APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) Breakdown | Ending Explained, Making Of, Version Differences & Hidden Details

welcome to the heavy spoilers show I'm your host Paul in this video we're breaking down Apocalypse Now my my film is not a movie my film is not uh about Vietnam it is Vietnam was crazy the horror often labeled as one of the best movies of all time I've been waiting to break down this movie for a while now but in all honesty I didn't feel like I was up to the task however after pouring through all the making of material every version of the film and numerous interviews I finally feel as ready as I'll be to tackle this Behemoth The Views the views it was an onslaught to be honest and I had to dig deep into my own Heart of Darkness in order to unearth all the hin layers within the movie Apocalypse Now is one of those films that really made America hold up a mirror to itself and question all things that went on during the conflict it of course went on to inspire several films that followed it with this really Paving the way for the Vietnam War epics that would have come in the following decades highly influential it had Martin Sheen's Willard narrating and delving deeper into what I've always deemed as Dante's Inferno whilst he questioned the insanity of War this to me is about a man traveling through the circles of hell on an inward Journey which showed Humanity returning to a primal state that is the apocalypse the downfall of civilization which made us as few as question the toll that war can have in one's Soul the Insite this would later be picked up and inspired into films like platoon which even took marttin and Charlie and had him the rating over it too if you've seen Hot Shots po the pair literally have two bits of narration overriding the other I'm so tired we get up at at first I thought they'd handed me the wrong dossier I couldn't believe they wanted this man dead third generation West Point top of his class Korea Airborne about a thousand decorations etc etc i l you in Wall Street now platoon's rider Oliver Stone admitted that he took a lot from this with him even Penning his script to The End by The Doors Stone actually fought in the conflict but it's difficult to argue that cop didn't create his authentic a feeling film which has completely altered how we view the war this is the [Music] beautiful friend now to me this movie very much Creed the soundtrack for Vietnam and also the town and atmosphere that we have when we look back at it those single guitar strings the fire washing the trees and the smell of night Palm in the morning all of it stems directly from this film now growing up this was one of the films that I hadn't actually seen But I pretty much knew all the references and nods before actually watching it like The Shining The Simpsons had done so many parodies of it I felt like I'd seen the movie before ever putting it on it's it's difficult to think of a time where I wasn't aware of this film but watching it is a whole other matter for this video I'm going to be covering the Final Cut version as that's well the final final final Final Cut of the movie but I will touch you on the Redux which I always thought was redo but no according to the creative team that's how it's pronounced directed by Francis Ford C the film was its own war zone both on and off camera with there being several setbacks that the creative team had to go through just making this movie is almost as legendary as what we see the people on screen diving into with the making of chronicling how Bleak the production was this itself is documented in hearts of Darkness a filmmaker's apocalypse which in itself could be adapted into its own film a 90-minute documentary is probably as close as we'll get though and it outlines some of the things Copa had to go through in order to get this film finally made now that title hearts of darkness is actually a nod of the book by Joseph Conrad that the whole movie is based on titled hot of darkness is 1899 Nolla took place on the Congo River with it documenting the journey to find a rich Ivory Trader stationed in the jungle in the 30s oron Wells was planning on adapting it with a film almost going into production until the studio pulled the plug that was because of the cost and Wells then made Citizen Kane instead and it was years later that cobbler ended up trying again this adaptation of course shifted things to Vietnam and many people mistakenly believe that's where the book took place Marlon brano's Curt appears in the source material too though they did change some things up due to some let's say some choices by the actor Copler ended up shopping around the idea for the film but due the tensions over the war at the time absolutely no Studio wanted it soldiers were getting spat on the country was still reeling from the loss and all in all it was something Hollywood didn't want to touch CPL then of course went on to make the Godfather part one and two which made him a multi-millionaire and after launching his own Studio they themselves put it into production now originally it was co-written by cop Michael her and John milus with the idea being that George Lucas would direct however after he dropped out Copler took over with him being heavily influenced by wner herzog's wrath of God Lucas and Copa go way back though and the latter left a little tribute to his pal in the form of Harrison Ford's character Ford of course stared in both Lucas's American Graffiti and a little known picture called Star Wars with them calling his character Colonel G Lucas General corman's also a nod to Roger Corman Whose advice for shooting in the jungle was don't James KH was also originally lined up to play Lucas but he wanted too much money for what he considered a small role so they cast forward who was relatively unknown but he of course blew up making it a lucky get for the film even though it's a small role deep down I feel like Lucas may have dodged to Bullet as he was completely exhausted during the creation of Star Wars and this is why he didn't end up directing Empire or return this movie probably would have made it so we never got one of the biggest franchises of all time and in the end I feel things worked out even if they weren't that Pleasant at the time now originally it was said to be a 6 week shoot but this ballooned up to 16 months in total they shot for 238 days but amongst this were a number of setbacks and shutdowns on the production coming off the back of the Godfathers there was also a lot of pressure on Copa to make a massive follower but the Press at the time they often reported on the disaster that it was behind the scenes CA self financed a lot of the film and basically needed it to be a success for his