This was one of my most difficult decisions…there is an undisputed number 1 spot, which will be revealed when I get to writing something that will successfully pay homage to the film itself, but this spot was tough. I thought it was clear-cut for a while, but then I recently saw a film that I really wanted to add. Both films are pretty bleak, pretty disturbing, and pretty strange; and both are definite classics, outstanding films from legendary directors. So, after much deliberation, here is number 2 and number 2½.
2. Apocalypse Now I have always been intrigued by this movie. I saw a good deal of it on AMC when I was about 12 years old, and promptly set to begging my parents to let me go out and buy/rent it. Finally, after ragging them for the better part of two years, I bought a copy of it. It completely and utterly blew my mind.
Never had I seen such brilliant film-making. The viewer is sucked completely into the unstable mind of veteran special-ops agent Willard, on a journey down a savage river that loses all sense of time, reality, and purpose. He is sent out to kill a man he does not even know; and is meant to learn about through transcripts and letters documenting his rise and fall. No one knows when this expedition will end—but all seem to know that it will inevitably end in tragedy.
Martin Sheen gives a supremely understated and powerful performance…while it is not exactly a showy role, it is one that was probably extremely difficult to pull off, in that a lot of the film is him sitting on the boat examining documents about Kurtz. However, he does the job famously. Robert Duvall is hilarious (yet somewhat unsettling) in his classic and brilliant small role. His character (Col. Kilgore) is a larger than life character, perfectly representing the bizarre truths about Americans, military types especially; it is pretty self-explanatory what I mean when you look at the fact that they bomb and pillage a Vietnamese town (perfectly edited to Cry of the Valkries) only for the opportunity to see one of Willard’s men, a professional surfer, showcase his talents. It really illustrates the exploitative nature of the American military, hitting the mark perfectly, just as the rest of the film does in illustrating the chaos and madness of not only the Vietnam war, but war in general.
Say what you want about Marlon Brando’s performance, but I found it to be deeply and strangely unsettling. This could be because he was facing the same sort of issues at that time in his life; he was becoming increasingly reclusive and separating himself more and more from humanity, believing that he was above everybody else. This attitude was perfect to portray Kurtz, a man who is trapped by his own insanity. Some of his monologues are peculiar yet greatly profound.
The beginning and ending sequences are almost entities in themselves when you talk about this film. Both are trippy, stylish, and edited to awesome music and sounds. In the beginning, the song is ironically The End by The Doors, in the most perfect sequence of any film I have ever seen. As the film and Willard descend into madness, this song is chronicling it, as well as the sound of helicopter rotors as the fan spins. The ending is just beautiful—Kurtz clearly wants Willard to be the one to kill him, before offering him the last temptation by giving him a glimpse of his philosophy. I still get the chills as Willard rises out of the red water…it’s completely incredible. As is the entire movie.
2½ . A Clockwork Orange Now, I only recently saw this movie, but I really just had to include it here up near my top two, since I was really taken aback by its power. This movie actually has a more personal meaning to me; my mom and dad constantly tell the story of their first date, during which my dad took my mom to see this movie, and my mom dumped him soon following, for the reason that she was so immensely disturbed by it. I’ve always thought this was hilarious, and I’ve always wanted to see it out of curiosity.
I would have to watch it again to write a full analysis, but it was worth mentioning. I was especially amazed by the scene by the water where Alex puts his “droogs” back in their place—slow motion imagery melded with music in its finest form. And this was only one of about a dozen scenes that really stuck out in my mind. Stanley Kubrick was a total genius.