Apocalypse Now Flashcards
Who stars in Apocalypse Now?
The film stars Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard and Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz.
What is an auteur?
Auteur is a French term meaning ‘author’. An auteur is a filmmaker with a distinctive ‘signature’ who makes films of artistic merit as opposed to commercial. The auteur theory was promoted by the French New Wave, also known as ‘Nouvelle Vague’. The auteur theory comes from Policy Of The Auteurs, written in an 1954 edition of the magazine Cahiers Du Cinema by François Truffaut.
What happened during the New Hollywood era?
Auteurs were able to create their own films and showcase their styles.
Films were now filmed on location.
Actors had more freedom over auditioning for films and they were no longer bound to one studio.
Films became more experimental.
Films had to compete with TV.
New companies were made to produce films.
Cahiers Du Cinema influenced auteurs.
Different perspectives and different ideologies.
Historic genres became unpopular with audiences.
Blockbusters lost money and became financial flops.
Laws were passed to challenge studios’ ownership.
Films were often created by riskier subjects.
Information on Francis Ford Coppola.
American film director, producer and screenwriter.
In 1969 he founded American Zoetrope with young filmmaker George Lucas.
In 1960, he enrolled in UCLA Film School.
Coppola directed ‘The Godfather’, which was released in 1972 and was a milestone in cinema, becoming the highest grossing film of 1972.
During the production of The Godfather Coppola and Paramount had many disagreements, including who to cast and when the film would take place.
Apocalypse Now took then ten years and $31 million to make, due to setback after setback during production.
Coppola’s independent studio was a way for him to make independent and personal films himself without studio bosses controlling his films.
Ride Of The Valkyries scene analysis.
Shows the 1st Squadron and the 9th Cavalry Regiment attacking the Viet Cong.
The Ride Of The Valkyries is played both diegetically and non-diegetically, transitioning as it cuts to a peaceful and quiet village.
The silence of the village is interrupted by the sound of choppers.
Civilians are caught in the crossfire as the Americans and the Viet Cong fight, a detail that wouldn’t have been included in films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, linking to films commenting on riskier subjects.
Horrific injury is shown, adding to the riskier subject.
The location allows for wide-scale action on a large scope.
Large amount of props, vehicles, extras and explosions are used, something less common in the Golden Age of Hollywood films.
The scale of the battle shows the freedom Coppola had when directing the film.
Ending scene analysis.
The scene subverts the war genre and becomes more horror.
Intellectual montage of Colonel Kurtz and the buffalo being killed.
Captain Willard is transformed by the face paint.
Kurtz speaks about the horror of the war which is taken from the book, which is intertextuality.
Unclear ending to the film.
The intellectual montage is similar to a scene in Strike! by Sergei Eisenstein.
The music that plays during the ending scene is unusual.
Anti-war statement.
Captain Willard and the tribe throwing their weapons down symbolises the war ending.
The film was one of the first films to critique the Vietnam War (Southeast Asia).