career and his bank account screening of his hands he won the Palm de but this came off the back of two years in the editing room in the end he took out a lot of the weirder parts of the movie so that it was more appealing to the general audiences that would be watching it this worked as well with it being a big box office success though copas made it clearly things says other ways to experience the movie in total you've got four different versions of the film out in the wild and if this is your first time jumping into it I'd honestly go with a theatrical that's the more straightforward and right to the point type of film but if you already love it then you have to check out the extended versions the first of these is the assembly car which comes in at almost 5 hours that includes everything they shot and is basically the version cober put together before going at it with the editing knife the third version came out in 2001 which was titled Redux and it was hit with a lot of backlash in the same way that it's Redux sorry redo of Godfather 3 Koda was to the additional scenes had Kilgore helping a wounded child before his surfboard was stolen by Willard who then chased him in a helicopter asking for a back we also had the playmate scene in Willard being imprison in the Box whilst Curt read him an excert from Time Magazine talking about the war certain elements of this remained in the latter version but it was a far more expensive version of the movie often criticized as being blooded and slow it was said to make the movie worse and thus the Final Cut was crafted dropping in 2019 this also had some of those additional scenes that we'll talk about in just a bit including the French Plantation however a lot of the seen Sao criticism were C leading to a vision that c players said he's most proud of now this includes writing something that he saw as somewhat of a regret during the production jav kital was actually originally in the part of Willard but couf fired him one week into production we bit the bullet and uh and did you know a very very unpleasant thing which is uh replace an actor although we'll never know the full extent of what happened it said Copler didn't like his interpretation and onset demeanor he said he was imp patient and wanted Willer to be more of a passive onlooker according to the rumors right and I'm not I'm not making this up kitel had narrow eyes or aen had bigger ones which helped to add into the naivity the character was supposed to feel according to variety kitel left the movie because of a contract dispute and due to the fact that things halted for three months to make way for Brando cobbler of course worked with him and Robert Duval on the guarda and in some ways he got Sheen from the production of that too although Sheen never got the pot of Michael he did audition for it and then he ended up being brought in as the replacement however in the Final Cut You Can apparently see kite tell in the film at one point from his one week of filming at the beginning of the movie we see a shut of the boat taking off from the dark with kital sitting at the front of it man's back we are so back now but it kind of shows that cobbler may not be proud with how he fully handled the situation to be fair though he had a hell of a lot on his play which as mentioned is documented in hearts of Darkness filmed by cess wife Elena she took a lot of their private conversations which were said to have been done under the pretense of them being for her diary like the characters she said they went through the Journey between sanity and insanity and he commanded a crew of over 600 people when you include set Builders and crew nowadays you just CGI most of it but these guys had to build sets that were often destroyed by the weather with them getting hit by extreme typhoons started out just it was raining a lot and after a while we realized it was knocking out centers of civilizations and rivers were over running and I realized that certain sets had been destroyed in order to rebuild the sets Francis has closed down the production for 2 months on top of this there was also the political climate in the country Philippine generals were sent in every day to oversee things and Pilots were called into fighting the conflict which led to tens of thousands of dollars being wasted in expensive shots due to the story's order to kill one of their own the US military refused to give Copler any equipment and thus it was borrowed from the local Army however the military kept worrying that the rebels attack the helicopters leading to there being a ton of tension when filming the movie on top of this they also route the ending with the original pitch being that kurts and Willard would fight alongside each other against the vi Kong the US helicopters would then come in and they'd refuse to give up the land that they fought for and then they'd Gunn down the helicopters kopa always knew that he wanted to rewrite the ending and lean into Heart of Darkness along with what he himself experienced when he was making the movie he found it so difficult to lock down the ending but the delays caused by the T typhoon gave them two months to work on it in the end they managed to pull things together and the film stances a testament to their work and also what soldiers likely went through that's my opinion now as for the movie itself we begin with a shut of the Jungle which is then blanketed in Napal this instantly sets the tone for the film with the nature of the Jungle being destroyed by man's fire and vengance however I feel this has a deeper layer to it with the hell Illusions also being cemented by this shot hell is of course thought to be made of burning fires that cover the entire landscape and symbolically fire appears throughout the film this is also matched up with a smoke too which appears frequently during the movie whether it's the colorful gas grenades Willard's head emerging or just the smoke coming from the Flames it appears throughout the film both beautiful and deadly far is what we think of when we think of the apocalypse and the apocalypse itself is seen as being the end this is why the End by The Doors perfectly fits the tone of this shot and let us know what kind of Journey we're in for now along with the journey through the circles of hell I also feel the film itself is one of getting to the depths of what it means to be human huge shout out to the channel what it all meant for bringing up the fact that the movie is based on hot of darkness and the journey itself is about traveling into man's heart of darkness they pointed out that the rivers themselves could metaphorically be seen as veins with the pit stops along the way being what clogs up the arteries this stops the heart which