in charge since they are pretty much dictating the field of battle.
Oh, I have not watched those two movies before. On my list they go! 😊 I barely recognized him without the godfather's hair and mustache 😂 he really looks so much younger. Oh, that's an interesting way to look at it. I thought Roach assumed that Captain Willard was trying to assert dominance as the one in charge, so Roach replied "yes" to show that he acknowledges Willard. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! 😊
I like your review. A couple of things: “This is the end…” the song. And literally the actual end of the story, told at the beginning. --at the bridge--: “Doesn’t that mean that they’re just like Kurtz, acting without orders or supervision?” No, they were just acting on animal instinct. Kurtz had a purpose. If you ever find the time and the inclination, watch the “Redux…” version. It is actually the full story as Copolla and Milius wanted to tell. It adds more heat to the pressure cooker of absurdity of their ascent upriver and the increasing madness as portrayed in Conrad’s original story.
Glad you enjoyed it! 😊 "No, they were just acting on animal instinct. Kurtz had a purpose." Ah, that's true. A man with a purpose poses far more of a threat than a man without one. Even more madness? 😂 Perhaps I will in the future 👍
As you checked the facts, the water buffalo was going to be sacrificed and eaten anyway, so they filmed it. So, it was never in the original screenplay. Actually, many things were not. Watch the documentary Hearts of Darkness and see how crazy this whole shoot was.
Prime has a couple great series I had to anticipate each week. 'Turn: Washington's spies' is a fantastic expose on the American revolution, and the sci-fi 'Man in the high Castle' which explores an alternate history where the axis powers win WW2.
Henry...if you _weren't_ confused by this film, I'd say there's something *very* wrong with you. 🤗 Like Peter Brook's _Lord of the Flies_ or Herzog's _Aguirre_ - the cast and crew were taken into the wilderness, genuine madness ensued, and a master filmmaker got enough shots to edit into these wonderful, insane films...the likes of which will certainly never be made ever again. Heck, _The Blair Witch Project_ falls into that category, albeit much cheaper and no "master filmmaker". But also far better than it *should* be.
The cast and crew must've faced some tough living conditions. Imagine facing those conditions while keeping yourself in top shape to act as the character. The budget ended up more than doubling, which showed the unexpected difficulties they were facing. I've heard of "The Blair Witch Project". Would you say it's worth a watch? I mean the 1999 one.
@@henryellow The 99 Blair Witch was made for only $60k by amateurs and was a massive hit. Largely due to the promotional material all implying that the film was *real* found footage. Instead of movie posters they put up "missing" posters for the characters. I was a kid then but I remember people genuinely believing it was real. I'd vote for skipping it. It's not a bad movie, but it's more interesting than it is good in my opinion. It's certainly popular, tho. And tbf it's better than most horror films including its 2016 remake.
The other versions of the movie are so much longer. Some people say the extra scenes are unnecessary. Whichever the case, I think this theatrical version is enough madness as it is 😂
The are a lot of movies about the Vietnam War, from the US perspective. Some try to be realistic, Apocalypse Now doesn't. I think in this movie the war is just the setting, not the point. There's a lot going on in the movie but I think a key element is that Captain Willard is really coming to grips with who he has become as he slowly gets closer to Kurtz. I think he's realizing that if he continues on his path, he will be Kurtz one day. Towards the beginning he says about his mission "and I'd never want another one". I think this is referring to him turning away from that path he was on. You say the movie doesn't show if he makes it back. I think it does show it. He 'makes it back' by killing Kurtz and not taking his place. Whether he makes it back to friendly territory or not doesn't matter. He's already made it back as far as he will ever get.
Thanks for pointing that out. His narration at the beginning means that he is telling the story after the whole mission ended. He was telling Kurtz's story as well as his own. I like how you interpret it as Willard "turning back from the path he was on". Indeed, he was similar to Kurtz in more ways than one. Thanks for sharing! 😊
@@kwantoon Yes, he did. If you watch HEARTS OF DARKNESS you will see him getting defibrillated on set by a nurse which is totally different from the narration over it which says he suffered a massive heart attack alone in his hotel room and subsequently dragged himself out onto the street where he was picked up by a public bus.
