Roach aka Herbert Rice is my father. He passed away today after a short battle with a vicious form of cancer at the age of 62. It is pleasure to see the comments here that honor him, Thank You.
I'm sorry about your father's passing. He was a bad ass in this scene. I'm going to buy a grenade launcher and have it painted like the one in the movie not a real one a BB gun one because real ones are obviously illegal in California. I send you my condolences if he's your actual father. But he was a bad ass dude.
Mr Rice, Thank you for sharing that information. Mr H Rice did a wonderful job in characterizing and giving life to not only "Roach," but to that whole scene. My condolences to you and your family. FYI Trivia: Mr Rice also acted in Youngblood (1978) and Rumblefish (1983). Albert
Condolences. BTW, IMDB lists his birthday as March 23, 1951 which would make him 62 right now. You might want to have them fix that if you're being sincere about your statement.
Sorry to hear about your father...this scene and character he did here sticks with you...it was a special accomplishment...you should be proud...God Bless You
Normally I would be impressed that Herb Rice was your dad, but I need to know for real. I've taken computer safety lessons a lot and I know from the lectures and personal experience with a cyber-bully kid who harassed me by claiming that he was a 'Nam veteren a few years back; that there are liars out there in cyberspace. I'm not accusing you for fibbing, but I need to know the truth just to be sure. There's barely enough information about him and there's no way to know for sure he was married and has children. I just want proof that the Roach was your father, that's all I'm asking.
Was never in country (USMC 71-74, just on stand-by on U S S Monticello, LSD 35, Sept 72- til "peace treaty" Mar 73.... mission was to evacuate Da Nang or Saigon.... which ever was gonna fall 1st.... never happened. Was so lucky that there were still Viet Vets that survived the s--t , and tried to mentor us worthless, cherry, FNG's. When I 1st saw this flick, this was the scene that I couldn't stop thinking about. May all Vietnam Veterans , in one way or another, have the peace and comfort they earned.
That wasn't the thousand yard stare, that was the look of the damned. Remember that Conrad's The Heart of Darkness was the inspiration for Apocalypse Now, and the Do Long Bridge is a metaphor for the gateway to hell.
@@44excalibur you're right but it fits perfectly though...anyone who has grown up with combat veterans knows those eyes. My grandfather was a .30 cal machine gunner on pork chop hill in Korea and my 8 year old dumbass asked him if he ever killed anyone and he looked at me and those eyes and I felt like he could see right through me and he said I shot at them took a sip of coffee and looked out the window...end of discussion. Never asked anything more. My mother was pissed when she found out I had asked him that.
Aside from the signature Roach character, just also want to point out the machine gunner also put up a great performance. At 0:09 when he realized he was talking to an officer, his military training and awareness of rank kicked in and woke him up to give a salute and brief the captain on the situation, but then the VC was screaming again, and he instantly snapped back into his fanatic shooting as if no sobering had ever happened. As in nothing could rescue these soldiers from pointless, ruthless and mind-consuming fanaticm of war.
It's not in this clip, but another officer tells Willard he's in the asshole of world and said that he's getting the hell of out there. Willard has to press on after hearing that. Then it got worse from there. Total madness. But Willard pressed on.
siR miLLs Insanity runs the whole place.There is no commanding officer in Do Long.I recommend the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.The movie has very obvious influences from the book.The Do Long Bridge is a metaphore from the book actually.By the way this movie is full of metaphores and everytime i watch it i find something new.
I saw his response as a simple "militaristic" one...a more casual version of "Yes, Sir". He was asked a simple question and gave a simple answer. In the mind of a well trained soldier, it's easy to imagine him thinking, "I will answer the question asked (with nothing more than than the most basic required response) and if the person asking wants MORE information regarding who that person "in charge" is, he/she will ask THAT question".
Yeah man. Coppola is a genius. Same goes for the way Kurtz was shot at the end of the film, face half lit, covered in sweat. Out of his fucking gourd crazy.
Jim X that's Francis Ford Coppola for you total and complete "vision" not just sticking people in front of a camera and letting them Act. Uses the scenery to tell the story along with the actors.
Probably the spookiest part of the whole film, the alternating light, echo of voices, Jimi Hendrix in the background...and then Roach comes out of the darkness
Its quite mental.soldiers fighting against enemy but at the same tine fighting against war in a way of not becoming too much like robots or something. This guy knows that when it comes back his life might wont be like others. Hes the only one that knows theres no place for him and from that he accepts his part. Its kinda dark but at the same time incredible. Nothing was normal for him ,nothing cares. Maybe he can make paces with the vietnamese,maybe not. But he accepts the happening.
yes, only one war movie : "Come and see" (idi i smotri, Elem Klimov, 1985, Belarus) it is one of my favourite war movies, and he inspired Saving private Ryan's Omaha beach scene ...It is just incredible, no other movie manage to capture the essential evil and madness of WWII
The whole Do Lung Bridge scene is the definition of the phrase 'war is hell.' The horror theme park like ambiance. And total craziness. Everyone there is already dead, and as mentioned, they fight for a bridge that gets destroyed every day and rebuild again. How is this not hell?
its a reference to sysyphus myth. the guy who cursed by the gods to pull the large boulder on top of the mountain, only to witness it rolling downhill again and again
The whole scene gives me the sense as if its some kind of Limbo or Purgatory. The soldiers trying to get on the boat to get out of Do Lung, one or a couple soldiers saying something along the lines of "You'll get what you deserve!" "Take me home!"
The Roach character and this scene are taken straight from the Khe Sanh chapter of Esquire magazine correspondent, Michael Herr's, book, Dispatches. "A Marine brushed past us. He had a mustache and a piece of camouflaged parachute silk fastened bandana-style around his throat, and on his hip he wore a holster which held an M-79 grenade launcher. For a second I thought I'd hallucinated him. I hadn't heard him approaching, and I tried now to see where he might have come from, but I couldn't. The M-79 had been cut down and fitted with a special stock. It was obviously a well-loved object; you could see the kind of work that had gone into it by the amount of light caught from the flares that glistened on the stock. The Marine looked serious, dead-eyed serious, and his right hand hung above the holster, waiting. The screaming had stopped again." The scene continues, but I won't transcribe further. Herr is credited only for narration on the screenplay credits, but several of the scenarios are based upon this book.
There are some weird connections between Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. Michael Herr wrote the script for FMJ. And R. Lee Ermey was in both films - he's seen in one of the copters during the ride of the valkyries aerial assault.
Such a powerful scene. The Do Long bridge, in my eyes, represents the farthest outskirts of civilization at war, as it were. At the beginning we visit Kilgore in a Valhalla of sorts, but this bridge is Purgatory, it is Pandomonium, it is Hell. No commanding officers, no real backup, no one in the know of what's going on. Just an eternal present of screams and explosions. Those not completely gone beg to be taken away from here, silently being rejected to being released from their torment. These soldiers truly are the doomed and the damned, forever trapped in Limbo.
This isn't hell or limbo if you're like the Roach, it's just another day skipping through the forest, tip toeing through tulips, another pleasant swim with some good friends. Yeah
@@blacktiger5985 The Roach is deeper in this limbo than anybody. He seems to be the only one there who has accepted that his skin is melting off in hell.
And that’s why so many of our veterans end up homeless, completely broken, suicidal, war ain’t a joke or a badass action film violence porn. This is one of those few movies that had the balls to describes that
Technically it's called "sound design," and it's used very skillfully here to represent The Roach's utter concentration. He turns off the tape player and _listens_ because no, he doesn't need a flare, he knows exactly where to place the grenade by sound alone, and he can close off everything else.
Focus - your seeing and hearing the War from Roach Perspective. He hears nothing but the enemy soldier, and has only one duty but to kill the enemy soldier.
I think the point of this scene is to show two different responses to an unpredictable, difficult war. The first soldier manning the machine gun, shooting wildly, is perhaps what a normal person would do. He's someone who wants to return to the civilian world, and is just trying to survive the horrors of war. He's terrified and nervous, and he acts wildly out of fear for his own life. The Roach on the other hand has totally accepted his role as a warrior and a killer. He has given up his hope of emerging unscathed and seems to be at peace with the fact that he might die at any moment. When we first meet him he is sleeping comfortably cradling his grenade launcher like a baby. He smokes the vietnamese soldier with proficiency and calm, having given up his humanity in order to adapt fully to the rigors of combat. It is notable that Willard addresses him as "soldier." He embodies Kurtz' vision of what a warrior should be.
