Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film rendition of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness alternates the novel's original Congo setting to modern Vietnam. Although Coppola was never able to fully capture Conrad's extremely subjective and ambiguous language, he does, however, manage to create what many critics claim to be one of the greatest movies of all times. The plot is essentially about a Captain who is sent on a mission to assassinate a former Colonel, Kurtz. The reason behind this mission is that Kurtz has gone mad, and was undoubtedly practicing "unsound methods." Methods which the United States Army wanted silenced.
Apocalypse Now beautifully manipulates camera technology. Coppola utilizes shooting techniques such as superimposition, dolly shots, voice-over narration, and much more. Superimposition and voice-over narration play an amazing role in the first few minutes of the film. Check out my link to see what I mean. I must warn you, however that this is a pretty disturbing film. What else can you say about a movie that tries to depict Conrad's theme of "“We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.”Vocabulary : Voice-over narration: Voice speaking throughout film
Superimposition: shots laying over shots
dolly shots: shooting with camera placed on platform with wheels.
3 comments:
I like the links!
The vocab definitions at the end of the post are a lovely touch.
The Wikipedia article is really interesting and i like how you included the ideas about the filming and formalist apporoaches.
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