The set pieces are impressive but I never did like this film as a whole, perhaps because the ending doesn't mesh well with the rest of the film. I always wanted to know how my father, who served 6 or 7 tours of Vietnam felt about this work, but he was gone before I had a chance to ask him.
This movie is supposed to be a popular classic but for me it's one of my least favorite. I can usually figure out these type of movies (deep/dark) but this is a no for me I just don't get it and don't want to. It's just weird but the soundtrack is dope.
You should’ve watched redux… airborne school would be for younger people not older people.. the purple smoke didn’t give away their position either dude they’re going down a freaking river.. all of those tribesmen happen to be right along the river. Since when can smoke shoot up above the tree line in seconds for everyone to see miles around..? Never it can’t. They were just watching the river and they seen them.. smoke didn’t do anything.
I’m shocked at the amount of things he’s shocked about.. like over something simple like a flamethrower tank.. and no dude.. the music is just for them in the helicopter. It’s not for a warning or anything like that.. giving them a warning would be stupid. Clean was right to be all jumpy when they were dealing with the other boat .. Viet Kong could be hiding in those boats or trying to blend in with just normal people.. you gotta think of this stuff dude, it’s common sense.. 🤷♂️🤦♂️ if they reached for a weapon and hit you first it’s over.. they wouldn’t have that Playboy show in enemy territory either.. at least not with a lot of security.
It's my first time seeing a flamethrower tank 😂 It may be a simple and boring thing you see every day, but it's new to me and kinda amazing 😁 I thought the music also meant to disorient the enemy a bit because Kilgore said, "Classical stuff. Scares the hell out of the slopes. The boys love it." I guess I misunderstood the "slopes" as enemies.
Oh yes, this can be considered my first movie about the Vietnam war. So I know next to nothing about it. That's why comments by people who do have the knowledge (and are kind enough to share) help me learn more about things from movies. You learn something new every day! 😊
@@henryellow Don't take trolls seriously. The idiots criticizing your video never watched a single second of it. It's very likely the same person using multiple accounts. People like that think they're being clever and try to a rise out of people by saying randomly insulting things.
Yes. These boys were drafted. They went straight from high school to boot camp and then to Vietnam.
They didn't draft into the Navy, everyone in the Navy joined on their own. Only the Army drafted in Vietnam (Navy only had conscripts during WWII.)
Some surf lingo lesson:
"A peak": The tallest part of the wave where it starts breaking first.
"Point". Where the land juts out into the ocean relative to the other land around it. Think of a mini-peninsula. Points are renowned for producing good surfing waves.
"Beach break": When the beach is long and straight and without feature (unlike a point), the waves all break in a short moment, making it difficult to get a fun ride.
"Charlie don't surf". The Viets are not surfers, thus not worthy of having possession of a good Point wave.
"Blown out": When the wind blows from the ocean to the land, it is called an "onshore" wind and is the worst wind condition for surfing. The sudden heat from the Napalm cause the air to move to an onshore wind. Thus it was "blown out".
"Tide": The depth of the water, which changes with the tide, can radically change the quality of the surfing wave.
Thanks for explaining the lingo! 😊
I believe he and Lance made it out, because at the beginning he said after this mission he would never want another, as in past tense like he was looking back
Yes, good point.
I had forgotten he was narrating the movie at the beginning.
Regarding the sacrifice of the bull: Yes, it was an actual sacrifice. Cattle have tear ducts, like all mammals. They do not shed tears of sadness, that is a human reaction. My guess bulls shedding tears during sermonies probably do so due to the smoke and incense. But yeas, cattle feels pain fairly much like all mammals )including us). Bleeding a bull to death is very cruel. The cutting of the bull in the film looked more shocking, but at least it was quick.
The redux version with the French Army veterans is one of my favorite scenes in movie history. It's like they're ghosts hanging on to the past and it was really cool how they delved into the French Army's last stand at Dien Bien Phu.
The story of the children's arms being cut off was a story told to screenwriter John Milius by an actual Vietnam vet.
So it was possibly real?! 😱
An entire generation of the village children missing an arm 😢
No one will ever forget seeing a pile of little arms...
In the original release,Willard does call in the air strike and as the credits roll you see Kurtz's village getting bombed.
