The theatrical version of Apocalypse Now is 153 minutes long, and the full version is about 202 minutes long. by Martin Sheen,
Starring Marlon Brando. Douban scored 8.4 (48904 reviews), imdb scored 8.5 (553789 votes), and Rotten Tomatoes 97% rating. He won the Fabisi And Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, and won many honors at the 1980 Academy Awards, the Italian David Award, and the Golden Globe Awards. The film is set in the Vietnam War.
The beginning of that war, not all in the name of "justice", but eventually became the source of all evil, like opening Pandora's box, lying, deception, killing, suffering... Scrambled to escape. Never think that time can erase the mark of war's pain, that time only takes away those who suffer, and that suffering does not disappear. No one is qualified to forgive those who suffer, and the pain they endure can never be experienced, let alone imagined.
The film "Apocalypse Now" is based on the background that the United States considers itself a liberator and brings "democracy and freedom" to the Vietnamese people by slaughtering their people, burning down their homes, taking their health, and giving them what they call "democracy and freedom." Aristotle once said that the ultimate purpose of war must be for peace. And the war eventually turned into a killing game. Unlike traditional war films, this film does not portray a certain hero image, but tells the evils of war from an objective point of view.
cause
The story is triggered by a Colonel Kurz who was sent to Vietnam on a mission, he is a distinguished soldier, because for this war, he repeatedly proposed to the leadership that differed from the leadership's ideas, and lost the opportunity to enter the leadership, on the way to the last mission, he gave up the task of his superiors, and chose to stand against the United States, gathered his armed forces to compete with the United States, and was regarded as a god-like existence by the locals.
The United States has repeatedly sent people to assassinate Kurz, all of which have failed, and even some of the people who carried out the assassination have been rebelled. In this case, the military found Captain Wilder, who had been on an assassination mission for a long time.
Captain Wilder was extremely depressed at this time, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, and the long assassination mission made him numb to life, such a confused life he did not know how long it would take, he had lost his way of life. He hated such a life from the bottom of his heart, everything was a mental torture for him, he just wanted to escape from this dirty place and return to the pure land of peace, but reality made him trapped in the mud and could not extricate himself.
When Wild received this task, he was actually very happy in his heart, his career had landed, and his most important life seemed to have a direction, but his heart was full of doubts about the person who was about to be assassinated.
In this way, he and four other members of the team (Chef, Surf Boy Lance, Black Chief, slum klin) embark on an assassination mission.
clue
There is actually a bright line and a dark line. The bright line is the change of place in search of Kurz, and the dark line is a series of changes in Wilder's psychology. The change of location is to arrange the appearance of the characters one after another, and Wild's psychological changes reflect the understanding of this series of events on the one hand, and more to portray the character of Kurz step by step.
Crazy Lieutenant Colonel Kilgo, Cloud East Landing
Wilder first encountered Lieutenant Colonel Kilgo, who was already approaching madness, and Wilder needed the lieutenant colonel's assistance to enter the Mekong River, so they began the Cloud East Landing, first by the collective bombardment of aircraft and the relentless burning of incendiary bombs. Lieutenant Colonel Kilgor seems to be a strange being, and perhaps everyone adopts a different attitude in the face of the fear of war, and the lieutenant colonel adopts a playful approach.
In the smoke-filled battlefield, wearing gorgeous top hats; handing out playing cards to enemies who died in battle; comforting a seriously wounded warrior one second with sorrow one second, and then abandoning him without hesitation the next; surfing on the beach full of gunfire; ....... All this seems to be incomprehensible to normal thinking, and seems to have reached the point of pathology. But it was because of him that his men respected and loved him so much that he seemed to dispel their fears in such a playful way.
The lieutenant colonel was not exactly a ruthless man, but still retained kindness in his heart, and when Vietnamese women came to him with their injured children and begged him for help, he did not hesitate to let his subordinates take them to the hospital by their own plane. One can't help but wonder what he went through that would have made him face the war with such an attitude.
