Friday, November 4, 2011

TODAY'S NUGGET: #55 WGA Script of All Time - Apocalypse Now (1979)

[Quick Summary from IMDB: During the on-going Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe.]

I know this is considered a classic, a movie of its time, among the first about Vietnam.

I know Rotten Tomatoes calls it a "masterpiece" & "brilliant", & gives it an extremely rare 99%.

But I don't get this script.  I barely understood it until p. 100 of 155 pages.  I even had to use the logline from IMDB because I was unable to make up my own. 

Coppola clearly had a vision, given the finished film.  But I couldn't see it on the page. 

I didn't know why Willard is really on this journey. Tell me again why I want him to succeed?

I don't know what is the purpose of locating crazy Kurtz. To show the fruitlessness of war? To criticize the decision to go to war?  I have no idea.

I exited the jungle very dissatisfied...but even worse than that, I learned squat.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I simply don't get this script, but wish I did. Anyone care to comment?

Apocalypse Now (1979)
by John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola
Based on the novel by Joseph Conrad

No comments:

perPage: 10, numPages: 8, var firstText ='First'; var lastText ='Last'; var prevText ='« Previous'; var nextText ='Next »'; } expr:href='data:label.url' expr:href='data:label.url + "?&max-results=7"'