JackyBarf an interesting reading of the meaning of the scene. watching my dvd of of this film over the years ive come to believe the scene is a symbolic metaphor for the Vietnam War itself. Willard finds everyone doing everything mostly independent of each other among the absolute chaos, Willard is looking for the officer in charge and not only cannot find an OIC(officer in charge) but after questioning everyone he encounters he finds that not only does no one know where the OIC is, they dont even know who he is. eventually he runs into the soldier operating the Browning .50 cal MG who automatically assumes Willard is the officer in charge. finally after Roach kills the VC/NVA psyops officer yelling through the bullhorn Willard finds the one person on the base who does know who's in charge...........and he's not interested in revealing who it is. not seen in this clip is Willard being told that everyday they repair the bridge and as soon as they do the VC/NVA come back and blow it up. also as they shove off in the PBR a number of soldiers jump into the water in an attempt to board the PBR to get out of there. the chaos of the base represents the lack of cohesive action in the overall war in South Vietnam with individual infantry/airborne/marine divisions being given responsibility of their respective area of operations with sparse orders coming down from HQ on how to go about that. most importantly those divisions were operating independently of the other divisions around them. a stark contrast to the united operations during WWII were divisions were all operating in cohesive unity for a specific unitedstrategic goal. Willards attempt to find the OIC represents the general nature of the vietnam war where in stark contrast to WWII where the chain of command resulted in a direct line from General Marshall to Gen Eisenhower (European Theatre) and Gen MacArthur (South West Pacific Theatre) in Vietnam Gen Westmoreland followed by his replacement Gen Abrams were nominally in charge but had to contend with constant limitations, interference and sabotage from the Congress as well as the secretary of defense and even ambassadors to neighboring countries like William Sullivan (ambassador to Laos) who interfered by dictating what the army could do and even what type of weapons they were allowed to use. the one soldier who does know who's in charge but wont say represents the lack of communication, information and the secrecy many soldiers felt they were dealing with from higher headquarters and even military intelligence. the narrative of them building the bridge everyday and the VC/NVA blowing it up every night is an analogy of during the war they would run an operation, say for example, pushing the NVA off of a mountain, as soon as they did, after taking heavy casualties, they would immediatley leave and then the NVA would return to the mountain and the army would retake the mountain, taking heavy casualties and then once the NVA retreated the army would withdraw the soldiers again and then do it all over again. Just meaningless, strategically objectiveless operations with no long term strategy to win the war. the soldiers jumping into the water to get on the PBR is indicative of no one wanting to be there and just waiting for their tour to end and go home. that's my impression of this scene anyways. id love to meet John Milius or Coppola to ask them if my impression of this scene is what they intended
Nice interpretation. I noticed too that the first soldier still respected the chain of command while the Roach did not. Perhaps part of the transformation into the warrior, Roach's "commander" is combat? the kill-or-be-killed mentality?
The first time I watched this movie was on a laptop during a power failure. There was a tropical thunderstorm raging outside, and it was scorching hot and humid in the house. You could smell the ozone from the lightning, and the rain was roaring on the roof, almost drowning out my headphones. Still one of the most vivid memories of my life.
My favorite scene in the movie. Herbert Rice's character "Roach" - flawless. Total warrior. And 100% true that grenadiers could/can still drop 40 mike mike HE with astounding accuracy, even at night, even by sound. It's obvious Mr Rice took his job as an actor very seriously. The Roach character in this scene is based on a real grunt that the photographer and correspondent Tim Page spent time with, who had a cut down M79, painted up with tiger stripes.
Page (himself a grade A madman) spent time in the field with the Special Forces and Lurps. He gets quite a few paras in Michael Herr's Vietnam memoir 'Dispatches.' Herr of course co-wrote Apocalypse Now with John Milius, hence its unimpeachable authenticity and documentary-like qualities. No film comes close to the insanity of the Nam experience in the way that Apocalypse Now does. As a journalist I was lucky enough to get to spend a couple of hours in a hotel room with Martin Sheen in 1999 - and all we talked about was my favourite film lol!
The look on the Roach's face says it all. He's accepted he's already dead, and he don't give AF. Ironically, he probably made it home alive because he had that attitude
I was a grenadier ( M-79) with the 173 ABN at Bao Loc RVN in 68. I loved that weapon because it was highly accurate and with only a string and knots on the front sling you could use it in the dark. It was hard during firefights when the VC got to close you almost had to shoot it straight up to bring a round down in front of your bunker. Those were the best of time and the worst. I will be gone soon, hope someone remembers what we did and all those that never made it back.
shackyl MY FAVORITE SCENE IN THE WHOLE MOVIE!! AFTER HE SLUMPED HIS ASS HE SAYS... MOTHAFUCKA!!! And at the end. when asked... do you know who's in command here? And he answers... YEAH. THAT SHIT WAS... BOSS JEFE TYPE SHIT! BECAUSE HE DID KNOW... HE WAS IN COMMAND. OF HIS FEAR, HIS SPIRIT, AND; DEFINITELY THE FIELD OF COMBAT!!
This is such a deep scene. The way Roach loads his Thumper gun says everything: he has seen and done it all. The others were probably only dumped in the trenches with him a week ago. He has clearly been there for a LONG time. But when I first saw this movie and how he loaded it, it told me the VC was a dead man before he even pulled the trigger. The stare in his eyes are those of a vet who knows his enemy well. He didn't really need to say "He's close to me." I KNEW he would hit him no matter where he hid.
Honestly, from the first time I saw this movie, even amidst all the insanity displayed in the rest of the movie, this scene always unnerved me the most. I don't know if it's the lighting, the non-stop bombs falling, the sheer insanity of all the soldiers there. But this scene always struck me with a feeling of, if there is a Hell (ie, a place of pure torture and chaos, where all measure of sanity is gone), this is the best representation of it I've ever seen.
I felt the same way.. I think it's how mad everyone seemed to have went. How distant they are from any form of humanity.. The fact you hardly can tell who is what and what is who. The lack of sense and the music and how worn out everyone is, mixed with the haunting screams and the endless bombing really messed with me..
first stop: beach with killgore, where they dehumanise the enemy and love the war second stop: the playbunnyshow, where they lose all compassion for their brothers in arms and lose the innocence, as they attack eachother and attack the women who represent the 'innocence' of the people at home third stop: do long bridge where they lose their mind and become insane last stop: heart of darkness the river represent the human mind, as they go deeper into the jungle, the go deeper into the madness, they lose their humanity, compassion, and mostly become insane, except willard and kurtz (who had a sane mind but an insane soul)
Same here. I saw myself at that machine gun, scared out of my mind, screaming every expletive I can think of, shooting at anything that looked like it might move. What's more terrifying: It *could* have been me. I've never watched this movie again, not in it's entirety, since the first time. Like someone else said here, in my mind, it's always been a horror movie.
@@SwingingInTheHood I agree, the depths this movie goes in dealing with the human psyche are frightening... More than any other war film I can think of this one really deals with war as a psychological beast on the collective human conscience. FMJ as well tbh
One little detail in this scene caught my attention when I first saw it...The acid rock guitar playing briefly on the portable cassette recorder...I was a big Hendrix fan, and that really sounded like Hendrix. I finally found out that it was played by Randy Hansen, who made a career out of Hendrix tribute type performances. It's perfect. It's sounds like a Hendrix bootleg played on a little crappy cassette player with low batteries: watery, eerie, shoebox, but still somehow undeniably powerful...Nice touch...
Do yourself a favor and search out some of Randy's videos, there are a lot of them here. What he is doing goes way beyond a "tribute band, " quote, unquote. That said, the screaming guitar on the tape player adds to the nightmarish quality of this scene. A brilliantly conceived and perfectly executed piece of filmmaking.
I was 14 years old when I saw this movie at some grindhouse in my neighborhood in south Queens. That was the end of John Wayne, etc., glory and gung ho, for me - this one wised me up but-quicklike. This was a not a war movie, it was a horror movie.
Absolutely right. This film transcends any conventional categorizations of films people usually use. One of many aspects of the film that make it truly great, and a timeless classic.
Because war IS real life horror. 99.9% of "war movies" are absolute nonsense, highly sugar coated propaganda that often glorify warfare, even when they try to depict some measure of suffering or horror they are often mostly glorification and completely unrealistic, patriotic garbage for the entertainment of idiots.
I remember the heat Francis Ford Coppola took from some vets after this movie dropped, saying the movie wasn't like their experience. He wasn't making a documentary. He was making a point. And this was one of the scenes that nailed it.
RIP HERBERT RICE. The guy perfects the meta-narrative here, even the way he says his dialogue compared to the other two black soldiers is incredible. For two minutes, it was his movie.
The Roach is a the last outpost of sanity in a war, before he reaches total insanity = Marlon Brandos Character who has gone completely mad without sense of life or death. Roach symbolizes the end of sanity on his trip through a war a river and mans sanity.
Pablo Duran Kilgore symbolizes war for amusement, this is obvious in that he places surfing and killing for fun above actual orders from up top. And the fact he treats a low level soldier who is a famous surfer with more respect than a fellow officer. The second stop (hau phat I believe) symbolizes war for greed, you see the men turn on each other for women and admiring motorcycles (vehicles typically associated with the self and ego). The third stop in Do Long (Too Long) is indeed war through complete insanity, as you can even hear faint circus music in the background and lights are set up to look like a circus tent. I think these three are just meant to illustrate the specific byproducts of war itself.