In the Yundong Road landing, the details of the intentions of several directors have to be mentioned, before the plane bombing, the music "Valkyrie" sounded on the plane, which was originally a song that encouraged the warriors to eliminate evil, and a "killer" used this song to cover up his killing crime, which was really ironic.
Before the plane bombing, several shots are also full of deep meaning, children running out of the classroom, farmers come and go, there are morning glory, there are bicycles, a piece of peace only because of the arrival of the bomber, all destroyed.
And all this, Wilder saw everything in his eyes, he was also surprised by the lieutenant colonel's behavior, and began to think about the justice of the war, and was more curious about the assassination target Kurz, and doubted the mission. But in the end, the soldier's idea of obeying the order prevailed and convinced himself.
Condolence party at the station
After the successful landing of YundongDao, Wilder went to the next station, and when he left, he also took the lieutenant colonel's surfboard, in fact, at this time Wilder knew that the mission was basically going nowhere, but he did not tell the team about the mission. Walking on the surfboard and exchanging gasoline for bunny girl company are all ways he wants to show his team members his guilt in his own way.
They came to the next cantonment in time for the condolence party, which was a scene of luxury and indulgence, full of food, wine, luxurious stage, beautiful bunny girls... without a hint of war. Soldiers who learned about Vietnam from their conversations could not attend similar evenings, they were not even hungry, and the most hearty meal for them was a meal of rat meat or leftovers. Wilder was now deeply in thought, the justice of this war is so fragile, so for his comrades in the same trench, where is the salvation.
Loss of commander's garrison
After the condolence party, they came to the next garrison, where the commander was dead and in a mess, where they met the bunny girls who had performed at the previous gala, their planes were in tatters, and at this time they had lost their minds, and it was not difficult to imagine how inhuman the soldiers had raped and destroyed. Wilder exchanged two barrels of gasoline for Bunny Girl's company, and he asked his team members to "enjoy", the team chief refused, and the other team members began to feel pity for Bunny Girl's suffering, but eventually gave in to their own desires.
Although the chief condemned him for doing so, Wilder was quite satisfied with his behavior at this time, and he had one point less guilt for concealing the dangers of his team's trip.
Encounter a fishing boat
Later, they encountered a Vietnamese fishing boat on the way, the chief insisted on going on the boat to check, there was movement in a bamboo basket on the fishermen, when the nervous Kling suddenly opened fire, everyone shot at the unarmed fishermen on the fishing boat, after a burst of gunfire, the rest of the death was silent, and everyone was still in fear. At this time, Wilder's own obsession with the mission was already very entangled, and this sudden incident made him even more devastated, so when he found that the fishing boat still had survivors, he shot and killed the survivor, he was trying to make himself work hard to complete the mission, at this time he once again convinced himself.
Beverly stronghold, meet the French
After the fishing boat incident, they came to the last cantonment, which was a complete state of chaos, the bodies of the dead were mutilated, and the living people had gone completely mad.
The front was entirely enemy territory, and going deeper was tantamount to death, Wild insisted on going deeper, and the chief began to suspect that the mission was not so simple. When Kling was killed by a clay gun, the chief's spirit was on the verge of collapse.
After Kling's death, they met the French.
The reason why the French still insist on this land is because their ancestors came here in the early days of colonization, and in their eyes this is their land, and they want to hold on to this land. Listening to their reasons, it is so ridiculous that the colonists go to other people's territory, carve a piece of land for themselves, and let others work for themselves, talking about their deep affection for this land, not at all nostalgia for the land, but just a reluctance to privilege, glory and wealth. But in contrast, the reasons of the United States are even more weak, and Wilder is also thinking about what his country is really for, peace and justice, which have long been gone.
The next day, only four of them were left on the road, and on the way the chieftain got into an argument with Wilder and was attacked by the natives, and the chief completely collapsed. The chief has always been the most upright, kind, and humane of the people. But when he was shot by the spear of the indigenous people, he also became murderous, ready to kill Wilder and let him accompany him to Yellow Springs, and the war made such a kind person finally erupt into hatred and expose the ugliness of human nature.
