- Apocalypse Now
- “Apocalypse Now” is an epic war movie. But more than that, it is an exploration of the darkness of a man’s soul. The movie is loosely based on the book “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, who, in 1899 used Belgian colonialism in the Congo as the backdrop to illustrate how a “civilized” man could descend into madness and brutality. The movie trades Conrad’s Belgian Congo at the turn of the 20th century for the jungles of southeast Asia where the Vietnam War was at its height in 1969. Although the venue and the epoch have changed, it is still a searing exploration of man’s inherent brutality and the darkness that inhabits the soul of mankind.
- COMPLETE REVIEW PODCAST:
- PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
- You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
- Have you ever considered any real freedoms? Freedoms from the opinion of others… even the opinions of yourself?
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
- courtesy of YouTube
