Most serious war films that have arrived in the last quarter-century, and probably any to come in the next twenty-five years, find themselves judged in relation to Francis Ford Coppola's classic Apocalypse Now (1979). Certainly any movies that plunge into the psychic anguish of war risk the comparison. Some, like Jarhead (2005), acknowledge this debt upfront...though that technique hardly rescues them from harsh correlative appraisals.Despite the fact that most new films are deemed unworthy to breathe the canonized air of Apocalypse Now, I doubt that the film would receive the same shower of affection were it released today...
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If you don't know what I'm counting down or why, you missed the introduction describing the "canon". (The whole list will eventually be indexed there at that intro page)
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5 comments:
Good write-up. Great way to start.
The History Boys got a D? Ouch.
Well, whereas you said that you don't feel personally attached to The Godfather, I don't feel personally attached to Apocalypse Now. Maybe it's because I saw the Redux and it turns out many of the issues I had with that weren't part of the original (the villa sequence for instance was a bore).
The thing that peeved me though was that I was lead to believe that Marlon Brando was the lead! His name is first on the dvd box and the IMDb page and in the credits yet he's barely even in it! I call foul!
Great write-up, Nathaniel. And I agree you are off to a good start.
I haven't seen this film in a long time, but your review makes me want to revisit it.
Am I the only person who finds this movie incredibly overrated?
When I saw Jarhead last year, I had one of the most tedious experiences at the cinema. The movie was slow and tedious, though well-made. However, watching the film--an especially that sequence when the soldiers are watching Apocalypse Now--I realized something. This movie (Jarhead) is the response to the traditional war film. I think the makers of Jarhead had an intention to set their movie apart from the rest by avoiding the whole glamourization of war people have done through movies, even supposedly anti-war movies such as Apocalypse. Thus, we get a film that is truly insightful and anti-war, though boring. Maybe I got the wrong feeling, but I was amazed at the astuteness of the Jarhead filmmakers, namely, avoiding the whole glamorization. I think Apocalypse is a movie with brilliance in it, but much like the Godfather, it's self-destructing in its denounciation of war (or mafia life) while making it beautiful and epic. That is why the crowd watching it in Jarhead was so enthusiastic with all the destruction, even though it is supposed to be a denounciation. This doesn't mean that Jarhead is a "better" film than Apcalypse, but its reason for being is clearer. just a thought.
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