is at the center of it all and it's all about just reaching that heart of Darkness it's also important to bear in mind that this movie is very much about Duality and that K is someone who's a dark mirror of Willard Willard has two PS that he can walk in the film with him either joining CTS and leading his clan or going off and becoming something else in the end CTS actually wants him to kill him because this will then allow him to take over his place this is why he emerges to the tribe all before him at the end because this was all part of the big plan at least that's how I take it anyway and the idea of Duality with a man is played upon early in the the film when we hear kman laying out the two sides of man before playing this clip though listen now for the references to Duality and the notion that there's conflict within one's heart because there's a conflict in every human heart between good and evil between the rational and the irrational every man has got a Breaking Point good does not always Triumph sometimes Dark Side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature these references they could in bad light and dark they're encompassed perfectly in both Kurt and Willard who are opposite sides of the same coin Kurt is even shot mainly in darkness where as will it is in again painting out these two sides of Shadow and light it makes for what's two brilliantly complicated characters and it all stems out from these opening moments now the opening shot was almost never in the film with Copa pulling the footage out the trash during the editing process this was actually a discarded trim of the Village attack but cobbler realized that when accompanied by the end it made for something both beautiful and deadly now superimposed over the top of this we get Willard who's then further joined by the spinning fan on the ceiling the marrying of these images may seem odd but I feel like the upside down aesthetic shows where Willard's at mentally the world has been flipped on its head and we learned that Willard's suffering from PTSD the fan resembles the blades of a helicopter and even though he's out the war he's never truly left it now this beginning is important because will is a representation of a post-war Soldier who's still feeling the after effects of it memories litter his mind and he's unable to truly let go we hear how when he was in N he wanted to be back home with his wife raising her family but when he was back home he wanted to be here it shows how Walken create an addiction because there's no real rules and there might be some personalities that just long for this Primal State now Madness leaps off the screen with Martin's performance and the scene was actually shot on his 36 birthday man was Mortal drunk and all the stuff here including the mirror punch was performed by him just messing about on set that opening sequence was shot on my 36th birthday and I was so drunk I couldn't stand up frankly him cutting his hand was real and they ended up even including a line about it in the script later on when he meets Coran notice that you have a bad hand there are you wounded that's a little fishing accident on RNR shows that he seems stable but he obviously can't show what he's dealing with mentally so intoxicated I didn't realize how close to the mirror I was so when I struck it I ended up catching my thumb in the mirror and split it open a [Music] bit now unfortunately Sheen ended up suffering a heart attack during the filming which further Delights shooting saying it was just heat stroke this was used as the excuse so that the investors wouldn't worry about further funding a film that was massively over budget either way this scene really speaks to the madness and we get shots into L over the top of where Willets wearing the mud mask that he has when killing KS now I've really thought on this for a while and again I think it ties in the whole idea of how Willards trapped in hell you could really watch this film on a loop and this could be him Awakening carrying PTSD after just finishing the mission to kill C he has memories of it that litter his mind but he's then pulled out of it and sent on that mission which then leads to him being back in the room where he has PTSD once more it's a big Theory time the time it's just a big Theory time probably not real but the music saying this is the end that could represent him having already finished the mission but he's living in his own personal hell of doing this journey over and over I wanted a mission and for my sins they gave me one sure it's probably a reach but I love the way the film can make you imagine these scenarios and seed on a deeper level either way he's awoken by soldiers dragged out of bed and forced to show before being brought before kman and Lucas fur's idea of Duality unmatched in these two soldiers that pick up him and also Corman and Lucas along with them is a man named Jerry who stays silent for the entire thing except for this one line that just stands out terminate with extreme prejudice now according Tob trivia this line was first popularized in a 1969 New York Times article about a murder known as the Green Beret case a viames asset was accused of being a double hent and he was tortured and killed under the direction of CIA officials they told the officers to terminate with extreme prejudice and eventually all were put on trial for his murder CT is too accused of murdering several alleged double agents and it kind of ties this all in with the real life event Now Jerry is kind of a mysterious character with him somewhat representing a devil in his shirt that commands the grunts what to do all he does is issue The Kill Order and he's quite Sinister sitting there just waiting and watching to me he shows who's really in charge and that the hups will happily kill their own if they question their Authority now they're having to kill their own because he stands up to what they represent and it's a really complex idea to have US troops killing US troops the first shot we get of kurts he's in his military uniform which is actually pulled from Reflections in a golden eye this is a film that cober worked on and there made Curt at the end seem like a shadow of his former self heading out we hear as Willard is happily killed in the past but with this being an American Soldier it strikes a bit turmoil within him in many ways this man reflects himself and what could happen if his own Madness takes control now on the boat we meet a young Lawrence Fishburn who was only 14 at the time of filming lying about his age he managed to get on the cast and gave a theory about what his character meant I think what it was that was me that was clean was just that I was a kid I mean it's about the kids that were over