Understanding Cinematography: Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse now is one of the most scintillating epic war films of all time. The film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The movie is built around an intelligence office captain Willard who goes back to Vietnam. It’s Willard’s second tour in Vietnam, and this time his mission was to find and terminate a rogue green beret Colonel Kurtz. Kurtz was one of the unit’s promising officers but had since become unhinged and committed war crime with the help of local militia. After forty years, one can’t help but notice the contribution of cinematographers to the success of the film. The lighting, camera angle and shot as well as the special effects and sound were so fantastic.
Special effects, camera tricks, and camera angles
The camera angle shot length, composition, and other special effects help in laying emphasis and determines how the audience interprets various scenes. In the movie “Apocalypse Now,” the directors use camera angles and shot in multiple ways. The first scene in the hotel room featuring captain Willard was sitting on a chair talking about life. The camera angles were carefully chosen to emphasize on Willard’s abstraction from reality. The reverse shot displayed in the first scene lays the foundation for the hallucinatory nature of most of the film. The slow-stroboscope psychedelia dominates the Do Lung Bridge as faces fall in and out of the darkness as fizzling flares. In this scene, the undirected bursts of mortar fire occasionally illuminate the night sky as they mark the arrival of Willard’s group at Kurtz’s place. Also, after the USO scene, the gradual redirecting of the thematic spotlight.
The use of sound in the film “Apocalypse Now.”
Soundtracks and songs are important in reinforcing certain critical moments in the film in addition to acting as a conjunction between scenes. In the movie, the sound of montage to the beginning sings about the end, yet it’s the beginning. The song signifies the end of Willard’s illusion about war, having been through into a different life after his first tour. The movie dramatically explores the contrast between sound and pictures, as well as the effect on emphasizing certain important themes in the movie. The density and psychedelic sounds in the film mimic the Vietnam war sounds. During the Vietcong village attack, the sound of the helicopters and psychedelic sounds preceding the scene created a moment of horror and fear in a war-time atmosphere. These sounds were synthesized and deconstructed to give the movie a surreal atmosphere. Another scene of the with the thematic soundtrack is the air Calvary scene when Colonel Kilgore bombs the Vietnamese village. The soundtrack to the bombing raid ” the ride to the Valkyries,” a piece of music by Wagner. The parallel musical tracks in this scene as the choppers alternate with shots of the quiet village with only the sounds of children being heard from far.
The use of color in the film
The movie Apocalypse has various iconic, beautiful scenes with good shots and camera angles. The color and designing custom palettes have been subtly used in the film to add to the natural environment where most of the scenes were shot. Colors in the movie were used carefully to make the scene more real and natural. The skin tones, navy uniforms, and coloring of the bombs were an example of an instance when colors were used in the film to create a clear picture of the events at the scene. A combination of color and light have been used to create fantastic images in the movie. For example, during the Air Calvary attack, the film shows various helicopters flying over a quiet village at sunset. The color of the sunlight is perfectly tuned to indicate the time and the surreal environment in the scene.