Apocalypse Now and then

Last night as Jude was leaving for a lengthy meeting, I started channel surfing. Turner Classic Movies was about to start Apocalypse Now, one of my all-time favourite films and by far the best I’ve seen about the U.S. debacle in Vietnam.

Given my personal involvement in that war, I’ve seen just about every movie about it, and there’s been many gems. Platoon gave us an admirable overview of the war and its effect on the participants. The Deer Hunter chronicled how deeply combat changes men. Full Metal Jacket accurately and graphically portrayed Marines from boot camp to battlefield. Born on the Fourth of July and Coming Home shed great light on the difficulties of veterans trying to re-enter civilization.

But none of them embraced the overarching madness of the war better than Apocalypse Now. Based on an 1899 novella, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, the 1979 epic directed by Francis Ford Coppola follows an Army officer (Martin Sheen) as he hunts down a fellow officer (Marlon Brando) who has gone rogue. A Navy patrol boat takes him deeper and deeper into the jungle and his psyche. Along the way he meets a variety of characters, ranging from a bloodthirsty colonel (Robert Duvall), who loves the smell of napalm in the morning, to three Playboy bunnies.

It all works. Trust me.

There are several versions, the first one the best. Apocalypse Now Redux, released in 2001, is my least favourite. It adds 49 minutes to the original 147 and includes some scenes that greatly subtract from the impact of the original.

But other than Redux I’m up for another viewing if it’s been awhile. Once I sat down with two other Vietnam veterans to watch it. We’d had several burgers and countless beers, and we all fell asleep immediately.