Find Kurz
Eventually the three found Kurz's location, which was littered with corpses, books hanging from them, and heads everywhere in front of the position. Chef is then left on the ship, and Wilder and Lance go to kill Kurz and, if Wilder doesn't return for 24 hours, ask Chef to contact the bombing. In fact, at this time, Wilder's purpose was no longer to rush to kill Kurz, he wanted to see what kind of person and charm this person who could make everyone who could assassinate people rebel was.
Not long after landing, he was arrested and locked up.
Kurz's next appearance, his dialogue with Wilder is the most meaningful paragraph, in fact, the whole play will make people guess Kurz's motives. Here he has explained his actions, which can be summed up in two words, lies and ignorance. In his eyes, the war was a lie from beginning to end, and everything was a lie, in the words of the play, "We blur the flesh and blood we shoot them with a gun, and then give them a Band-Aid." He had asked the leadership several times, but he was disappointed by the state's support for the war. He no longer wanted to believe the lies of the state.
The fuse was a rescue mission, when Kurz injected a group of children, the locals actually cut off the child's arm, which deeply touched him. So he chose to save these war-torn people in his own way, and used his own strength to lead them out of ignorance. When he embarked on this path, he found that he could not save this group of ignorant people, who lacked courage and always pinned their hopes on the gods. Just as Kurz didn't like war correspondents to praise him, he didn't actually want the crowd to worship him as a god. But he couldn't look back, and he found that his salvation was only based on killing, and it was getting deeper and deeper. Erz knew he was a sinner, and the participants in this war were all sinners, so he said to Kurz, "You have the right to kill me, but you don't have the right to judge me." ”。
Kurtz had lost the confidence to save them, and beneath his seemingly calm exterior, there was an endless fear, and he hoped that Wilder would kill him, save him from this hell, and bring the truth back to his country. Wilder thought for a long time, thought for a long time, at this time he is no longer for the mission to kill him, but a kind of redemption for himself, he killed the lie, the anger of what he did, but also contains the guilt of Kurz, but he knows that there will always be someone to complete this task, and it is more necessary for someone to bring out the truth.
Eventually he kills Kurz, and if he were careful, he found that there was a scene in the movie, which was a close-up book called "Golden Bough". The book is about a temple in the Ariccia jungle on the shores of Lake Nemi, near Rome, where there is a temple, the temple of Diana, the goddess of the forest. According to the ancient custom here, the priesthood of the temple of Diana could only be a fugitive slave. Once the fugitive slave had taken the priesthood, he would also receive the title of "King of the Forest" and control of the rain. But this priesthood and the title of King of the Forest, far from bringing him joy, would make him restless. Year after year, day and night, in the middle of summer and winter, he must guard the tree with a sharp blade at all times, guarding it vigilantly near a tall sacred tree near the temple. For it was also according to the ancient rule that any other fugitive slave could gain the right to duel with the original priest if he could break the knotted branch "golden branch" of the tree, and if he could kill the former priest in the duel, he could become the new priest and "king of the forest".
So when Wilder killed Kurz and came out, everyone present bowed down to him and regarded him as the new god, and their ignorance had penetrated deep into the marrow of the bones, Wilder looked at all this coldly, and in fact, Upper Wilder saw the message left by Kurz in Kurz's book "Blow them all up." At that time, the possibility of death in Kurz's mind was the best relief for the group, and he hoped that Wilder would take the group away in this way after killing himself. But in the end Kurd turned off the radio and gave up the bombing, he felt that the life and death of the group should be decided by themselves, not him, and he did not want to treat the group of people in the same way as the survivors of the fishing boats.
Wilder's search for and our curiosity about the motives of the Kurdish rebellion, in fact Kurz wants to tell people the truth, a truth he has realized in this war - there has never been a just war, everything is just a lie, war is terrible, it is the root of all evil. His only hope is that people will know the truth that this fact is and remember it, rather than being deceived by stinking lies.