How does the film convey the sense of confusion and destruction
caused by the Americans' entry to the beach?
Until the American's entry to the beach in Apocalypse Now, Coppola
has only focused the personal experiences of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) and
how his mental stability affects him. This is especially shown when Willard has
a breakdown in his bedroom, smashing the mirror with his fist in a drunken
state. It gave an insight to how Willard acts alone and later contrasts to his
leader state when the soldiers act recklessly whilst storming the beach. Before
their entry, there had been no army action and Coppola, instead of building up
the fighting, goes straight into it.
At the beginning of
this scene, it has a normality to it, an American patriarchal sense which is
conveyed through the boy playing a fanfare on his bugle. The shot begins by
panning across from right to left, walking alongside the suited soldiers behind
their officer, Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall). This focuses the
audiences attention directly onto them and gives a clear insight to what
they're doing, which will later contrast to the confusion of the acts of
violence which they cause. The use of colouring is critical to this whole
scene, starting from before they enter the helicopters. However the use of
unionist hats, that specifically the Lieutenant Colonel wears , creates a childlike act to it, as if they're pretend cowboys. As the soldiers walk, the sepia colour of the
clouds moves with them. This not only creates a visual aesthetic to the scene,
but foreshadows the confusion and destruction the American's will eventually
cause, for as the scene continues the vividness of the colour becomes more
intense until it's a blood orange, reflecting the gore.
It’s not until the helicopters
take flight, that the confusion begins to take place. The audio of the bugle
fades out whilst the boy playing is still in the bottom right of the shot, which
could reflect the unimportance of the American patriarchy, since a synthesised audio
mixed with harmonic overlays, creating an eerie affect leading to the incoming
onslaught. The multiple shots of the helicopters flying into action, close ups
and panoramic from various angles, especially a dominating angle where the helicopter
flies close above the camera, creates an intensity to the situation, and a seriousness to it, also showing the
advantage the American’s may have over the Vietnamese, with the use of visual height.
This is then completely contrasted when the shot cuts to Kilgore halfway through
a conversation about surfing with Lance. The surrealism of heading into a war-torn
area yet focusing on a normality of life creates a confusion to where the focus
and passion of the soldiers lie. This showcases Coppola’s criticism of if it
was right for the American’s to fight in the Vietnamese War. Kilgore then turns
on the radio, saying that it ‘scares the hell’ out of their opponents, showing
that the audio is diegetic and adds onto surrealism of it. The audio is ‘Ride
of the Valkyries’, composed by Wagner and inspired by the goddesses of War.
This is often used for dramatic, uprising moments such as this scene and adds
onto the destruction of it all before the actual physical effects have occurred.
Along with the shots of
the outside of the helicopters, there are many close up of the weapons, such as
bombs which the audience know will be used at some point, creating a fear of
the impact these weapons will cause. As the helicopters fly, it cuts between
the Vietnamese village and the soldiers in the air. When first showing the village,
the music cuts out, showing the peacefulness and difference between the intentions
of each side. However as the soldiers advance, the ‘Ride of the Valkyries’
fades in, gradually getting closer. Their closeness is reflected with the volume
of the audio, therefore not visually seeing their distance, which therefore
creates a confusion to how soon the violence is to come, a dramatic irony where
the Americans and the audience know what’s coming but the Vietnamese village
doesn’t. This is until the fan of the helicopters also are heard, and the Vietnamese,
Coppola using childhood innocence as an act of sympathy by focusing on a school,
get into a formation which shows that this a common occurrence for them. The
sense of destruction is conveyed when the Vietnamese villagers run to pre-built
weapons, ready for attack.
The moments of violence
and destruction begin when the music reaches it’s climax, the editing of the
audio being right on the beat. The lack of dialogue when the first shots are
fired by the Americans adds to the confusion of knowing that something will happen
but not sure when. When the violence does strike, the shots flick between the action
and the reactions of both sides in a quick pace to add to the intensity of the
scene. To showcase the action, panoramic
shots of the Vietnamese scenery shows the general cause of destruction, and how
much of it is occurring, creating a mass shock to the audience but how much weaponry
was used. This is then focused by zooming
in on specific points of destruction which creates a more personal view of the
Vietnamese and puts it into perspective for American audiences. There is no thought
to the orders which the Americans have given, and the shock of this to the new soldiers are shown through close-up
facial reactions, which allow the audience to understand their thoughts.
There are many
contrasts in this scene which are reflected throughout the entirety of the film.
In the first scenes of Apocalypse Now, Willard is shown to be in solitude and therefore
acts in his own personal manner. During the beach scene, close ups of Willard
are shown and his imperturbable facial expressions shows his distance from the
scene. This is one of the biggest differences between the characters, Willard is
a reoccurring soldier whereas others on his team are new to this (shown earlier
with their casualness about their current states). The other soldiers now act
in hysteria, one saying ‘I’m not going’ in a fast paced close up to convey the
horror and reality of the situation. They were so unaware to what they may face
that when they find out, it creates a shock to them. This is especially shown in the moment of
great gore when a soldier has been critically wounded and is violently blood-stained.
The chaos of the cacophony of overlaying dialogue when trying to treat the
wounded soldier adds on to the confusion of the scene, by making the audience
unsure of who to focus on.
One of the main
moments which adds to the confusion of the Americans’ entry to the beach is when
a Vietnamese woman rebels against the American soldiers by throwing a hat, containing
a bomb, into the helicopter. Due to the large amount of people around the helicopter
and the mid shot of the scene, the audience are left unsure what actually may
be happening, until in the mid-shot, a Vietnamese woman is shown tossing her
hat to the left inside and a soldier shouts ‘she’s got a grenade’. The timing
of the scene happens so quick-paced that the audience are left questioning what
may happen next, especially how quickly the army is to respond to this act, by
gunning down the woman and people around her. After this moment, Kilgore calls
the woman and the people around her ‘savages’. This term is heavily ironic to
their situation, for the Americans are the foreigners to Vietnam and their
reckless acts on innocently-portrayed Vietnamese people showcase them to be the
‘savages’ due to the use of extreme violence and destruction.
Comments
Post a Comment