So he DID do it! 😯
I saw
At the theater when it was first released and yes throughout the ending credits Kurtz entire compound was being destroyed from the air strike, my wife Lao/Thai, we eat a lot of sticky rice, love it , thanks
Mango sticky rice? 😋
@@henryellow no usually just a side dish with sliced beef or laab/larb I think it’s called, wrapped in lettuce also
Actually in the original release, there were no closing credits, and the audience was given a printed program with cast and crew info. It was the subsequent mass release that had the air strike with the credits.
There's a bit of backstory to this movie that needs to be understood in relation to the Vietnam War: it was alleged by many that Vietnam had been unscrupulously exploited by the US government as a means of testing new weaponry and nourishing the Military Industrial complex with taxpayer dollars. This is probably a big factor in why the higher ups in the military wanted Kurtz dead - not only was he making them look bad with his unconventional techniques but he was ultimately threatening to 'work them out of a job' by winning the war completely.
It's part of the thematic reason that Kilgore's character takes up so much of the story for early part of the movie - Coppola is going out of his way to show that there are a lot of people in the US military who simply don't want the war to end because it's so profitable/convenient for them.
That's why halfway through the movie, I wondered why they would want to kill Kurtz, since he has done such a good job. The only thing he did (which the higher ups didn't like) is he took action without waiting for orders.
@@henryellow The Military Industrial Complex doesn't want to win wars they want continual war.
WELL that sounds like something an out of work/on strike LA screen writer would produce...Their 1st premise supposes that the war mongers have sole ownership of the process and they had no blood in the 50,000 who perished and they hired Sirhan to kill RFK in `68 to allow Nixon to win and keep the lie going, Henry....BUT I agree, there is always a strong number in the US military complex who LUV war and always will as there is in Russia, so that is the easy point to make...NOW the 2nd part Kurtz is in the clandestine ( MACV-sog) part of the Army that went into Laos/Cambodia (Ho-Chi-Min trail) and teamed up with locals to use as guides where as Kilgore was regular Army, unfortunately Coppola takes freedoms with many scenes as an amalgamation of war crimes committed which they could`ve bypassed, but the movie types luv to " Poke The Bear ", I know of these 1st hand from my brother. who was drafted into serving along with many of his pals from our urban neighborhood...I loved the movie, the Doors were a perfect selection for this film and I agree about movie theatres today, too bad we can`t stay and watch the flick again & again as long as you aint got nothin goin on , right Man....really diggin your videos ,Henry...keep on keep`n on bro
What a fantastic commentary and also a great edit. It's a dark, weird movie. You completely understood it, about the insanity of war, the insanity of THAT particular war, the dehumanization, the out-of-control behavior......yes, people were conscripted. "Drafted". There was a draft. So they were drafted and not particularly interested in fighting a war they did not understand. (Nobody understood that stupid war). I hope you understand that this movie in now way glorifies the Vietnam War from the American perspective. Quite the opposite! The Vietnam War movies of the 70s were the complete opposite of the movies about World War 2. This movie shows the incompetence, the waste of human life, the waste of money and firepower and it must have felt like "apocalypse.....NOW." lol. You totally did the right thing watching the theatrical version! Many people (including me) had the same reaction you did to this movie when it first came out regarding the ending Brando section of the movie. There are many reasons why that are best explained by the excellent documentary about the making of the movie. That would actually be an interesting reaction unto itself! No one has ever done that before! The making of this movie is as wild as the movie. It's just as good....and half as long!
Can't wait to see "Das Boot"! Wow!
I'm glad to hear that 😊
I believe this is my first Vietnam War movie (I don't include movies like Forrest Gump because it doesn't show the war throughout the whole movie). So I don't have a personal comparison to other Vietnam War movies.
It took me a while to feel the "madness" in the movie. I do agree with you regarding war being a waste of life and resources (regardless whichever war it was).
I've added the Heart of Darkness documentary into my list, along with the Attica one, so I'll watch them in the future 👍🏻
He wasn’t killed…
That’s why he’s narrating the story for us
'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse' is one of the best documentaries that you can watch. Hearts of Darkness in the book, in the real war and in making the film.
It talks about the things that Coppola and his crew faced during the filming of Apocalypse Now, right?