I was so impressed with those tiger stripes on that M-79 that I had them tattooed on my dick. 39 years later it looks like somebody stepped on a dirty green bug.
Embarrassing, huh? That shit still hurts. Stupid me. It did get me some really kinky inked bitches in the the early 2000's who wanted to gnaw on that. I'm literally too old to give a fuck any more.
Perfect scene.. it uses nearly everything that's great about cinema.. the lighting contrasts.. of course, the sound design.. the surrealism that's also humorous and intense.. the metaphor for "the roach" using echolocation like a bat!. So much more!
Roach was so high in this scene that he was existing on a different astro-plane...this character was able use a six or seventh sense to eliminate the enemy. An extremely compelling character indeed.
Just like my old high as a kite counterstrike days...would be out of my mind connected to the game just sorta letting my subconscience guiding my every shot.
I think the thing with the whole “do you know who’s in command here?” line is simply that Willard asks him, Roach says yeah, which means he knows, then he doesn’t tell Willard. It’s the act of not telling him that’s more important than who actually is in command. At this point, Willard is not even slightly in control of events around him anymore. To me that’s all that the line drills home. There’s a total loss of control, both in the war and with his mission. What Roach implies but doesn't say is "whoever actually is in command, it's certainly not you".
Wrong. There is no command. Roach know who is, but the problem is, it wont make sense. You just have to be there. Willard wasnt a part of it, he was an observer of the madness
Goddamn this is my favorite scene of this movie. This is the point of no return, after that, there is no way to escape the horror and deafening madness of war, pure chaos, man made hollow shell by traumatizing experiences. There is no authority, no chain of command, not even a purpose left, all hope is lost and there is no point in any of what's happening but IT IS happening and that's what's make this scene so powerful for me. Anyway, this movie is truly a masterpiece.
Yeah, it's the end of reason. By the way, I highly recommend you read Heart of Darkness if you like Apocalypse Now. It's the inspiration for the film and a true classic.
Every time Willard shows up, the first question he asks is, "Who's in charge here?" The answer is "Nobody" every single time, regardless of who seems to be in command. That's the point of this scene, since Roach doesn't even bother mentioning a commanding officer, as in the earlier scenes with different units in the movie.
My interpretation. When I took a Negotiations class for my MBA about 20 years ago, one of the things that will always stick with me is the lesson of who has the power in a negotiation? The professor posed this very question in the first class. Students started calling out answers, "The person who is smarter?". The professor said "Nope". "The person who wants to win the most?" Nope. "The person who has more money?" Nope. "The person who can argue better?" Nope. "The person who is more educated?" Nope. I'll never forget the next sentence. Picture a short, skinny balding guy with glasses in a suit. Then picture him saying, "The person who has all of the power in a negotiation is...the person who doesn't give a shit." Meaning, if you can walk away, you can get someone to do anything, and thus you have the power. For instance, have you ever threatened to walk out of a car dealership when the won't lower the price? So the answer to the question, "Do you know who's in command here?" is basically, "Who has all of the power?" The "Yeah" is, "It's me, because I don't give a shit anymore."
I always thought the "yeah" was a generic response by Roach to everything anyone asked him because he was so distant and haunted already, he wouldn't pay attention to any words others said
That was the second most memorable line from Apocalypse Now after "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" Who's your commanding officer? Ain't chu?
I tell the "Aint chu" story/joke in Corporate America, whenever I'm on a project that is disorganized, and nobody knows who is really running the chaos. The older workers always remember this scene and they always get it. The kids 2 years out of college have no Idea what I'm talking about....
I always thought it was more of a spiritual meaning, Im not a religious man by any means but I always thought that that "yeah" was a nod to the fact that roach did not have any control over his own situation, and that he was placing himself in gods hands. I know that opinion seems flowery but I really feel that that scene takes the movie to a new almost psychedelic level. I feel that roach is completely detached from reality and he feels like he is being controlled by another energy. My favorite scene of all time.
No, disagree. I think it was met that the VC/NVA were in charge there. No matter how many battles they were defeated they were always around and kept fighting till victory. Pretty much Charlie called the shots.
The entire Do Lung bridge sequence has been my favorite from the first time I saw this movie. The machine gunner has always reminded me of Gary Dourdan lol. Also not to sound insensitive but Herb Rice; the actor who plays Roach; is not listed as deceased anywhere I could find, and sites like imdb are usually on top of this stuff, especially if it's been almost a decade. So it's a very strong possibility that that commenter may have been lying.
I love the silence before roach fires. You can see explosions and flairs going off nearby and you SHOULD be hearing them. But all that is there is this intimate silence between the soldier and the person they’re about to kill.
george mikal you’ll notice that as they go farther up the river, the nights become darker: dusk/twilight at the delta, a brightly lit-but otherwise pitch-uso show, and then do long, sporadic and chaotic light with nothing but (the heart of) darkness in front of them. The men that journey this far in towards it either try to flee (the guys in the river), are driven mad by it (the machine gunner) or are broken and made into potential “hosts” for the heart of darkness (roach)
A cool head in the midst of chaos is worth its weight in gold...Back in the sixties when nuclear annihilation of the planet was a real possibility, scientists thought that one of the only form of life that would survive it was the cockroach...I wonder if that is how "the Roach" got his characters name.
This scene is just fucking greatness. The Roach is the last gatekeeper between battlefield conflict and the invitation into Kurtz' world. He's the holder of the key.
To be fair - the Vietnam campaign completely undermined traditional notions of tactical and strategic combat. There was no front line. Just isolated skirmishes where the enemy could materialize in front of you, behind and even out of the earth below seemingly from nowhere.
@@deaddropholiday That makes Roach´s sleeping even more eerie. Then again, though an other war entirely, during the Winter War against the overwhelming Russians, some Finnish defenders dozed off even in mid battle in thier trench due to lack of sleep and almost constant battle. The effects the war has on people.
@@jonathanlee5314 The drugs were allowed into the military by the military. Just as they were allowed into the German army by the German army. Because its incredibly difficult to fight an imperialist war of occupation with a conscript army. Vietnam proved this. Which is why they went fully professional thereafter.
@@deaddropholidayNonsense. Most Germa n soldiers were volunteers not conscripts and the use of pervitin was vastly overstated. It was mainly used by pilots and during assault/breakthrough attack plans
Just waiting on that dude's follow up from "Yeah..." is freaky. You keep waiting to here something corny like "God" or something, but he doesn't say anything else.
+thebigmalkowski I've actually interpreted the line, the fact that they go straight to the Roach, and his skill as the Roach was the CO. He's far down the river, but he's just a bit behind Willard and Kurtz
this is a really strong scene. You can see so much of being completely terrified to being completely numb. The "yeah" while not looking at anything, like yeah i own this shit, thats fucking gold
In 1979, my girl and I were just looking for a movie to go see. Sooooo, we just picked this one at random. For the next four days I was affected by the movie.....I wasn't expecting this.
if you understand vietnamese, the sapper from the beginning was already heavily wounded and detached from the rest of his unit, desperately calling for help as hes probably bleeding out in a ditch somewhere, all while still having enough to fight back with harsh languages.
Obviously the Roach is beaucoup fucked up, wasted and in a semi to full scale blackout. He's mainly operating on muscle memory and a deep deep down sense of pride as a marksman grenadier. In his drug fueled haze he is really not even fully aware of Willard's presence, it may be a vague fuzziness of him being there, if any at all. When Willard asks him the question, It's obvious the Roach is initially surprised as Willard's voice bores a small hole into the Roach's mind fully alerting him to Willard's presence. The Roach then smiles prior to answering the question, as given the full context of the situation he finds both the question and formality of it comically absurd. His "Yea" response is nothing more than being a wise ass to an absurd question or his way of saying who gives a fuck.
There weren't any bodies. ("There's one still alive underneath them bodies.") It was just one enemy yelling, to harm morale. Psyops, like the music from the choppers. And it was working, until Roach angrily put an end to it. Roach saw through it too. He saw through everything.
For a few years I worked with a young guy who could do anything with some software we used. Any time we were stumped by it, I said "Get the roach!" and he show and get it done instantly...
An American soldier who died in the Vietnam War can be heard playing lead guitar on a great 1966 rock song he co-wrote. At TH-cam it is The Reddlemen - I'm Gonna Get In That Girl's Mind. He is Charles Michael Cotton, a travelin' soldier, from Texas to Vietnam, then to his grave in his Texas hometown.
The roach is gone, his mind got lost somewhere in the jungle of Vietnam, I feel bad for the roach if he leaves Vietnam. Many soldiers, marines or sailors become cops, fire fighters or some other great career unfortunately for the soldiers in Vietnam they didn't get shit when they got back home.
Manny Zaragoza Not to argue with you but the wars we fight today is more technical advanced than Vietnam. That war the US wasn't prepared the us. military really haven't fought a guerilla jungle war since the Spanish American War. Except for some parts of WW2 in the Pacific Theater.
