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In Reply to: "Apocalypse Now:" a very overrated film. posted by tinear on October 11, 2006 at 10:36:49:
the captain of the boat.And Sheen? He was just about perfect.
"Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance. " T.S. Eliot
Follow Ups:
ludicrous figure is shown as "heroic," I don't know how else to describe it.
A ridiculous performance, a silly scene ("I love the smell of Napalm in the morning," indeed...).
Sheen is a tv performer. That's about it. Name any other role of his (teenage killer? c'mon...) in which he shines.
Hopper is a B-grade actor.
A cast of second-raters, with Brando as the exception.
Since you're sjb, I'll expend the effort:
Coppola manipulates the audience. Yes, Sheen is a cold-blooded assassin, but what's his target? Yeah, a guy who's supposed to be even worse, a mass murderer. So... in this strange moral universe, he's almost a good guy. Yeah, the Americans are good! We're rescuing the locals from a maniac! Whoopee.
At least John Wayne's "Green Beret" had the guts to take a stand.
Coppola is hypocritical.
His moral stance in The Godfather isn't better, either.
He's an amoral pig.
Insane! He's being depicted as the epitome of a certain type of crazy person drawn to war. It's a demonstration (as are many things in the film) of the utter lunacy of the whole thing. I really thought that was obvious.And I don't have much feeling for Sheen one way or the other in general but he was pretty much perfect for and in that part. I never thought of him as good so much as someone who's realizing how amoral he's been as a kind of pawn for crazy people. In his encounter with Brando he realized how easily he could have become that guy and he was killing off that part of himself so that he could live. It was his redemption. He'd have been okay with dying but he wound up defeating that part of himself. I'm not saying it was well done but there nothing close to "Yeah, the Americans are good! We're rescuing the locals from a maniac!" happening in that part (or any part) of the movie.
"Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance. " T.S. Eliot
My point is it matters not a whit what he INTENDED, it's what actually occurs. Action always speaks louder than intellectual justification.
The movie glorifies violence, specifically, American violence. Notice how "entertainingly" the scenes of horror are filmed? Coppola wants you to enjoy them.
In fact, music is used like some sort of MTV; it livens up scenes of what should be horror, death, and devastation.
As I said, Coppola acheived the same amoral result with Puzo's pulp novel, The Godfather.
He has no moral compass: he's a subconsious worshipper of violence or an unthinking entertainer, or both or... worse.
.
With the original's play on the "dark" continent, the amoral nature of imerialism is what I thought it was MEANT to be about.
another movie exploration of the nature of Good and Evil
Malick claimed in an interview that Sheens role was an homage to James Dean
And he keeps being told he looks like JD.
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cause their names rhyme! ~AH
Montgomery Cliff would be more comparable, you know, the 'wounded by life' persona. Deep angst! ~
bleep
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