One of the most effective techniques used in the movie is the usage of very long dissolves. Many scenes are dissolved on each other until they become a montage of their own in one shot itself and say something completely distinct from their individual meaning. This was used in the beginning of the movie, in the middle when the journey enters the final realm and in the end again giving the seemingly untying themes a thematic unity It is the height of the war in Vietnam, and U.S. Army Captain Willard is sent by Colonel Lucas and a General to carry out a mission that, officially, ‘does not exist – nor will it ever exist’. The mission: To seek out a mysterious Green Beret Colonel, Walter Kurtz, whose army has crossed the border into Cambodia and is conducting hit-and-run missions against the Viet Cong and NVA. The army believes Kurtz has gone completely insane and Willard’s job is to eliminate him! Willard, sent up the Nung River on a U.S. Navy patrol boat, discovers that his target is one of the most decorated officers in the U.S. Army. His crew meets up with surfer-type Lt-Colonel Kilgore, head of a U.S Army helicopter cavalry group which eliminates a Viet Cong outpost to provide an entry point into the Nung River. After some hair-raising encounters, in which some of his crew are killed, Willard, Lance and Chef reach Colonel Kurtz’s outpost, beyond the Do Lung Bridge. Some elements I noticed that stood out were the lightening, color, and camera movement. Lighting is the key element in the film. Along with fogs and shadows. The general look of the film is dark and shadowy in keeping with the theme of war and the dark journey that the soldiers undertake therein. As the journey begins, the lights are still high, Willard begins his boat ride in dusk (Journey Begins) but as the journey gets deeper and deeper, the film gets darker, the shadows get pronounced and light is dimmed (Journey Deepens). The lighting of the film is highly representative of the perils of the war in the jungle as well as metaphorical journey that the soldiers undertake in the spiritual realm. The boat, aptly named “Erebus” is not lit at all, yet is the only sanctuary in the deep jungle around (Ship Of Death). The lights are garish and painful to the eyes (Hells Fire) where as the blacks are so demanding that they are equally tiresome (Journey To Hell). Some of the day light scenes are very high in contrast where the light is coming from the background and we need to squint our eyes to see the details in the foreground. It creates a realistic effect as if we are present during the scene. Colors in Apocalypse Now mirror the emotions and the journey itself. The movie begins with deeply saturated colors, putting us in a different realm of our imagination. The hues are very deep, almost reminding us that we are still on earth, still connected, and although in a war zone, we are possibly still alive as we can see these bright colors (This Is The End, Saturated Colors). As soon as we begin our journey, one of the first colors we encounter is the color of fog, it stays with us throughout the journey and by the end it is so thick that neither Willard nor we can see anything clearly any more (Multi Colored Fog, Fog And Haze). As we go further and deeper in the journey, the colors start getting muted. Some of the scenes are in sepia tone and give a representation of an altered reality (Sepia Tones And Unearthly Colors). This is the other world; the colors of this world are different. Even the fog is devoid of those rich colors that we are used to in the beginning (Fog Gets Deeper). When they finally reach Kurtz’s post, the colors are completely altered and the palette is in various shades of orange imitating the fires of hell. (Underworld Fire And Orange). The journey in the film is marked by slow camera movement. Most of the times the camera is stationed right on the boat, and we see what the soldiers, mostly Willard sees. Film has slow tracks, slow pans and generally slow movements. There is not much that is exciting about a slow journey through the jungle. An interesting tracking shot happens in the beginning of the movie when Willard gets the assignment of killing Kurtz. As the General is giving Willard his orders, camera slowly tracks over the food, and through this movement we explicitly see that no one is able to eat the food except for the man from CIA. He is not confused, nor tormented as the other men who are part of the same unclear war and are divided by the same conflicts of morality. He then utters his one and only sentence to Willard “Terminate with extreme prejudice…!” Most of the times, camera is positioned at a close up to Willard and we watch him breathing, sweating, looking at his dossier. Since camera position does not change often, we start living and breathing in the same environment as the other characters. They have no respite out of the situation they are in and we don’t either. There are few pronounced camera movements such as the one on Kilgore as he starts talking about Napalm. We always see him in full company of his soldiers but the camera marks a strong change when Kilgore starts talking about Napalm and the war, we start with seeing his whole team and the camera keeps tracking towards Kilgore, leaving out everyone else and ends on his one and only medium close up. This is pretty much how close we can get to this man (Kilgore Selection In Frame, One Close Up Kilgore). Another highly effective tracking shot is when Willard is in Kurtz compound and is hearing how divided Kurtz soul has become. Till this point, we have seen Willard on the left side of the screen in his every interaction with Kurtz (including his dossier). In this scene, we see one shot of Willard on the left, then as he contemplates his actions we see him in the center and in the next shot, as Willard makes up his mind about killing Kurtz, we see him at the right of the frame. Not only that, this is the first place when the camera tracks back and out of Willard’s close up and we see him looking at his hand preparing to kill Kurtz with his bare hand. It is a very powerful camera movement since for the first time, as Willard decides to kill without judgment a.k.a. Kurtz fashion, we are taken out from his frame of mind, from his memories, from his heart and given a chance to have a perspective of our own, apart from him. This film would be considered a great film due to its choice of cinema and storytelling. The cinematography is beautiful , and every character is given scenes where they in action. Not every great film has these characteristics , the reason why this movie is a different ‘great movie’
Sources
https://variety.com/1979/film/reviews/apocalypse-now-2-1200424565/