I tell the "Aint chu" story/joke in Corporate America, whenever I'm on a project that is disorganized, and nobody knows who is really running the chaos. The older workers always remember this scene and they always get it. The kids 2 years out of college have no Idea what I'm talking about....
Roach is one of my all time favorite characters with his unstoppable M79 (we don't use those anymore, now they're mounted on the bottom of an M16 to make the M203). The soldier on the .50 cal is cool too because it's such a believable performance.
Reminds me of the line from Dante's Inferno "abandon all hope ye who enter here." No, never read the book, but this quote has always stuck with me. What an awful place to be. Essentially abandoned, god knows how far away from an actual friendly military base, and have nowhere to retreat to, these poor souls are in hell.
Ain't nobody gonna talk about how creepy this scene is ? The goosebumps are rising !!!!! This scene by itself probably doesn't show you exactly the type of ambience but still that shit freaked me out when I watched the movie.
Screen play Michael Herr...a civilian correspondent during the war. I think he worked for Harpers Magazine free lancing. He wrote a Book called "Dispatches" ...Great writer...must read if you want insight too the insanity of the Vietnam War...up close and personal
When I saw this movie I wondered how he even noticed a captain was speaking to him with the on and off lighting and the insanity of war all about them.
when i was in the marines, my battalion SgtMaj carried one of those (M79) when we were in somalia. first time i saw him with it i was like 'oh shit!! roach is here' lol
This movie is a masterpiece. To capture this feeling. The soldier has accepted death, he knows he will probably die at any moment. Acceptance has given him his calmness, but just waiting is driving him insane. He does not think he is in charge, he knows he is in hell, and we all know who is in charge of hell. That is his unspoken answer to the question.
This was my favorite scene in the movie, I loved the roach's tiger striped thumper, possibly a reference to the tiger scene already. But the way The Roach does business is beautiful, his business is killing and business is good
I've heard that someone on the production team was in Vietnam and knew a guy who carried a tiger striped m79 and that's what they based it off but I don't know how true that is
@@prylosecorsomething3194 Back when hollywood was practical and badass if you saw someone carrying a decorated firearm you knew that was just an extension of the wrist at that point
Roach aka Herbert Rice is my father. He passed away today after a short battle with a vicious form of cancer at the age of 62. It is pleasure to see the comments here that honor him, Thank You.
I'm sorry about your father's passing. He was a bad ass in this scene. I'm going to buy a grenade launcher and have it painted like the one in the movie not a real one a BB gun one because real ones are obviously illegal in California. I send you my condolences if he's your actual father. But he was a bad ass dude.
Mr Rice,
Thank you for sharing that information. Mr H Rice did a wonderful job in characterizing and giving life to not only "Roach," but to that whole scene. My condolences to you and your family.
FYI Trivia: Mr Rice also acted in Youngblood (1978) and Rumblefish (1983).
Albert
Condolences. BTW, IMDB lists his birthday as March 23, 1951 which would make him 62 right now. You might want to have them fix that if you're being sincere about your statement.
Sorry to hear about your father...this scene and character he did here sticks with you...it was a special accomplishment...you should be proud...God Bless You
Normally I would be impressed that Herb Rice was your dad, but I need to know for real. I've taken computer safety lessons a lot and I know from the lectures and personal experience with a cyber-bully kid who harassed me by claiming that he was a 'Nam veteren a few years back; that there are liars out there in cyberspace. I'm not accusing you for fibbing, but I need to know the truth just to be sure. There's barely enough information about him and there's no way to know for sure he was married and has children. I just want proof that the Roach was your father, that's all I'm asking.
Amazing how Herbert Rice only has about a minute and 30 seconds of screen time, yet gives clearly one of the most indelible performances of the film
This is the only scene I remember really well after seeing the theatrical release 40 years ago. DO YOU KNOW WHO IS IN CHARGE??? Great scene.
Was never in country (USMC 71-74, just on stand-by on U S S Monticello, LSD 35, Sept 72- til "peace treaty" Mar 73.... mission was to evacuate Da Nang or Saigon.... which ever was gonna fall 1st.... never happened. Was so lucky that there were still Viet Vets that survived the s--t , and tried to mentor us worthless, cherry, FNG's. When I 1st saw this flick, this was the scene that I couldn't stop thinking about. May all Vietnam Veterans , in one way or another, have the peace and comfort they earned.
👍Roach don't need no flare.
Indeed. Remember guys, there are no small parts, only small actors. I've seen movies dominated by actors who had only 2 lines in the film.
@@ThePlaton20 very interesting comment. What's another movie that fits the criteria for you?
The actor who plays Roach got the thousand-yard stare down so perfectly.
The lights are on but nobody's home.
That wasn't the thousand yard stare, that was the look of the damned. Remember that Conrad's The Heart of Darkness was the inspiration for Apocalypse Now, and the Do Long Bridge is a metaphor for the gateway to hell.
+44excalibur Dammit! What a Fukking brilliant movie.
@@44excalibur Exactly.
@@44excalibur you're right but it fits perfectly though...anyone who has grown up with combat veterans knows those eyes. My grandfather was a .30 cal machine gunner on pork chop hill in Korea and my 8 year old dumbass asked him if he ever killed anyone and he looked at me and those eyes and I felt like he could see right through me and he said I shot at them took a sip of coffee and looked out the window...end of discussion. Never asked anything more. My mother was pissed when she found out I had asked him that.
Aside from the signature Roach character, just also want to point out the machine gunner also put up a great performance. At 0:09 when he realized he was talking to an officer, his military training and awareness of rank kicked in and woke him up to give a salute and brief the captain on the situation, but then the VC was screaming again, and he instantly snapped back into his fanatic shooting as if no sobering had ever happened. As in nothing could rescue these soldiers from pointless, ruthless and mind-consuming fanaticm of war.
You're not supposed to salute anyone in a combat zone, but then again the rules have been long gone when the battle gets into this point
@@wookieblaster Unless you hate the guy, then you salute like hell.
It's not in this clip, but another officer tells Willard he's in the asshole of world and said that he's getting the hell of out there. Willard has to press on after hearing that. Then it got worse from there. Total madness. But Willard pressed on.
Great observation
You don’t salute outside the wire and most the time inside the wire
You need a flare?
No.
He's close man.
He's real close.
Kaboul's Cabal WITHOUT A DOUBT... my favorite scene in the whole film. HE... knows who's in command there. THE ROACH... AND HIS M-79 THUMPER!!!!
Sends a little trickle of piss down yer leg now don’t it?
*Shoots at a 45 degree angle*
Lol he ain't that close if you are trying to hit something 300 meters away.
@@starbird1111 Lolz!
"Hey soldier......Do you know who's in command here"
" Yeah" - a whole lot said in that one word.
was he saying he was in command? or that the commander was dead? probably both...
siR miLLs Insanity runs the whole place.There is no commanding officer in Do Long.I recommend the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.The movie has very obvious influences from the book.The Do Long Bridge is a metaphore from the book actually.By the way this movie is full of metaphores and everytime i watch it i find something new.
cervezadog interesting point
He knew the enemy was in command.
I saw his response as a simple "militaristic" one...a more casual version of "Yes, Sir". He was asked a simple question and gave a simple answer. In the mind of a well trained soldier, it's easy to imagine him thinking, "I will answer the question asked (with nothing more than than the most basic required response) and if the person asking wants MORE information regarding who that person "in charge" is, he/she will ask THAT question".
This is when you realize your not watching a war movie anymore. Brilliantly done.
This a great Hollywood film but obviously you never grew up around Vietnam vets👌
I wouldn't call this a war movie.
It's a psychological thriller set during the viatnam war.
@@georgewashington6225 I did. What's your point?
@MyGun4hire Right over your head.
@MyGun4hire Ahahahaha... what a weak and simple minded response, "get a job"...
I love the way Willard's face is alternately illuminated and darkened. Really adds to the power and strangeness of the scene. Fantastic.
Yeah man. Coppola is a genius. Same goes for the way Kurtz was shot at the end of the film, face half lit, covered in sweat. Out of his fucking gourd crazy.
yes ! i thought that too jim
Jim X that's Francis Ford Coppola for you total and complete "vision" not just sticking people in front of a camera and letting them Act. Uses the scenery to tell the story along with the actors.
Probably the spookiest part of the whole film, the alternating light, echo of voices, Jimi Hendrix in the background...and then Roach comes out of the darkness
It symbolizes, to me, the shifting of him going 'dark'...losing his sanity...it's blinking out...
The actor did the 1000yard stare perfectly. This scene is phenomenal
This movie was just all around amazing, couldn't imagine being in the shit back then..... Fak u g i........ He's close man,,,,real close
The gunner is an even more impressive actor
The actor on the machine gun pulled that role off perfectly , the fear and terror of war .
Leon Isaac Kennedy.
Damien Leake.
i dont think Roach was in any fear whatsoever.
@@Defender78 Not Roach , the machine Gunner with the mouth .
'Aint you?' love that line
How to portray a character in 2mins with more density than all the shit Hollywood throws at you nowadays... Roach.