there who didn't know anything about anything just kind of kind of snatched up and used his Cannon f for this war now J toos this with how the actor saw War when he was 14 thing's really fun I mean a war is fun you can do anything you want to that's why Vietnam must have been so much fun really shows how kids were just kind of brought into it with no idea what they were really doing and he represents the lie that's been sold to them his character's name is clean and along with him we meet chef is also getting a celebrity Surfer and Lance lastly is Chief and it's at this point that they really leading into the voiceover as well which I don't actually think is delivered by mon Sheen now it's difficult to tell at what bits this happened but due to how long the edit took there were a lot of actors that moved on while working on it coule realized he'd need Sheen to provide voiceovers but he was UN able to perform them at the time due to being bucked on other things thus they called in Sheen's brother Joz who actually sounded identical to M esz was also used during some of the standing shots while marttin recovered from his heart attack with some of the the back shorts belonging to him anyway after the piece is destroyed by The Village we get a little Cameo from Copa himself don't look at the camera go look at the camera just go by like you're fighting like you're fighting go look at the camera this shows us another aspect of war and how reporting can be used during a conflict often this can be propaganda but Vietnam and more modern Wars have shown the reality of it during the second world war a lot of things were manipulated and glorified but modern Wars documented the darker side to it I know it's all still very manufactured but yeah that there is definitely this this on the ground thing that this new age reporting allowed to happen now here it shows how manufactured moments like this are with Copler instructing him to look like he's fighting when he isn't at this point we're introduced to a hell of a big scene stealer in Robert deval's killgore Now kill Gore not that subtle of a name and originally he was going to be called colonel connage in the end I'm glad they changed it but this name represents the kind of person he is coming down in a chopper we can read on the front that the tagline for this is Death from Above smoke ballows out of it almost like it's hell inpired and we watch as he calmly walks through the Carnage throwing Death Cards on the bodies of women and kids this shows how little he cares about the fight to him this is like a game with war being something he loves because they always win due to their Advanced artillery they can easy wipe out and destroy those that live here which is showcased in the home being bulldozed as Willard gets to the beach Kore barely even bothers to abolute Willard and this shows how he really views the war however we see with Lance that he does this prominently and this shows where his true interests lie man is actually obsessed with surfing and this represents a lot of things with him at one point he says that he doesn't want to advance because he knows it's going to cost loads of lives but upon hearing that it could be a good place to serve he throws everything he has it is this is because he'll do anything to make Vietnam like home which is exemplified in the parties and Lifestyles that they have really though they're just fooling themselves and it's not something they're going to be able to return to I think the reason that he loves the smell of napom I love the smell of napom in the morning it's not because it's just a cool catchphrase but it's also because of what napom represents smells like victory for him it's an unbeatable weapon that clears out an area and this allows him to go in and then turn it into America at this point he'll be able to Surf again and get the feeling of home that's being Stripped Away From Him Now this idea of him putting home above all else is seen when he goes to a wounded VC fighter on the ground we see a man holding in his intestines through using an enamal pot which is apparently something that happened in real life journalist Philip Jones Griffith said a soldier offed in water after realizing how honorable it was to keep fighting while he was mortally wounded here Kil goor goes to do the same thing but he's distracted by the fact that Lance has arrived now in both real life in the movie the line was any soldier who can fight for 3 days with his inside Z can drink from my canteen anytime here though we get an idea of how little he actually cares as when Lance arrives he just takes away the water and goes over the thing that he really cares about a now this is actually a term used in surfing with it meaning he stands right foot forward inste the left now we also get further religious imagery with the church and then a sermon being carried out a glow is said to emate from Kilgore and we also see his almost Heavenly lights eminate from Willet sitting playing his guitar around the the campfire it's clear that they're desperate to make things like home now if you like bringing the classics home then definitely check out our partner Arrow video who sell lots of Blu-rays in 4k's folder films they've got a massive back catalog with a whole host of movies and are having a big sale for December right now on top of that if you use our Link in the description and type out the code heavy spoilers you'll get an extra 10% off it really helps us out and yeah go check them out cuz they've got so many good movies on the site That's Heavy spoilers remember that code for temp % off every time you ever buy from Arrow now it's at this point that KGO he's the good peaks of where the vi Kong are heavily located and he decides to go full steam ahead into it again tying back to that weak salute to Willard it shows he doesn't really care about military operations what he's interested in is gaining grounds to carry out his Hobby and we watch as they then fly out seven we've got it spotted now you may recognize my man from another really famous Vietnam film which is Full Metal Jacket all completely stole the show in there and it was so cool seeing him pop up here too anyway from here we get one of the most iconic scenes in film history with a helicopters flying out to the right of the [Music] Valkyries this is actually meant to be ironic as in the original Opera that it was used in the Valkyries are defeated after arriving at what they thought would be be an easy win America would of course end up losing the war and this is why this song was selected here a huge shout outs to robis analysis on the film which goes over what this thematically could mean and I definitely recommend you check out his full 40-minute