It's going on my list right next to the Attica documentary then 😊
All of the reviewers seem to forget when the “sweet little innocent” Viet Cong village girl threw the grenade in the helicopter and burned everyone (wounded included) to death. That kind of stuff happened all the time in Vietnam. You might be getting your shoes shined in Saigon and a little eight or 10 year old boy has a grenade hidden in his shoebox and blows your legs off. Chef didn’t want to board the sampan because that could easily happen or that entire crew could be V C, and could all pull out weapons and open up or toss grenades aboard the PBR. Stopping the Sampan and searching it for VC and for arms and munitions was the reason the boat crew was on the river in the first place. That was their everyday job. But chef and the rest of the crew were scared, and we’re on the razors edge just like they were every time they stopped a boat to search it when suddenly, for no obvious reason the girl charges screaming across the boat at chef committing what to everyone appears to be a hostile act. She could’ve been going to kill Chef, or perhaps trigger a Claymore, a grenade, or some other type of bomb that the VC regularly converted into what we would now call IED‘s. Clean did exactly what he was supposed to do and wasted her and the rest of the supposed VC crew before she or they could kill or maim the PBR crew. The Vietnamese girl should have known better than to do that. She had lived her entire life in a war zone. The fact that her action was so unexpected by everyone made her actions even more likely to have been the actions of someone who meant deadly harm to the crew. In a combat zone often you don’t get to wait and see what someone’s going to do, as waiting that long means you and your friends die. Afterward they wanted to help the wounded girl, which shows that they didn’t bear height toward her and didn’t shoot those people out of Malas. They did it out of fear and past violent experiences. But by this point, Willard has seen so much of what he feels is hypocrisy of ripping the enemy apart, and then giving the enemy medical care that he just blows her away because she’s getting in the way of his mission and he probably figures she would die anyway she was hurt so bad.
I understand your reasoning for that. Hesitation usually leads to death in a battlefield. There are innocents, and there are enemies. But there's no way to tell them apart. Innocent people die during war, especially if they live close to the war zone. It's inevitable. I know that, and it's sad.
I'm not even surprised Willard shot the girl. She wouldn't have made it, and it would only prolong her suffering.
"The Vietnamese girl should have known better than to do that. She had lived her entire life in a war zone. "
your reasoning is incredible, since when do kids do logical things?
The bull that was sacrificed in this movie was in fact bought by Francis Coppola as a gift to a certain jungle tribe which at that time were still cannibals. The gift was to honor the tribe and their spirit ancestors because the area where these movie shots were being taken was near that tribes home and the bull sacrifice was meant to be part of this movie to parallel that scene with Kurtz being sacrificed at the same time by Capt. Willard was. There is a documentary that explains all of this.
I know which documentary you're talking about. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. I haven't watched it yet 😉
There is one version of this movie that doesn't exist on any format which I watched at the theater when this movie first came out in 1979. In fact I watched it about half a dozen times over a 2 week period with myself and at later times with a good friend because back then you could stay in the theater and watch it over and over without being kicked out. The version I saw at the end of the movie is when the US army bombed the hell out of Kurtz's compound with everyone in it as Capt. Willard slowly sails away in the PTU boat with Lance. It wasn't clear if Capt. Willard ordered the air-strike or if the military already had the co-ordinance. But during the end you see a red flare slowly falling down in the distance and then suddenly everything explodes and lights up and you hear a creepy electric guitar playing in unison with the explosions as they destroy that compound and obliterate the entire sector one bomb after another while the subtitles roll past until it's finished. I don't know why they didn't have that ending as one of the version of this film because I thought it made sense when you see what Col. Kurtz had written in this manuscript he wanted Willard to give to his son on that one page is says, "drop the bomb, exterminate them all", in large red ink. The Redux version has the creepy electric guitar music I'm talking about but it's far more faint and of course the visual bombing of the compound isn't seen.
Back then, you could stay in the theatre and watch it over and over? Why don't they do that anymore...
Capt. Willard didn't order the air-strike in this version I watched. If he had, then the ending will match the beginning of the movie. Start with a bang and end with a bang.