Then again, its no easy feat to top the work of Francis Ford Coppola, especially the movies made in his prime. i.e. This movie and the Godfather.
@@nate742 bah logique on peut pas essayer de faire ce qu'il a fait parce que ce mec c'est un dieu du cinéma
I love how surreal this movie gets as it goes along, no other movie leads you into the darkness like this movie
Its quite mental.soldiers fighting against enemy but at the same tine fighting against war in a way of not becoming too much like robots or something. This guy knows that when it comes back his life might wont be like others. Hes the only one that knows theres no place for him and from that he accepts his part. Its kinda dark but at the same time incredible. Nothing was normal for him ,nothing cares. Maybe he can make paces with the vietnamese,maybe not. But he accepts the happening.
Trainspotting maybe
There is one. Aguirre: The Wrath of God.
read the book homie
yes, only one war movie : "Come and see" (idi i smotri, Elem Klimov, 1985, Belarus) it is one of my favourite war movies, and he inspired Saving private Ryan's Omaha beach scene ...It is just incredible, no other movie manage to capture the essential evil and madness of WWII
The whole Do Lung Bridge scene is the definition of the phrase 'war is hell.' The horror theme park like ambiance. And total craziness. Everyone there is already dead, and as mentioned, they fight for a bridge that gets destroyed every day and rebuild again. How is this not hell?
like valhalla. fight and die and fight again, forever. no rest it seems.
its a reference to sysyphus myth. the guy who cursed by the gods to pull the large boulder on top of the mountain, only to witness it rolling downhill again and again
The whole scene gives me the sense as if its some kind of Limbo or Purgatory. The soldiers trying to get on the boat to get out of Do Lung, one or a couple soldiers saying something along the lines of "You'll get what you deserve!" "Take me home!"
'Tis a good thing that war is all hell, least we grow too fond of it' :- Gen. W. T. Sherman.
“Hell is repetition”
The Roach character and this scene are taken straight from the Khe Sanh chapter of Esquire magazine correspondent, Michael Herr's, book, Dispatches. "A Marine brushed past us. He had a mustache and a piece of camouflaged parachute silk fastened bandana-style around his throat, and on his hip he wore a holster which held an M-79 grenade launcher. For a second I thought I'd hallucinated him. I hadn't heard him approaching, and I tried now to see where he might have come from, but I couldn't. The M-79 had been cut down and fitted with a special stock. It was obviously a well-loved object; you could see the kind of work that had gone into it by the amount of light caught from the flares that glistened on the stock. The Marine looked serious, dead-eyed serious, and his right hand hung above the holster, waiting. The screaming had stopped again." The scene continues, but I won't transcribe further. Herr is credited only for narration on the screenplay credits, but several of the scenarios are based upon this book.
There are some weird connections between Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. Michael Herr wrote the script for FMJ. And R. Lee Ermey was in both films - he's seen in one of the copters during the ride of the valkyries aerial assault.
Dispatches is my favorite book of all time.
I was going to post the same comment. The excerpt appears on page 117 of Dispatches.
You need a flare?
That's a really good book, Dispatches. Keep spreading the word.
Such a powerful scene.
The Do Long bridge, in my eyes, represents the farthest outskirts of civilization at war, as it were.
At the beginning we visit Kilgore in a Valhalla of sorts, but this bridge is Purgatory, it is Pandomonium, it is Hell.
No commanding officers, no real backup, no one in the know of what's going on. Just an eternal present of screams and explosions.
Those not completely gone beg to be taken away from here, silently being rejected to being released from their torment. These soldiers truly are the doomed and the damned, forever trapped in Limbo.
Great comment and observations!
This isn't hell or limbo if you're like the Roach, it's just another day skipping through the forest, tip toeing through tulips, another pleasant swim with some good friends. Yeah
Purgatory is not hell bro.
Makes me thankful that I’ve never had to experience the terrors/horrors of war
@@blacktiger5985 The Roach is deeper in this limbo than anybody. He seems to be the only one there who has accepted that his skin is melting off in hell.
the roach has seen A LOT of combat.
Yeah, you can tell fairly easily by the look in his eyes. The eyes never lie.
Hes gone beyond the pale
i have seen some Combat too...on teee veee
@@kurkkamambusu4063 Well pilgrim, only after you've eaten the peanuts out of my shit.
And that’s why so many of our veterans end up homeless, completely broken, suicidal, war ain’t a joke or a badass action film violence porn. This is one of those few movies that had the balls to describes that
Brilliant scene. How it goes from a deafening battle to an almost complete silence is mesmerizing.
David Gunn it's so eerie, terrifying
I noticed that also.
GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY FOR ETERNITY AND INFINITY FOR THIS MASTERPIECE OF AN UNDERRATED COMMENT.
Technically it's called "sound design," and it's used very skillfully here to represent The Roach's utter concentration. He turns off the tape player and _listens_ because no, he doesn't need a flare, he knows exactly where to place the grenade by sound alone, and he can close off everything else.
Focus - your seeing and hearing the War from Roach Perspective.
He hears nothing but the enemy soldier, and has only one duty but to kill the enemy soldier.
I think the point of this scene is to show two different responses to an unpredictable, difficult war. The first soldier manning the machine gun, shooting wildly, is perhaps what a normal person would do. He's someone who wants to return to the civilian world, and is just trying to survive the horrors of war. He's terrified and nervous, and he acts wildly out of fear for his own life.
The Roach on the other hand has totally accepted his role as a warrior and a killer. He has given up his hope of emerging unscathed and seems to be at peace with the fact that he might die at any moment. When we first meet him he is sleeping comfortably cradling his grenade launcher like a baby. He smokes the vietnamese soldier with proficiency and calm, having given up his humanity in order to adapt fully to the rigors of combat. It is notable that Willard addresses him as "soldier." He embodies Kurtz' vision of what a warrior should be.
An in-depth analysis of this incredible scene, that makes the most sense.
JackyBarf, very well said! I think you are correct sir
and the dysentery medication made everyone who took it crazy its written on the package
JackyBarf an interesting reading of the meaning of the scene.
watching my dvd of of this film over the years ive come to believe the scene is a symbolic metaphor for the Vietnam War itself.
Willard finds everyone doing everything mostly independent of each other among the absolute chaos, Willard is looking for the officer in charge and not only cannot find an OIC(officer in charge) but after questioning everyone he encounters he finds that not only does no one know where the OIC is, they dont even know who he is.
eventually he runs into the soldier operating the Browning .50 cal MG who automatically assumes Willard is the officer in charge.
finally after Roach kills the VC/NVA psyops officer yelling through the bullhorn Willard finds the one person on the base who does know who's in charge...........and he's not interested in revealing who it is.
not seen in this clip is Willard being told that everyday they repair the bridge and as soon as they do the VC/NVA come back and blow it up.
also as they shove off in the PBR a number of soldiers jump into the water in an attempt to board the PBR to get out of there.
the chaos of the base represents the lack of cohesive action in the overall war in South Vietnam with individual infantry/airborne/marine divisions being given responsibility of their respective area of operations with sparse orders coming down from HQ on how to go about that.
most importantly those divisions were operating independently of the other divisions around them.
a stark contrast to the united operations during WWII were divisions were all operating in cohesive unity for a specific unitedstrategic goal.
Willards attempt to find the OIC represents the general nature of the vietnam war where in stark contrast to WWII where the chain of command resulted in a direct line from General Marshall to Gen Eisenhower (European Theatre) and Gen MacArthur (South West Pacific Theatre) in Vietnam Gen Westmoreland followed by his replacement Gen Abrams were nominally in charge but had to contend with constant limitations, interference and sabotage from the Congress as well as the secretary of defense and even ambassadors to neighboring countries like William Sullivan (ambassador to Laos) who interfered by dictating what the army could do and even what type of weapons they were allowed to use.
the one soldier who does know who's in charge but wont say represents the lack of communication, information and the secrecy many soldiers felt they were dealing with from higher headquarters and even military intelligence.
the narrative of them building the bridge everyday and the VC/NVA blowing it up every night is an analogy of during the war they would run an operation, say for example, pushing the NVA off of a mountain, as soon as they did, after taking heavy casualties, they would immediatley leave and then the NVA would return to the mountain and the army would retake the mountain, taking heavy casualties and then once the NVA retreated the army would withdraw the soldiers again and then do it all over again.
Just meaningless, strategically objectiveless operations with no long term strategy to win the war.
the soldiers jumping into the water to get on the PBR is indicative of no one wanting to be there and just waiting for their tour to end and go home.
that's my impression of this scene anyways.
id love to meet John Milius or Coppola to ask them if my impression of this scene is what they intended
Nice interpretation. I noticed too that the first soldier still respected the chain of command while the Roach did not. Perhaps part of the transformation into the warrior, Roach's "commander" is combat? the kill-or-be-killed mentality?
The first time I watched this movie was on a laptop during a power failure. There was a tropical thunderstorm raging outside, and it was scorching hot and humid in the house. You could smell the ozone from the lightning, and the rain was roaring on the roof, almost drowning out my headphones. Still one of the most vivid memories of my life.
