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Apocalypse Now: Opening Scene

Apocalypse Now Analysis

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIrvSJwwJUE



Themes

- Effects of war and atrocity

- "Heroism"

- Evil

- Power

- Colonialism

- Chaos v order

- Corruption

- Disguise and Identity

- Culture

- Interventionism


Cinematography

There are two camera angles being used in this scene one is an extreme long shot of the Vietnamese jungle and the fires and then the other one is a close up of Willard's face. One minute into the opening scene of the jungle, the lighting and colour changes from being light outside to being quite dim from the fog and fire. As we continue watching, we see a statue of a Buddha and Willard is also on screen as the two scenes are dissolving into one another. The Buddha statue was put next to his face to make it like they are looking at each other, this might have been done to seem as if Willard feels peace from this. 

Editing

There is no cuts, just the two scenes fading into each other back and forth. The jungle shot that is a constant panning shot as the camera is in a fixed position but moving from left to right, and the shot of Willard is a close up shot as we see his whole face, this is done so we can see his facial expressions. The opening scene includes layers, which are of Willard in his hotel room and also the jungle fires and helicopters that he is imagining as if we're in his mind. One layer is of his ceiling fan in his hotel room, this can also be represented as the helicopter in the background that Willard is imagining. The layer of Willard slowly dissolves into the other scene, the editing and lighting shows an emphasis on duality as half of his face is in the shadows and the other of the glow of the orange fire and fog. Further along the scene the layer of Willard again dissolves onto another layer, the one with the Buddha statue of the face in the jungle. It is almost like the Buddha and Willard are looking at each other which can give some sort of inner peace, then making Willard feel at peace.

Mise-en-scene

The settings in the opening scene consist of the Vietnamese jungle and Willard's hotel room, in his hotel room is a ceiling fan that we see which Willard imagines as the helicopter in the jungle and link together. The setting of the jungle has a prop/meaningful object which is the Buddha statue, and Buddhas are a sign of peace or relieve peace. Another prop that I see in the opening scene, is the cigarette that Willard is smoking in his hotel room. 

Sound

- No dialogue.

At the start of the scene there is the sound effects of the helicopter blades in the distance that gets louder and louder, it is muffled and almost as if our (the viewers) hearing is lost to make it seem like we were actually there. When the helicopter disappears, the non-diegetic music comes on, a song by The Doors called The End. The sound of the helicopter comes back and leaves again all throughout the duration of the scene and song being played.

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