Thanks for sharing! 😊
When the movie was to be released to video, Coppola decided that Willard would have been changed by his experience, and wouldn’t want to kill everyone in Kurtz’s compound, so he changed the original ending and credits scene. But, you’re correct, the original ending did bookend nicely with the start of the movie.
That was my memory as well. I didn’t know it was intentionally changed.
My father was in Vietnam as an advisor in the early 60s. By the time I was a senior in high school, the war was still going on and I was in danger of being drafted myself!
Right at this moment im building a Huey helicopter model kit while watching your reaction. Liked and subbed!
Cool! Welcome aboard 🤗
That thing was the tail of a crashed B-52 bomber.
Yes...the US military used conscription from 1940 until 1973, but they did not draft people under the age of 18. There were a couple of ways that people younger than 18 could serve in the military...one way was that people as young as 16 could volunteer, but I believe that they would need the permission of a parent or guardian. In some cases while the draft was still going on, 16 or 17 year old kids who committed non-violent crimes and were facing trial as adults could choose to serve in the military as an alternative to going to jail...I think that was usually up to the Judge to decide whether that was an option. Or kids could lie...like Clean did.
So it was a B-52 bomber...
Right, I was shocked that Clean wasn't even 18 years old.
There must've been a shortage of manpower if they would even allow 16 year old teenagers to volunteer themselves to fight on the front lines (thankfully they still need a parent/guardian's permission).
I believe Clean joined the military because he thought it would be "cool and fun". That didn't end well for him...
@@henryellow There was somewhat of a shortage of men, and that did make the folks in charge of taking in volunteers like Clean less likely to look very hard at whether they were really old enough to serve...and I believe Clean indicates that he lied about his age.
One thing the military did do to try and increase the amount of men they could draft was called Project 100,000. It was a project started by Robert McNamara to see if men who were a bit outside the normal standards for physical fitness, or mental fitness, or intelligence quotient could be trained to be successful soldiers. If you have seen Full Metal Jacket and/or Forrest Gump, you have seen characters that portray men who were almost surely part of Project 100k.
@@iKvetch558 Oh yes, I have watched Forrest Gump.
I get what you're referring to 👍🏻
Thanks for reminding me of that Project 100k, I've almost forgotten there was such a thing.
The big tail in the river was of a B52 strategic bomber. Its pretty much the correct scale.
The scenes where Sheen's brother was a Stand In for him only sowed his back. Only 18 and above were drafted. If you were under 18 you either volunteered with parental consent, or you were ordered into the army by a judge as an alternative to jail. Willard wasn't killed, since he is telling the story. In the theatrical release, though they don't show him calling in the air strike, it's assumed because the closing credits are of the ruins blowing up. That was cut from later versions. It was a plane. Many F4s and B52s were shot down in North Vietnam. Yes, the movie is fictional, however many of the characters and events are based on real people and events. I'll leave it to you to research.
Thanks for sharing! 😊
Saw at the theater excellent film! Thanks
Col. Kilgore is Tom Hagen from the Godfather.
What happened on the sampan is the young girl (possibly VC) charged across the boat at Chef. She would have known better than to do that, so as you observed, WHY DID SHE DO THAT? Clean did exactly what he was supposed to do and that is to protect Chef and the rest of the crew. Had he waited and had she been VC she could’ve triggered a grenade, grabbed a weapon or perhaps, distracted everyone so the rest of the VC on the sampan could grab their weapons. The reason Chef was scared out of his mind and refused to get in the sampan is that doing so was an extremely dangerous thing to do because a lot of the people were in fact VC. THAT WAS VIETNAM have you forgotten the young “harmless” Village girl that tossed the grenade into the helicopter and burned everyone on it alive, including the wounded? That happened because no one shot her when she charged toward the helicopter. Don’t judge people until you’ve stood in their shoes.
Yes, someone else mentioned this too. It's a fair point, considering the circumstances.
"fun for the whole family!"
The Vietnam War was Bad JuJu .... We Are Still Paying for It!
And the acting is off the charts. A+
I'm happy to be watching another video of yours, young Harry.
Lots of great actors in this film like Laurence Fishburne (Clean), Frederick Forrest (Chef), Dennis Hopper (Photo journalist) and so on. Fishburne is a kid in this but he has done great work these last 40 years like Boyz in the Hood and my favorite film with him, Deep Cover.