My favorite scene in the movie. Herbert Rice's character "Roach" - flawless. Total warrior. And 100% true that grenadiers could/can still drop 40 mike mike HE with astounding accuracy, even at night, even by sound. It's obvious Mr Rice took his job as an actor very seriously. The Roach character in this scene is based on a real grunt that the photographer and correspondent Tim Page spent time with, who had a cut down M79, painted up with tiger stripes.
Roach's mind has been broken by the time we see him. He just hasn't got back to the real world yet for it to manifest.
Page (himself a grade A madman) spent time in the field with the Special Forces and Lurps. He gets quite a few paras in Michael Herr's Vietnam memoir 'Dispatches.' Herr of course co-wrote Apocalypse Now with John Milius, hence its unimpeachable authenticity and documentary-like qualities. No film comes close to the insanity of the Nam experience in the way that Apocalypse Now does. As a journalist I was lucky enough to get to spend a couple of hours in a hotel room with Martin Sheen in 1999 - and all we talked about was my favourite film lol!
The song Roach turns off is called "Machine Gun" It was originally by Jimi Hendricks but this version is by Randy Hansen.
Thanks Denshuu! I've always wondered...
Were you able to find it? download it? Buy it? I can't find it anywhere. I've looked around on google, youtube, just can't find it.
Clint Watters
it,s a an special edition of a CD concert call: Band of Gypsys
+Clint Watters
search it on youtube, the go to online youtube mp3 converter, copy the link in there and download it
thanks man its been a while since I heard that band of gypsys record
The look on the Roach's face says it all. He's accepted he's already dead, and he don't give AF. Ironically, he probably made it home alive because he had that attitude
I always felt that Roach's response "Yeah" then silence meant that there was simply nobody in command, if it were anyone it was the VC....
Alot of interpretations. Is it roach? Is it the jungle? Is it no one?. God I love this film
And the sound of his clothing and gear when he turned around just left Capt. Willard there. Willard had absolutely no control over these men.
I was a grenadier ( M-79) with the 173 ABN at Bao Loc RVN in 68. I loved that weapon because it was highly accurate and with only a string and knots on the front sling you could use it in the dark. It was hard during firefights when the VC got to close you almost had to shoot it straight up to bring a round down in front of your bunker. Those were the best of time and the worst. I will be gone soon, hope someone remembers what we did and all those that never made it back.
We will never forget.
Thank you for your service
You are remembered!
We will never forget you Vietnam vets!
🫡
“Who’s the commanding officer here?”
“AIN’T YOU?!”
The craziest thing in an already crazy movie.
Really hit home that the outpost (and Vietnam at that point) was purgatory. No command, no plan, just the same pointless task day in/day out.
The best line in the film. It sums up the whole war.
"ain't you?"
Its the Roach!
shackyl MY FAVORITE SCENE IN THE WHOLE MOVIE!! AFTER HE SLUMPED HIS ASS HE SAYS... MOTHAFUCKA!!! And at the end. when asked... do you know who's in command here? And he answers... YEAH. THAT SHIT WAS... BOSS JEFE TYPE SHIT! BECAUSE HE DID KNOW... HE WAS IN COMMAND. OF HIS FEAR, HIS SPIRIT, AND; DEFINITELY THE FIELD OF COMBAT!!
It’s one of the scariest moments in the movie. A complete breakdown of command in an extremely active and isolated combat zone.
Seems the NVA was....
👍🏻
This is such a deep scene. The way Roach loads his Thumper gun says everything: he has seen and done it all. The others were probably only dumped in the trenches with him a week ago. He has clearly been there for a LONG time. But when I first saw this movie and how he loaded it, it told me the VC was a dead man before he even pulled the trigger. The stare in his eyes are those of a vet who knows his enemy well. He didn't really need to say "He's close to me." I KNEW he would hit him no matter where he hid.
Honestly, from the first time I saw this movie, even amidst all the insanity displayed in the rest of the movie, this scene always unnerved me the most. I don't know if it's the lighting, the non-stop bombs falling, the sheer insanity of all the soldiers there. But this scene always struck me with a feeling of, if there is a Hell (ie, a place of pure torture and chaos, where all measure of sanity is gone), this is the best representation of it I've ever seen.
I felt the same way.. I think it's how mad everyone seemed to have went. How distant they are from any form of humanity.. The fact you hardly can tell who is what and what is who. The lack of sense and the music and how worn out everyone is, mixed with the haunting screams and the endless bombing really messed with me..
first stop: beach with killgore, where they dehumanise the enemy and love the war
second stop: the playbunnyshow, where they lose all compassion for their brothers in arms and lose the innocence, as they attack eachother and attack the women who represent the 'innocence' of the people at home
third stop: do long bridge where they lose their mind and become insane
last stop: heart of darkness
the river represent the human mind, as they go deeper into the jungle, the go deeper into the madness, they lose their humanity, compassion, and mostly become insane, except willard and kurtz (who had a sane mind but an insane soul)
I agree.
Same here. I saw myself at that machine gun, scared out of my mind, screaming every expletive I can think of, shooting at anything that looked like it might move. What's more terrifying: It *could* have been me. I've never watched this movie again, not in it's entirety, since the first time. Like someone else said here, in my mind, it's always been a horror movie.
@@SwingingInTheHood I agree, the depths this movie goes in dealing with the human psyche are frightening... More than any other war film I can think of this one really deals with war as a psychological beast on the collective human conscience. FMJ as well tbh
Roach, the wizard of the m-79. The most unassuming badass in movie history lol.
I don't think you are suppose to idolise him as badass.
One little detail in this scene caught my attention when I first saw it...The acid rock guitar playing briefly on the portable cassette recorder...I was a big Hendrix fan, and that really sounded like Hendrix. I finally found out that it was played by Randy Hansen, who made a career out of Hendrix tribute type performances. It's perfect. It's sounds like a Hendrix bootleg played on a little crappy cassette player with low batteries: watery, eerie, shoebox, but still somehow undeniably powerful...Nice touch...
Do yourself a favor and search out some of Randy's videos, there are a lot of them here. What he is doing goes way beyond a "tribute band, " quote, unquote. That said, the screaming guitar on the tape player adds to the nightmarish quality of this scene. A brilliantly conceived and perfectly executed piece of filmmaking.
Speak softly and carry an M79.
Words to live by
YEAH.
i carried a 203, loved the combo aspect of it
dont leave the boat?
Got me every job I've ever interviewed for.
I was 14 years old when I saw this movie at some grindhouse in my neighborhood in south Queens.
That was the end of John Wayne, etc., glory and gung ho, for me - this one wised me up but-quicklike.
This was a not a war movie, it was a horror movie.
Absolutely right. This film transcends any conventional categorizations of films people usually use. One of many aspects of the film that make it truly great, and a timeless classic.
Shrihari Hudli a
Because war IS real life horror. 99.9% of "war movies" are absolute nonsense, highly sugar coated propaganda that often glorify warfare, even when they try to depict some measure of suffering or horror they are often mostly glorification and completely unrealistic, patriotic garbage for the entertainment of idiots.
*"This was not a war movie, it was a horror movie"* Couldn't of said it better myself.
I remember the heat Francis Ford Coppola took from some vets after this movie dropped, saying the movie wasn't like their experience. He wasn't making a documentary. He was making a point. And this was one of the scenes that nailed it.
For those who don't know VC language, the sapper repeatedly said: "Comrade... help me... please... quickly..."
+Nguyen Minh __ Thanks for the translation. I saw the movie when it originally came out, but had no idea what was being shouted from afar.
It sounds like he also just repeats "G.I. FUCK YOU"
Nguyen Minh WOW! THANK YOU FOR THAT INSIGHT! WOW!
Nguyen Minh Nah, I'm pretty sure they are yelling "HEY G.I.!! FUCK YOU"
@wavygr Who says he wasn't doing both? Because he certainly said "HEY GI, FUCK YOU!" at least twice.
My favorite scene in a movie full of iconic scenes. Even the the tiger stripes on his M79 are awesome
The only thing is, the M-79 made a thump sound like the M-203.
Everybody knows someone like Roach--a person with an uncanny ability to perfect proficiency of a certain instrument. In this case it is Thumper.
Becoming the instrument...in this case a Death Dealer...even his M79 looked like it seethed vengeance
BLOOP-GUN
Dude was so good with that grenade launcher that he Even unlocked a skin for it
Carried a M-79 while serving with the 5th Infantry Division, 1/61 Mech. Infantry in I Corps, nice weapon for certain jobs of support.
"I told you to stop fuckin' with me, didn't I? Ya think you so bad, huh nigga?!"
Oh man. I listened to that so many times, I couldn't make out what he said. Thank you.
This is such an amazing piece of cinematic gold. Never get tired of rewatching it.