breakdown of the piece after this I obviously can't touch on at all but he brought up how the right of the Valkyries was also based on the Vikings who believe that if you died bravely in battle you'd get into Valhalla these Legends were used to fool soldiers in adjoining these quests and fighting in battles that would potentially lead to their deaths now the Valkyries are also in creatures with a helicopters two riding into battle through the air like the song's namesake the song is of course also used to intimidate and we see the schoolyard sent into Panic before the helicopters rain down most of the people CAU in the attack they seem like they're civilians and it shows how terrifying these skirmishes could be the soldiers don't appear to panic though and to them this is just another day to try and get some ground now Rob pointed out a further illusion to religion with a wounded soldier on the ground desperately praying for God help God of course isn't come and Rob pointed out how this could be a comment on how valhall and the Valkyries would never arrive even though the Vikings believe they would now though the soldiers have the advantage we also see the danger they're in with the gorillas throwing grenades into the chopper and blowing some of them up you really think this would bother kill goal but instead all he cares about the surf what do you think wow it's really exciting man oh no no way this is the war to him and we see as he lands on the ground with the gas grenades like the LZ the colors here really add to the trippiness of the Shar with purple also potentially being used to Common on Purple Haze that might be a reach but it adds to the hypnotic side of everything going on purple's actually used prominently in the film and outside of this it always signals death in The Godfather Coba had orange appear just before a character was killed whereas here purple signifies that purple smoke can be seen around when a character on the boat dies foreshadowing that they're just about to lose someone now even with the battle still in full effect we see his kilgor allowed his soldiers to serve because that's where his Focus lies these are people that he could easily have helping him out but he sees that is the purpose with the battle being background noise now all of this was such an iconic scene that it's even been referenced in other films Back to the Future 2 had a poster that said surf Vietnam which was a little Easter R calling back to this Kilgore also uses the coign big Juke 6 which in itself is homar to a very famous surfer that is Juke Hoku who was a legendary Hawaiian Surfer that brought the sports to the masses after popularizing it during the 20s anyway the Napal strikes called in and we get a slightly different angle of that opening shot again this could add to the theory that it's all a big time Loop and Willard's remembering this before being brought back into it realizing the insanity of the situation Willard and Lance fle at the boat and we get the scene where Willard steals the surfboard that debuted in Redux hearing kilo's voice over the speakers it shows his obsession and how far he'll go for the surf not hurt or H just give me back the board L either way it's also insane to steal that during an active war zone and it takes us into the next part of our journey what I think works well with the film as well is that it's almost episodic in nature with each stop bringing a new tone in style now to me each Stop's important and it demonstrates elements that could lead to the downfall of humanity the First with kill goes about killing and conquering for selfish reasons and the second with the USO tour that kind of showcases the loss of decen morality the French stop symbolizes people stubbornly refusing to let go and the final stop showcases the darkness within every man's heart and the jungle itself comes with its own dangers which we see when chef and will had come across a tiger the behind the scenes show that it had the pair scared shitless when filming because they basically just let it off the leash to film that one scene all day the trainer had been joking about how hungry it was but still there weren't really any safety measures is in place also to give you an idea of how delayed the production was as well the next scene on the boat was shot a year after this was filmed still though the intensity is kept up with clean blasting away into the jungle as they make their escape this shows how trigger happy he is with him later gunning down some civilians that were just trying to protect the puppy the puppy was purposely used because it was a popular breed in America that showed all the lives that were needlessly ended to protect this ideal it's one of the more memorable parts of the movie with the Uso show also being that as well now one of the biggest questions I've seen about this is why a show like this was so far into the jungle as this is something that would be extremely dangerous to hold this was based on the time Playmate of the a Joe Collins visited Vietnam and in the end she was made an honorary GI these Playmates all Wear Yellow clots too and this symbolizes that they're part of air cap here the main Playmates played by Cynthia wood who in 1974 was voted Playmate of the air whilst this was being filmed interpretations of this have said it's meant to symbolize the madness in lure that one would have when going further into the jungle John millius stated that the girls were meant to represent Sirens who inmat would lure away Sailors and distract them from what they were doing this would eventually prove to be deadly with these women making their minds Wonder these shows were thought to boost morale for the men but a lot of people have thought it just demoralized the soldiers that's kind of the interpretation that I have here too with the troops rushing the stage and trying to escape with the girls some even hold for D life as the helicopter takes off showing that they'd rather be home than where they are now now we get a beautiful Jer position as we hear Willard talking about how the VC don't get RNR and for them rice in a little rat meat that's exactly what that is for them there's only two ways home death a victory with Willard realizing there's no real way to win The Americans are going against people who are built for this land oras they just want to be back home on top of this we also get a shot where we can see them standing looking through the fence showing that they're all kind of distracted by what's on display really levels the playing field and shows everyone's on the same page and just wanting to have the Comforts in life instead of the war they've been forced into now on the bo this siren imagery is further alluded to with Chef showing