I like Redux because I prefer more complete versions but you aren't missing much in comparison to this.
Brando was actually aged up a little to play Vito in answer to your quandry about why he looks so different considering this was released about 6 years after Godfather.
Also, I've always interpreted Roach's reply to mean that he thinks the VC is in charge since they are pretty much dictating the field of battle.
Oh, I have not watched those two movies before. On my list they go! 😊
I barely recognized him without the godfather's hair and mustache 😂 he really looks so much younger.
Oh, that's an interesting way to look at it. I thought Roach assumed that Captain Willard was trying to assert dominance as the one in charge, so Roach replied "yes" to show that he acknowledges Willard.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! 😊
I like your review. A couple of things:
“This is the end…” the song. And literally the actual end of the story, told at the beginning.
--at the bridge--:
“Doesn’t that mean that they’re just like Kurtz, acting without orders or supervision?”
No, they were just acting on animal instinct. Kurtz had a purpose.
If you ever find the time and the inclination, watch the “Redux…” version. It is actually the full story as Copolla and Milius wanted to tell. It adds more heat to the pressure cooker of absurdity of their ascent upriver and the increasing madness as portrayed in Conrad’s original story.
Glad you enjoyed it! 😊
"No, they were just acting on animal instinct. Kurtz had a purpose."
Ah, that's true. A man with a purpose poses far more of a threat than a man without one.
Even more madness? 😂 Perhaps I will in the future 👍
As you checked the facts, the water buffalo was going to be sacrificed and eaten anyway, so they filmed it. So, it was never in the original screenplay. Actually, many things were not. Watch the documentary Hearts of Darkness and see how crazy this whole shoot was.
Oh yes, I've added that documentary to my list~ 😉
Amazing how they incorporated that as a parallel metaphor of the sacrifice of Kurtz.
Prime has a couple great series I had to anticipate each week. 'Turn: Washington's spies' is a fantastic expose on the American revolution, and the sci-fi 'Man in the high Castle' which explores an alternate history where the axis powers win WW2.
I see. Thanks for sharing 😉
Henry...if you _weren't_ confused by this film, I'd say there's something *very* wrong with you. 🤗
Like Peter Brook's _Lord of the Flies_ or Herzog's _Aguirre_ - the cast and crew were taken into the wilderness, genuine madness ensued, and a master filmmaker got enough shots to edit into these wonderful, insane films...the likes of which will certainly never be made ever again.
Heck, _The Blair Witch Project_ falls into that category, albeit much cheaper and no "master filmmaker". But also far better than it *should* be.
The cast and crew must've faced some tough living conditions.
Imagine facing those conditions while keeping yourself in top shape to act as the character. The budget ended up more than doubling, which showed the unexpected difficulties they were facing.
I've heard of "The Blair Witch Project". Would you say it's worth a watch? I mean the 1999 one.
@@henryellow The 99 Blair Witch was made for only $60k by amateurs and was a massive hit. Largely due to the promotional material all implying that the film was *real* found footage. Instead of movie posters they put up "missing" posters for the characters. I was a kid then but I remember people genuinely believing it was real.
I'd vote for skipping it. It's not a bad movie, but it's more interesting than it is good in my opinion. It's certainly popular, tho. And tbf it's better than most horror films including its 2016 remake.
@@gggooding I understand. I won't place it as a priority, but perhaps include it as a fun choice in a poll in the future.
Thanks for sharing 😊
Supernaturally powerful film. Nothing else even comes close. Coppola was willing to dive into dark magic and fundamental truth.
Sorry about your Amazon experience, but I also think the theatrical version is better than the redux.
The other versions of the movie are so much longer. Some people say the extra scenes are unnecessary.
Whichever the case, I think this theatrical version is enough madness as it is 😂
The movie was based on Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS.
Marlon Brando's contract called for him to work for 3 weeks at $1 million a week.
$1 million a week!! 🤯
@@henryellow Yep. Not bad work if you can get it.