Im glad I watched Redux as the first version of this movie... I cant imagine watching this without all the scenes that are included in redux
I'm waiting for a 36 hour version of this movie
RIP HERBERT RICE. The guy perfects the meta-narrative here, even the way he says his dialogue compared to the other two black soldiers is incredible. For two minutes, it was his movie.
The Roach is a the last outpost of sanity in a war, before he reaches total insanity = Marlon Brandos Character who has gone completely mad without sense of life or death.
Roach symbolizes the end of sanity on his trip through a war a river and mans sanity.
SunsetSideVet Never thought of it like that, but it makes perfect sense. Excellent insight.
I also think that Roach's "he is real close" can be understood as Kurtz being close.
John Wiseman actually yes you are right
+SunsetSideVet. Sanity? What film did you watch? These guys are completely insane, just like Kilgore, Willard's crew and pretty much everybody else.
Pablo Duran Kilgore symbolizes war for amusement, this is obvious in that he places surfing and killing for fun above actual orders from up top. And the fact he treats a low level soldier who is a famous surfer with more respect than a fellow officer. The second stop (hau phat I believe) symbolizes war for greed, you see the men turn on each other for women and admiring motorcycles (vehicles typically associated with the self and ego).
The third stop in Do Long (Too Long) is indeed war through complete insanity, as you can even hear faint circus music in the background and lights are set up to look like a circus tent. I think these three are just meant to illustrate the specific byproducts of war itself.
Who's the commanding officer here ... ain't you? I thought this movie captured the insanity of Vietnam better than any other.
The Roach got tiger stripes on his grenade launcher
I was so impressed with those tiger stripes on that M-79 that I had them tattooed on my dick. 39 years later it looks like somebody stepped on a dirty green bug.
@@kimmer6 Dude are you for real?
Embarrassing, huh? That shit still hurts. Stupid me. It did get me some really kinky inked bitches in the the early 2000's who wanted to gnaw on that. I'm literally too old to give a fuck any more.
@@kimmer6 you are brave good sir, you are brave .
@@kimmer6 holy shit ahahahahaha
Perfect scene.. it uses nearly everything that's great about cinema.. the lighting contrasts.. of course, the sound design.. the surrealism that's also humorous and intense.. the metaphor for "the roach" using echolocation like a bat!. So much more!
A year ago I had the flu, saw this scene on flu medicine, it felt like I was really there. "He's close man..." Greatest Movie Ever Made.
love how everything goes silent when roach takes his shot
Good move on in a great scene!
Roach was so high in this scene that he was existing on a different astro-plane...this character was able use a six or seventh sense to eliminate the enemy. An extremely compelling character indeed.
Just like my old high as a kite counterstrike days...would be out of my mind connected to the game just sorta letting my subconscience guiding my every shot.
He ain’t high he’s gone
Kinda reminds me of Darius Epps from the tv show Atlanta. He got the seventh sense too. Wonder if the two of them were related somehow.
@@mista_fur3346 you were becoming part of the games framework
The Roach is not high. He has what is now called PTSD. He cannot function at all except to kill others.
I think the thing with the whole “do you know who’s in command here?” line is simply that Willard asks him, Roach says yeah, which means he knows, then he doesn’t tell Willard. It’s the act of not telling him that’s more important than who actually is in command. At this point, Willard is not even slightly in control of events around him anymore. To me that’s all that the line drills home. There’s a total loss of control, both in the war and with his mission. What Roach implies but doesn't say is "whoever actually is in command, it's certainly not you".
Finally, the right interpretation
OK , I was wondering if he believed in God, cuz Christians always know , he's truely at the helm!
@@doneown503 I don’t think roach is a Christian lol
Wrong. There is no command. Roach know who is, but the problem is, it wont make sense. You just have to be there. Willard wasnt a part of it, he was an observer of the madness
The Jungles in command man.
Always been enamored with this part of the movie, probably could have never found a better person to play that part than your pops. Legendary
Roach does not need a flare because he is One with the universe he inhabits. When he says the enemy is close, he feels the guy on an an animal level
Seeing this shit on LSD would probably be the most surreal/terrifying/un-nerving thing that could ever happen to you
+tankmaster1018 Or maybe you'd come to see that the world is madness and let it take you away
I have. And its so much more intense than you can imagine
Lance was on LSD in this scene. That's why he climbs on top of the sandbags
Think about lance
I watched full metal jacket while drinking and never again
Goddamn this is my favorite scene of this movie. This is the point of no return, after that, there is no way to escape the horror and deafening madness of war, pure chaos, man made hollow shell by traumatizing experiences. There is no authority, no chain of command, not even a purpose left, all hope is lost and there is no point in any of what's happening but IT IS happening and that's what's make this scene so powerful for me. Anyway, this movie is truly a masterpiece.
this is where we are after 16 years of war in 2018
Yeah, it's the end of reason. By the way, I highly recommend you read Heart of Darkness if you like Apocalypse Now. It's the inspiration for the film and a true classic.
No battle plan survives first strike from the enemy (or something like that)
Every time Willard shows up, the first question he asks is, "Who's in charge here?" The answer is "Nobody" every single time, regardless of who seems to be in command. That's the point of this scene, since Roach doesn't even bother mentioning a commanding officer, as in the earlier scenes with different units in the movie.
We forget today's CGI movies five minutes after we watch them. But we all remember Roach and the other strange and cool people in this movie.
My interpretation. When I took a Negotiations class for my MBA about 20 years ago, one of the things that will always stick with me is the lesson of who has the power in a negotiation?
The professor posed this very question in the first class. Students started calling out answers, "The person who is smarter?". The professor said "Nope". "The person who wants to win the most?" Nope. "The person who has more money?" Nope. "The person who can argue better?" Nope. "The person who is more educated?" Nope.
I'll never forget the next sentence. Picture a short, skinny balding guy with glasses in a suit. Then picture him saying, "The person who has all of the power in a negotiation is...the person who doesn't give a shit." Meaning, if you can walk away, you can get someone to do anything, and thus you have the power. For instance, have you ever threatened to walk out of a car dealership when the won't lower the price?
So the answer to the question, "Do you know who's in command here?" is basically, "Who has all of the power?" The "Yeah" is, "It's me, because I don't give a shit anymore."
Reminds me of the movie Draft Day...nice comment. Where did you study?
I always thought the "yeah" was a generic response by Roach to everything anyone asked him because he was so distant and haunted already, he wouldn't pay attention to any words others said
That was the second most memorable line from Apocalypse Now after "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"
Who's your commanding officer?
Ain't chu?
I tell the "Aint chu" story/joke in Corporate America, whenever I'm on a project that is disorganized, and nobody knows who is really running the chaos. The older workers always remember this scene and they always get it. The kids 2 years out of college have no Idea what I'm talking about....
I always thought it was more of a spiritual meaning, Im not a religious man by any means but I always thought that that "yeah" was a nod to the fact that roach did not have any control over his own situation, and that he was placing himself in gods hands. I know that opinion seems flowery but I really feel that that scene takes the movie to a new almost psychedelic level. I feel that roach is completely detached from reality and he feels like he is being controlled by another energy. My favorite scene of all time.
I agree man.
Orchidahus
I thought the same thing but was afraid to say it.
Arty .G agreed.
It's about chaos. God has nothing to do with this movie. It's about a mans descent into insanity, from the book Heart of Darkness.
No, disagree. I think it was met that the VC/NVA were in charge there. No matter how many battles they were defeated they were always around and kept fighting till victory. Pretty much Charlie called the shots.
Roach looks like all the good guys in my unit. I liked working with them. They carried themselves well.
I'd hate to see the "bad guys".....
The entire Do Lung bridge sequence has been my favorite from the first time I saw this movie. The machine gunner has always reminded me of Gary Dourdan lol. Also not to sound insensitive but Herb Rice; the actor who plays Roach; is not listed as deceased anywhere I could find, and sites like imdb are usually on top of this stuff, especially if it's been almost a decade. So it's a very strong possibility that that commenter may have been lying.
I love the silence before roach fires. You can see explosions and flairs going off nearby and you SHOULD be hearing them. But all that is there is this intimate silence between the soldier and the person they’re about to kill.
Roach is the 2nd best character in this movie behind Colonel Kurtz, he is eerily calm and seems ready to face death himself
george mikal
He's already dead. Just doesn't know it yet.
He's high as balls!
george mikal you’ll notice that as they go farther up the river, the nights become darker: dusk/twilight at the delta, a brightly lit-but otherwise pitch-uso show, and then do long, sporadic and chaotic light with nothing but (the heart of) darkness in front of them.
The men that journey this far in towards it either try to flee (the guys in the river), are driven mad by it (the machine gunner) or are broken and made into potential “hosts” for the heart of darkness (roach)
@@ben2741 Don't forget Lance .
Yea, heroin does that
Every scene in this movie is greatness.
A cool head in the midst of chaos is worth its weight in gold...Back in the sixties when nuclear annihilation of the planet was a real possibility, scientists thought that one of the only form of life that would survive it was the cockroach...I wonder if that is how "the Roach" got his characters name.