a center fold that he swears was on stage we also heard a part of his fantasy earlier on when he said he was going through the jungle with Raquel Welsh I'm walking through the jungle Gathering mangoes I meet Rael Welch women or rather these irons are leading him along with a frenchwoman later acting that way too she appears through a veil luring them away and distracting the soldiers so the French can steal all their supplies home and the Comforts of women are what the group truly long for with them desperately trying to claw their back whilst retaining that Humanity clean dances away to ion Get No Satisfaction and we see Lance pulled Along by the boat while he carelessly knocks locals into the river this somewhat lack of care and intoxication is ironically pushed under them when they shortly after encounter or some other US troops on the river one of them throws a grenade that sets fire to the boat canvas showing how everyone's kind of descended into their own base or instincts alance represents his two and we see how he joins him with clean gunning down the civilians at this point he started putting on face pain indicating how he's getting further intertwined with the jungle later on he gets fully indoctrinated andurs following with him wearing this while becoming a member this civilian boat also indicates one of the most important sayings in the film let get up never get out of the boat absolutely godamn right getting off the boat leads to all the civilians being killed here and Willard guns down the woman after we learned that she was still alive Willard told them not to stop and taking her to a hospital would just slow them down every time they step away from the boat something like this happens which is coupled in the next part at the doong bridge a far cry from what's come before this shows the beauty and Chaos that exists within wall This was meant to show a twisted reality with a soldiers reaching out the river almost like Spirits trying to pull them in the entire thing is is extremely horrific and surreal with circus music also being played amongst the chaos and Carnage you wonder what they even fighting for at this point and it's a far cry from the structure and semblance of Sanity that we saw down river now the character roach here is based on Michael herd's dispatches which was an account of his time in Vietnam who worked on the script for this film and interestingly the scene's one of the more factual Parts in it well it says there's no Co here or really anyone in charge and it shows what civilization descends into without Law and Order now as they ride away the bridge gets destroyed and this in itself sort of like a mythological punishment every day the soldiers are ordered to rebuild it and every night it ends up being blown up it further the insanity of occupation and how cyclical the conflict is with it being a constant Loop of just rebuilding and destruction now at this point we cut to the day and we see the back of the boat which is where we catch its name this says it's called arabus which itself is named after a Greek god arabus was the god of Darkness with his realm being something solds pass through on their way to Hades can heat is also on the back to which makes me think of that jqu song and look mate I didn't say that'd all be good Easter eggs mate I didn't promise you that however what's a nice little one is the letters that the group get in the next scene this includes clean with him getting a tape recorded by Lawrence's real life mother so bad you decid to join he was not sure she you also see how hypnotizing things are with Willard reading about a soldier that went looking for CTS only to be indoctrinated by him he sent letters to his family telling him to sell everything as he's never coming back highlighting the insanity that one could get from being around him coupled with this we also get a newspaper article which in itself is talking about Charles Manson Manson made his own cult too with this clearly being a comment on what's happened with Kurt now what this also helps to do is date the events of the film as there's never really a specific year given however that happened in 1969 meaning that this is likely taking place around the autumn/winter at this point Lance Sparks up the purple grenade which then leads into our first B crew death that comes in the form of Lance with his mother's tape playing over the top as he lies there like bring your Hy home all in one piece CU we love you very much it's so tragic and it shows the true cost of war with it being the young that are often put on the front line as the ones to die from here we then cut to what's an incredible moment with the crew then traveling under down B-52 just something about it is so haunting and I feel like this was chosen for a very specific reason a B-52 is a symbol of American might and it being down here highlights the the fall of [Music] power now from this point we travel into the French part which is only available in the extended versions this is really a scene that I can see why they occur as the total thing lasts for 24 minutes and kind of bogs down the pacing there isn't too much to take from it on the whole but Copler talked about what it meant during hearts of Darkness he stated these people fought for the land much like the Americans but they refuse to let go even though they should just go home when you back home to France I mean this is our home Captain sooner or later you going to get no this piece of Earth we keep it we will never lose that never one of the more poetic descriptions he said is that it's like when a star dies and its light's still out there traveling sh can still see it but technically it's not really there anymore Willer describes they're still hanging on like how America is but at this moment America is just gripping with more fingers they have dinners get accordion players in and dress like they're in Paris and though they fool themselves they're clearly living a lie why don't you Americans learn from us from our mistakes this plea is almost like a warning of what they're getting themselves into and it sounds like he's a trapped man in the end even if they win this is the kind of fight they'll have with it's sort of being an omen of the future you are fighting for the biggest nothing in the history here the woman brings up the idea of Duality and I said to him they two of you but you are both waking up from this hypnotic dream we see his smoke surrounds them on the river taking us into the mystical hot of Darkness rain down by arrows we even see a slance end up snapping one and sticking it on his head these are just sticks used for intimidation tactics though but you can catch the purple smoke behind the attacker who throws a spear