The are a lot of movies about the Vietnam War, from the US perspective. Some try to be realistic, Apocalypse Now doesn't. I think in this movie the war is just the setting, not the point. There's a lot going on in the movie but I think a key element is that Captain Willard is really coming to grips with who he has become as he slowly gets closer to Kurtz. I think he's realizing that if he continues on his path, he will be Kurtz one day. Towards the beginning he says about his mission "and I'd never want another one". I think this is referring to him turning away from that path he was on. You say the movie doesn't show if he makes it back. I think it does show it. He 'makes it back' by killing Kurtz and not taking his place. Whether he makes it back to friendly territory or not doesn't matter. He's already made it back as far as he will ever get.
Thanks for pointing that out. His narration at the beginning means that he is telling the story after the whole mission ended. He was telling Kurtz's story as well as his own.
I like how you interpret it as Willard "turning back from the path he was on". Indeed, he was similar to Kurtz in more ways than one.
Thanks for sharing! 😊
Martin Sheen in fact had several heart attacks during the 300+ days of filming.
Poor guy needed to get his heart checked...
@@henryellow At the time he was a five-pack-a-day smoker.
@@vincentsaia6545 Oh, then there's no surprise there. What would be surprising though, is if he keeps up his smoking after all those heart attacks.
In fact, on March 5th of 1977 at age 36 Martin Sheen suffered 1 near fatal heart attack. That's the truth, he didn't have several heart attacks.
@@kwantoon Yes, he did. If you watch HEARTS OF DARKNESS you will see him getting defibrillated on set by a nurse which is totally different from the narration over it which says he suffered a massive heart attack alone in his hotel room and subsequently dragged himself out onto the street where he was picked up by a public bus.
Pronounced Cope-ola, not Cu-ppola.
The set pieces are impressive but I never did like this film as a whole, perhaps because the ending doesn't mesh well with the rest of the film. I always wanted to know how my father, who served 6 or 7 tours of Vietnam felt about this work, but he was gone before I had a chance to ask him.
Sorry about your father.
Pronounced "Duvall," not "Duvalle."
This movie is supposed to be a popular classic but for me it's one of my least favorite. I can usually figure out these type of movies (deep/dark) but this is a no for me I just don't get it and don't want to. It's just weird but the soundtrack is dope.
I like the Francis cupola on that famous church and a duvaly on my bed!
You should’ve watched redux… airborne school would be for younger people not older people.. the purple smoke didn’t give away their position either dude they’re going down a freaking river.. all of those tribesmen happen to be right along the river. Since when can smoke shoot up above the tree line in seconds for everyone to see miles around..? Never it can’t. They were just watching the river and they seen them.. smoke didn’t do anything.
Oh, is that so. I thought they were using smoke-producing devices usually used to send distress signals.
I’m shocked at the amount of things he’s shocked about.. like over something simple like a flamethrower tank.. and no dude.. the music is just for them in the helicopter. It’s not for a warning or anything like that.. giving them a warning would be stupid.
Clean was right to be all jumpy when they were dealing with the other boat .. Viet Kong could be hiding in those boats or trying to blend in with just normal people.. you gotta think of this stuff dude, it’s common sense.. 🤷♂️🤦♂️ if they reached for a weapon and hit you first it’s over.. they wouldn’t have that Playboy show in enemy territory either.. at least not with a lot of security.
It's my first time seeing a flamethrower tank 😂
It may be a simple and boring thing you see every day, but it's new to me and kinda amazing 😁
I thought the music also meant to disorient the enemy a bit because Kilgore said, "Classical stuff. Scares the hell out of the slopes. The boys love it." I guess I misunderstood the "slopes" as enemies.
The rant was unnecessary. I don’t recommend you do this. Nobody cares.
I hope you’re not suffering any ptsd from this horrific experience. 😂
Rant? Which part are you referring to? 🤔
@@henryellowDon't listen to him, it's a reaction video, the whole point is to see your reaction.
your lack of knowledge on this subject is painful
Oh yes, this can be considered my first movie about the Vietnam war. So I know next to nothing about it.
That's why comments by people who do have the knowledge (and are kind enough to share) help me learn more about things from movies.
You learn something new every day! 😊
@@henryellow Don't take trolls seriously. The idiots criticizing your video never watched a single second of it. It's very likely the same person using multiple accounts. People like that think they're being clever and try to a rise out of people by saying randomly insulting things.