This scene is just fucking greatness. The Roach is the last gatekeeper between battlefield conflict and the invitation into Kurtz' world. He's the holder of the key.
The keeper of the seven keys, you mean?
Like the old knitting woman with cat in the book. Welcome to Hell, Marlow (Willard).
Yes, Roach Cerberus at the Gateway to Hell.
He's sleeping on the front lines. That says a lot.
To be fair - the Vietnam campaign completely undermined traditional notions of tactical and strategic combat. There was no front line. Just isolated skirmishes where the enemy could materialize in front of you, behind and even out of the earth below seemingly from nowhere.
@@deaddropholiday That makes Roach´s sleeping even more eerie. Then again, though an other war entirely, during the Winter War against the overwhelming Russians, some Finnish defenders dozed off even in mid battle in thier trench due to lack of sleep and almost constant battle. The effects the war has on people.
It does, but he's also high as a kite so I dunno
@@jonathanlee5314 The drugs were allowed into the military by the military. Just as they were allowed into the German army by the German army. Because its incredibly difficult to fight an imperialist war of occupation with a conscript army. Vietnam proved this. Which is why they went fully professional thereafter.
@@deaddropholidayNonsense. Most Germa n soldiers were volunteers not conscripts and the use of pervitin was vastly overstated. It was mainly used by pilots and during assault/breakthrough attack plans
Just waiting on that dude's follow up from "Yeah..." is freaky. You keep waiting to here something corny like "God" or something, but he doesn't say anything else.
+Mike Zilla That's because The Roach is in charge.
+Mike Zilla If you expected something corny after watching around 2 hours of this movie,you're greatly mistaken
+Mike Zilla I always thought the Jungle was in charge. It's who Kurtz took his orders from.
It is unsettling.
@@normquiros7863 I always took that to mean that Charlie was in charge. Whatever though -- great scene.
One of my favorite scenes in the film. The "Ain't you" caused me to spill my beer.
Lol. I have to agree. In a movie full of great lines. This scene has 2 of the best. "Ain't you" & Roaches simple "yeah".
+Black Eye Rob "yeah" = no one. LoL
+thebigmalkowski I've actually interpreted the line, the fact that they go straight to the Roach, and his skill as the Roach was the CO. He's far down the river, but he's just a bit behind Willard and Kurtz
I dont find anything funny about these phrases being said. Both have their meanings. Pretty sure neither of them was to make anyone laugh
@@DarkVaati13 cant decide between you where serious when u said roach was CO or your just bullshitting us all.
this is a really strong scene. You can see so much of being completely terrified to being completely numb. The "yeah" while not looking at anything, like yeah i own this shit, thats fucking gold
In 1979, my girl and I were just looking for a movie to go see. Sooooo, we just picked this one at random. For the next four days I was affected by the movie.....I wasn't expecting this.
We used to make great moview. Not anymore.
if you understand vietnamese, the sapper from the beginning was already heavily wounded and detached from the rest of his unit, desperately calling for help as hes probably bleeding out in a ditch somewhere, all while still having enough to fight back with harsh languages.
I have too many "favorite scenes" in this incredible film, but THIS one IS a classic!!! "Ain't YOU?"
"Roach" is tuned in, and tuned out!
This scen creeped the shit out of me for no reason
The Roach is the kind of soldier Kurts was saying they needed to win the war
Should be more like Trombley
@@bbb462cid MORE LIKE TROMBLEY?!?!?!
@@tbone9803 LOL
Exactly. When he says "yeah," it's because he is self-possessed, like Kurtz.
In all this crazy ass trippy movie, the, "da f*ck you think I'm shooting at... sorry sir...." part is the funniest part of this whole movie.
Roach was surgical with that M-74 Grenade launcher. "Hey G.I.? Fuck Boom!" 🤣
It's an M-79
Apologies. I stand corrected. They called it a "Thumper" didn't they? Short to medium-range percussion explosive?
Such an eerie scene. Scary in a whole other way than horror movies.
Obviously the Roach is beaucoup fucked up, wasted and in a semi to full scale blackout. He's mainly operating on muscle memory and a deep deep down sense of pride as a marksman grenadier. In his drug fueled haze he is really not even fully aware of Willard's presence, it may be a vague fuzziness of him being there, if any at all. When Willard asks him the question, It's obvious the Roach is initially surprised as Willard's voice bores a small hole into the Roach's mind fully alerting him to Willard's presence. The Roach then smiles prior to answering the question, as given the full context of the situation he finds both the question and formality of it comically absurd. His "Yea" response is nothing more than being a wise ass to an absurd question or his way of saying who gives a fuck.
Thank you Herbert for film's most genuinely excellent example of the finest of soldiering.
There weren't any bodies. ("There's one still alive underneath them bodies.") It was just one enemy yelling, to harm morale. Psyops, like the music from the choppers. And it was working, until Roach angrily put an end to it. Roach saw through it too. He saw through everything.
For a few years I worked with a young guy who could do anything with some software we used. Any time we were stumped by it, I said "Get the roach!" and he show and get it done instantly...
"He's close man.. he's real close" a nod to how close they are to Col. Kurtz.
"Hey Soldier... do you know who's in command here?"
".......yeah!" :)
An American soldier who died in the Vietnam War can be heard playing lead guitar on a great 1966 rock song he co-wrote. At TH-cam it is The Reddlemen - I'm Gonna Get In That Girl's Mind. He is Charles Michael Cotton, a travelin' soldier, from Texas to Vietnam, then to his grave in his Texas hometown.
"He's close, man, he's real close"
The roach is gone, his mind got lost somewhere in the jungle of Vietnam, I feel bad for the roach if he leaves Vietnam. Many soldiers, marines or sailors become cops, fire fighters or some other great career unfortunately for the soldiers in Vietnam they didn't get shit when they got back home.
Makes sense a lot of them went native.
Manny Zaragoza Not to argue with you but the wars we fight today is more technical advanced than Vietnam. That war the US wasn't prepared the us. military really haven't fought a guerilla jungle war since the Spanish American War. Except for some parts of WW2 in the Pacific Theater.
by telephone to field commanders
yeah, couldn't get a job either, people would shy away from me when they found out I served...1970-1975
He'd be fine as long as someone followed him around throwing hand grenades for the rest of his life.
"Who's the commanding officer here?"
"It ain't you?"
I tell the "Aint chu" story/joke in Corporate America, whenever I'm on a project that is disorganized, and nobody knows who is really running the chaos. The older workers always remember this scene and they always get it. The kids 2 years out of college have no Idea what I'm talking about....
Roach is one of my all time favorite characters with his unstoppable M79 (we don't use those anymore, now they're mounted on the bottom of an M16 to make the M203). The soldier on the .50 cal is cool too because it's such a believable performance.
The ambiguity of sanity shown in him only saying “yeah” is fucking incredibly well done.
Reminds me of the line from Dante's Inferno "abandon all hope ye who enter here." No, never read the book, but this quote has always stuck with me. What an awful place to be. Essentially abandoned, god knows how far away from an actual friendly military base, and have nowhere to retreat to, these poor souls are in hell.
Definitely one of the most memorable scenes of one of, if not the best motion picture ever made.
Roach was only in this movie for less than a minute but he probably the most memorable character from this movie.
Ain't nobody gonna talk about how creepy this scene is ? The goosebumps are rising !!!!! This scene by itself probably doesn't show you exactly the type of ambience but still that shit freaked me out when I watched the movie.
Screen play Michael Herr...a civilian correspondent during the war. I think he worked for Harpers Magazine free lancing. He wrote a Book called "Dispatches" ...Great writer...must read if you want insight too the insanity of the Vietnam War...up close and personal
How the gunner initially replies informally and then quickly corrects himself, "Sorry Sir..." Great Touch.
When I saw this movie I wondered how he even noticed a captain was speaking to him with the on and off lighting and the insanity of war all about them.
when i was in the marines, my battalion SgtMaj carried one of those (M79) when we were in somalia. first time i saw him with it i was like 'oh shit!! roach is here' lol
The sound of that gunshot in 1:30 always gets me the chills. It makes you feel like you're really part of a warzone.
Roach should've won an Oscar just for this one scene
This is the greatest scene in the history of cinema.
"Do you know who's in command here?"
"Yeah." - [i.e. nobody].
This movie is a masterpiece. To capture this feeling. The soldier has accepted death, he knows he will probably die at any moment. Acceptance has given him his calmness, but just waiting is driving him insane. He does not think he is in charge, he knows he is in hell, and we all know who is in charge of hell. That is his unspoken answer to the question.
This was my favorite scene in the movie, I loved the roach's tiger striped thumper, possibly a reference to the tiger scene already. But the way The Roach does business is beautiful, his business is killing and business is good
I've heard that someone on the production team was in Vietnam and knew a guy who carried a tiger striped m79 and that's what they based it off but I don't know how true that is
@@prylosecorsomething3194 Back when hollywood was practical and badass if you saw someone carrying a decorated firearm you knew that was just an extension of the wrist at that point