that kills Chief in the immediate aftermath of his death we get a wide shut of the bow which we can also see is blanketed in the Smoke given a water barrial by Lance this is a far cry from the funeral they held for clean showing how far he slipped traveling further up the river we get more religious iconography with crucifixes clearly lining the shore this is when the movie becomes its most trippy with a soundscape altering our experience the idea of Duality that comes into full effect here with them traveling through the two statue heads that showcase the two SES arriving toward what a mass of people on boats we see as Willards then welcomed in now we can catch people standing on stairs and the slim behind Dennis Hopper's character the journalist says all motto Apocalypse Now he said it he said it now this title was con by John milus who thought of it after seeing the Nan and now tattoo that was popular at the time this had a piece symbol on it too but for the film logo milus ended up altering this so it instead looked like a B52 now though we can't show this because of YouTube's demonetization you can see around the camp that there's bodies hanging up according to the stories they were going to pay for some real corpses to be used but the authorities discovered they were being being sold by a grave robber so they just ask the extras on set at this point we see the soldier Willard was reading about before who seems as if he's in a zombie-like state this guy is played by Scott Glenn who I never even recognized until doing this deep dive Sheen also had his sons on set for this to with both Charlie and amelo playing extras in the movie unfortunately both of their scenes occur but I did appreciate seeing Glenn appear here Willard's reaction has the character staring at him and copela changed the Hue of this moment so it had extra green in it this included making his eyes seem Greener too so it appeared like the jungle had taken him in on the steps you also get heads lining the location which was accompanied by people being buried into the set all day they were there in the hot sun with smoke blowing on them between takes they were covered with umbrellas back on the boat we see his Lancers starting to be hypnotized by the location and Sam bottom sounds like he had a crazy time filming it man did numerous drugs while shooting it and I think that does come across during his performance now Chev is told to wait and if he doesn't hear back then he's been ordered to call in an air strike and this takes us into all the Brando stuff which sounds like it was wild behind the scenes he said to have showed up on set out of shape even though CTS was supposed to be thin and wiry there cop mainly shot the actor in Shadow to hide what he could but tonally I think this works brilliantly we never really get a good look at kurts and he represents the darkness within us all Sheen's also shot heavily in Shadow too so you have these two almost half faces that could perhaps be a hole now Brando also refused to read Heart of Darkness and he refused to learn his lines this was the case on The Godfather 2 and he actually had to have them stuck on other actor chest so he could read them during the scene they were upside down though with brand constantly leaning sideways in order to try and read them now he argued with Copa a lot and his first point of contention was that an American wouldn't be called Kurt so the character was then renamed to Ley however after filming was done he read the book and liked it the demanding that his name should be changed back all of the lines mentioned lately were then redubbed to say kurts including Harrison Fords hearts of Darkness talks about what went on with Brando and his process and we learn that he improvised pretty much all of his dialogue this include what's one of my favorite lines in the film which ends the first scene between him and will it you're an Aaron boy sent by gross looks collect a bill now brand also performed a fully improvised 20-minute speech which was then cut down to 2 minutes in the end hilariously he just ended it by saying I can't think of any more dialogue today which yeah professional until the end now Willard's engaged and treated like an animal before kurts goes to him on the night rocking green and black face paint I believe this is purposely mired with the meaning behind why Lance did it and it shows that he's almost like a god of the Jungle dropping Chef's head onto his lap this ends all the hope of him calling in an air strike taken into a temple we see a beam of light coming down striking CTS potentially hinting at his divinus and da like Persona we are the Hollowman now this point kurts reads from the TS Elliot poem The Hollowman this was inspired by Heart of Darkness with the first line reading Mr CTS he dead this line is left out when CTS reads it however we do get a moment calling back directly to its final line is the way the world end look at this we're in man whimper and with a whimper the final L of the po talks about the way the world ends with it being a whimper which is also how CTS goes out too the idea for him being sacrificed was inspired by the locals after Eleanor and Francis watched a real life sacrifice the water buffalo was also slaughtered for real in the film with them capturing the sacrifice being carried out by an indigenous tribe this may help the think that his demise should be handled like a sacrifice with the tribe also somewhat cons sending to it happening huge sh out to use of the dark presence and R ping out that we can also spot the book The Golden bow in Curt's quarters this has the high priest of the cult of Diana whose job was to lead the cult and protect Diana's sacred tree he was also tasked with looking for his successor who he was told could arrive at any time this person would then kill him and become him which explains his thinking behind what happens in the end he is a man who somewhat sees himself as existing outside of time and even the Roy XI wees has its bezels missing this is because time zones aren't something that's important to anym unless he just has this very strip back watch now Dennis hoer and Brando they didn't get along on S with Marin apparently yelling at him over a simple misunderstanding from this point on BR refused to share the set with him even in the scenes that the pair were in together th when BR does this you either love somebody or you hate him he's not actually there and you kind of get the feeling that this was actually how brand felted about him this was shot in separate nights so the pair didn't interact and Brando also spent time on set dissing ber Reynolds this was recorded in a tape behind the scenes it's a long one but I'll play a little excert from