This is the end, my only friend, the end...
Francis Ford Coppola had to have chosen the song to introduce the mood//movie.
I find it interesting that Cop. had his Marlowe (named Willard) be an ex-liteuaneant, sufferring from depression. I guess with film adaptations, such as this one, background//situational building is a necessary/crucial thing. I wonder if Coppola could have done justice to the adaptation if he hand't chosen the Vietnam conflict?
... OOO he just punched the mirror. Blood, and then beer. Not necessarily a good combination.
Back to what I was saying --- the parallels are obviously there between the savagery of the African jungle and the Vietjungle, the Black tribal and Charlie. Was Francis' work then, a political statement, channelling the festering feeling against the war? Was his work completed during the war, or was it made post the ending of the war?
...Now playing the tape of Captain Kurtz:
I watched a snail crawl along the edge .... back in my dream... Its my nightmare, crawling, slithering along the edge of the straight razor and surviving.
But this kingdom, we must incinerate them, pig after pig, cow arfter cow, villian after villian, ... and they call me an assasin, what do you call it when the assasins accuse the assasin? they lie, and you have to be merciful for their lies..
those Nabalms(?) ... I hate them.
this is the scene. There is a deep and strong emphasis in the scene modeled by how Coppola is shooting it: hearing a Kurtzian narrative while just focusing on just an assortment of plates and food. The speech tingles the spine; we, as watchers, are stuck, glued to Kurtz's deep voice.
"Sometimes the dark side overcomes what we call the better aims of our nature."
Once again, the theme of the "dark," or "darkness" returns. They (The American Government) (akin to the Trading Company) want to kill Kurtz ( or in the orig. H of D, want him dismissed//almost like they are mad at him for ignoring the rules of colonialism).
"Terminate with Extreme Prejudice!" - This guy hadn't spoken yet? Therefore what he says is important? Why did Coppola chose to include him?
The surfing Captain represents who? But of Course:: The accountant in White: He tries to surf//make things exactly like home.
I love parallels, but alas I must leave and enjoy the rest of the movie.
As they say in America, Good Bye.
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1 comment:
Glad you loved the film. I agree that the choice of opening song was well thought out. While it does set the mood for the rest of the film to come, it also works as a bookend, playing once again at the end, to be more precise, the climactic finale featuring the death of Kurtz and the Cow sacrificial ceremony. "The End" had a haunting, yet easy to remember melody that stayed in my head for days after veiwing this film. Just another reason why this film flat out rocks.
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