Tuesday, August 5, 2014
It's all about the light...
Apocalypse Now is not necessarily an anti-war film, but rather one that transcends the ambiguities of war to tell us something about the human spirit and psyche. For example, Colonel Kurtz is a man who becomes (devolves or evolves, depending on your perspective) something primal yet progressive.
As Captain Willard says, "Kurtz split from the whole fucking program". What's he talking about? Well, again, this is open to interpretation, but the most common explanation of Willard's observation is that he no longer bought into, much less adhered to, all the lies and moral rationalizations regarding the American involvement in Vietnam. Rather than resisting the so-called 'call of the jungle', Kurtz gives in. He accepts the emergence (or reemergence) of his primordial instincts.
Marlon Brando did an amazing job capturing the essence of a man slipping the bonds of Western Rationalism with his dialogue and physical acting. But perhaps even greater were the efforts of Vitorio Storaro, the cinematographer of Apocalyspe Now, who manged to capture the madness permeating the mind of Colonel Kurtz through some of the most fantastically beautiful images captured by a camera.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment