'Apocalypse Now'

The journey over water. A very popular theme in literature and film.

I guess maybe it started with Homer's The Odyssey. Apocalypse Now is based on Joe Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim and Werner Herzog's Aguirre, Wrath of God. Herzog also directed the film Fitzcarraldo, a film about an eccentric charged with getting a river boat over a mountain in the Amazonian jungle.

There is something dark and mysterious behind the civilized party traveling down the wild and untamed river where they are unwelcome guests. The river, the jungle, the natives make their presence known.

The documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, is about the turmoil that surrounded the actual making of the film from Marlon Brando being severely overweight (and nutty), 39-year-old Martin Sheen having a heart attack and a vicious storm that destroyed a lot of the set.

This is one of the best war movies ever made and certainly one of, if not the best war about Vietnam ever made. Whereas the character in Conrad's novella goes crazy in the Congolese jungle, Coppola's Kurtz goes crazy amidst a war that many thought was the dumbest thing ever. Kurtz does have a "heart of darkness" and there's something that snapped there, something in his brain that doesn't see life the same way that everyone else does.

It's why the Americans wanted him dead. It was like Kurtz was quarantining himself, knowing he was sick and afraid that his god-like qualities and ideas would be too infectious. As Willard leaves and the villagers in Kurtz' compound drop their weapons and allow him to go, it's as if the voodoo doll was destroyed and they were allowed rational, independent thought.

In war, something I've never experienced, it's not like waking up in the morning, getting dressed and going to work. There are daily conundrums of life and death, of seeing your buddy or the stranger next to you get their insides shot out and knowing that any moment could be your time to bite it.

It'd send the straightest man over the edge.