it I think it's B Reynolds that's one of the reasons we're doing don't say that name around me do you not like him uh he is the epitome of something that makes me want to throw up he's a nice guy he is you want to come no you don't I don't know why I hate him no he is a nice guy is he can't be he's he he's the epitome of everything that's disgusting about the thespian just hold he did you get that idea I don't know him at all he worships at the Temple of his own narcissism now Reynolds was also apparently almost casting The Godfather but Brando threatened to quit if he ever got the pot whatever you think of the actor though you can't deny he gave an unforgettable performance he's completely mesmerizing in this with imp perfectly capturing the insanity and darkness of the situation Brandel completely steals the movie and this is actually aided by what they did with will it B the voice over that that we hear narrating things he doesn't actually speak for the final 30 minutes Willis last words spoken aloud are I'm a soldier and it shows where his true allegiances lie however I feel like he steps away from this at the end and this is why he puts his weapon down this weapon is a curve blade which is also similar to what's used in the sacrifice but the Trib to follow him in doing this too showing that the war may now be over for them taking Lance I feel like Willard goes off on his own path instead of the two that have been chosen for him rather than being an assassin or a leader he'll be his own person and go back home or at least that's how I take it however I feel this is cemented by this line they were going to make me a major for this and I wasn't even in their Army anymore which shows that he's not really part of them anymore his final Act is to turn off the radio showing that he's no longer listening to them now this shot is then accompanied by a helicopter superimposed over the location showing that they they'd potentially come into bomb it all however I feel this signifies the war will never end and that the death and horror are just going to continue Forever horor War is Everlasting because of the darkness that exists within all hearts and this is the true horror that we're going to have to face the Vietnam War wouldn't end with this Mission and the horror that we've experienced will still continue however Willard still carries on the killing and we see him rise out of the water almost like a baptism in which his has been wiped away he's a new person letting go of all of that and we watches he sneaks into the temple and kills him this sacrifice is mered with the shots of the Caribou being killed which symbolizes The Duality between these two moments I find it a really hard watch and there's no way you get away with this scene in the US still though it shows the brutality of war and lets us fill in the blanks of what happened with Kurt over the top of this we hear the do sumping away and KP actually went to the UCLA film school with all of the band's members they allowed him to use all their music for the movie with the 5H hour assembly C being scored entirely to that now in the aftermath of his death Will finds Kurt's writings which he starts to skim through over the top of the typed out Pages we sees written in red a terrifying message that is Drop the Bomb exterminate them all which is something I think can be taken a number of different ways this is a book that Willard carries out with him and it could single that CTS realized he and his tribe had reached the end of the road they realized they were never going to win and it was time to put down their weapons and let the bomb wipe them out however it could be his instructions to the US military which will it may take to show them in the end the words it's judgment that defeats us that sticks out to me showing that the US could drop nukes but they refuse to do it it's their judgment to try and be moral during immoral times that means they refuse to make the devastating choice that will help them win the war again it's purely my interpretation and I think there's other ways that it can be looked at twoo you could even see the opening of the film being the outcome of what happens here and if this is on a loop then that explains what's going on this could be why the images of Willard and murder interlace with that and it may spoil the ending in that very first shot either way we close out the film and feel the true impact of the NeverEnding horror Curt's death means nothing in the grand scheme of things and it won't change the outcome of any of the conflict it really ends things on an nihilistic not and some the movie as an incredible piece of film it really is one of the greatest movies of all time that was a nightmare both on and off the screen when preparing this video I watched this in a pitch black room with just the movie to take me on its journey and and it's one of the most immersive experiences that I've ever had this was astounding and it completely stands a test of time and I can't praise the movie highly enough now I hope you've enjoyed our interpretation of it and videos like this are all made by people like you who've signed up to our membership but just 99 cents a month you'll get early access to videos and help us keep going back through these classic movie breakdowns if you want to support us then please click the join button but even if you don't have the money then we'd also really appreciate the thumbs up I had such a blast going through this all and whether you agree or disagree with our interpretations I'd of course love to hear thoughts too that's what I think a brilliant film does and it can really be taken a number of different ways so yeah drop your thoughts Below in the comment section and make sure you subscribe to keep up with our classic movie breakdowns on screen right now we've got one for The Truman Show and the next series for tackling is going to be back to the future that will be coming out with Die Hard in between so you've also got a Christmas movie to watch over the holidays huge thank you for sticking with us this long I'll see you next time much love peace

Channel: Heavy Spoilers

Views: 193,491

Keywords: apocalypse now, apocalypse now breakdown, apocalypse now analysis, movies, movie breakdown, film analysis, movie facts, easter eggs, Hidden Details, apocalypse now ending explained, hidden details, things you missed, movie twist, apocalypse now movie details, apocalypse now movie breakdown, apocalypse now explained, apocalypse now movie reaction, apocalypse now movie easter eggs, ending explained, apocalypse now things you missed, apocalypse now timeline, final cut, redux

Id: MK0PCWbXGWM

Length: 49min 48sec (2988 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2023