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In Episode 18 of Making Apocalypse Now, I’ll take you through Clean’s death scene uncovering what Francis Ford Coppola is really saying. We’ll also take a look at an early draft of the scene that seems to connect to Greek mythology, the historical connection to the experience of Black Americans in the war, as well as how important and weirdly difficult it was to film the boat passing under the tail section of a downed bomber plane.
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This video is by Tyler Knudsen.
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Sources:
[Cinephilia & Beyond] Incredible collection of resources on Apocalypse Now: https://bit.ly/35Mvv7M
(Bouqs) Hyacinths meaning – bit.ly/3Rvgod8
Vietnam War Casualty Statistics – bit.ly/45jguIp
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Best videos on the whole Youtube, thank you!
2:16 Scott Glenn
👍
Please don’t use AI in your videos, they make it look cheap
Another winning video from the amazing Cinema Tyler!
There's the obvious rank and branch conflict between Chief and Willard with a senior Navy enlisted bumping heads with the an Army officer but I always thought there was a subliminal racial context. Chief would have spent a decade or two to get to his rank during an era when a lot of the country was still under Jim Crow and no doubt he would have bumped into his share of racist NCOs and officers. Now he's in charge of his own boat and here comes a white officer from another branch who's suppose to just hitch a ride trying to take command. And said officer's mission also led to the death of not just a sailor under Chief's command but another black sailor who he was probably trying to mentor.
What was the percentages of whites and blacks for those who volunteered?
One Magnum PI episode copied Apocalypse Now use of flares for tracers when the whole gang goes back to Nam to look for POW's.
They are on some kind of small boat or Sampan traveling a river at night then suddenly tracers/flares everywhere as they are attacked on the river.
Obviously filming this scene at night added to the effect of not only the glowing tracers, but also reducing the smoke effect from the flares.
the civil rights act was 1964 so no segregation then. The vietnam war was March 1965 to May 1975. So it was not legal to treat blacks differently except for affirmative action…..
Always feel a little down after watching Clean’s death scene, especially hearing his mother over the tape recorder.
Re your theory about racial inequities in the draft etc. Keep in mind that 75% of the soldiers who served in Vietnam were volunteers. The media and entertainment folks try to muddy that fact and make the audience believe that most of those who served were drafted and sent against their will. Draftees accounted for 30% of deaths in Vietnam. Contrast that with 66% of Americans who served in WW2 being draftees.
“The point of no return” is fairly neatly summed up by the Michael Douglas character towards the end of Falling Down. Unfortunately it’s dictated from the perspective of a delusional madman. When he polished off the proprietor of the Army Navy surplus store, he gets a glimpse of how everyone perceives HIM, and why they will never allow him to be a living part of society.
I still ponder how George Lucas would have crafted this
Wow, there are some people here easily triggered by history.
Not one of your better ones
I'm hoping you'll cover some of the outright deleted scenes like "The Tiger Cages" and that human shield baby moment from the workprint
2:28 A huge inspiration for artist Christopher Wool (1955) whose work with an identical name sold for…USD 26,485,000 in 2013….
I do miss the days when this wasn't an Apocalypse Now channel…
Nice 👍 I never realized the Mansion connection with Kurtz 😮😊
Violent hippie! 😳
Love all of this, Tyler!!
Love this series! Have to say i never cared much for the downed bomber. It just never looked like a realistic crash to me.
Wasn't Clean the one who opened fire on the innocent family in the sampan with Lance killing them cold bloodily ?
What goes around comes around.
No mention of the bright orange Christo like running fence in the background while Lance dances to Purple Haze that reads " … bo-rm-brj duoc cung boi chinh … phu hoa ky cho nhan dan Viet Nam" ( something like: … the United States grants the people of Viet Nam".) Possible crossing marking border into Cambodia. If so, then another point of no return.
Your video exemplifies excellence! – "Each challenge overcome brings you closer to success.."
Btw, the personal on the Navy PBR riverine patrol boats were volunteers
Outstanding as always. This is some of the very best film content on here. I think I've probably watched this film an additional 3 or 4 times since you started uploading these videos, just to experience it with added context. I wonder if I'm alone in liking the original cut much better than the Redux version. The extra footage is awesome and adds more to the story and film, it just drags it down a little too much for me. It's probably because I'd seen the original cut so many times before the Redux cut came out. I wish filmmaking like this was still going on somewhere out there. Maybe it is, I don't know.
please dont use AI generated images it looks bad it distract
So everybody is just going to forget that Clean murdered an innocent family in cold blood?
Can you do Friedkin's SORCERER next
Aw man, midjorney? This is supposed to be about art, man, thanks for disclosing it but. Not a fan of the choice to use that, it'd be so much cooler to have a visual aid someone put… time, effort into. Especially with the people who write & act these movies on strike, against this exact technology. You'd be amazed how little some artists would charge for a sketch, man, think about it next time.
2:00 his name is LBJ? Message, Spock?
Another great video! Although I was a little put off by the sight of AI images 🫤 I'm usually expecting a picture from production or a still from the movie, so seeing something made by an AI in its place is a bummer. Otherwise, captivating and informative as always!
As far as the draft, if you had money or were going to going college you could get out of the draft. Black Americans didn't have the same resources that some White Americans did. Their were still plenty of White men in that war
7:44 I have definitely watched this film over 80 time’s — I have read the novels written by both cast members and all available material out there, by Eleanor and whoever—rewatched the workprint again and again, watched analysis and theory after theory.
Yet still, hearing that tape while looking into the Chiefs eyes— gives me chills and brings me to tears each time.
Keep in mind though that the percentages of US military deaths in Vietnam from 1964 to 1975 were 85.6% White, 12.4% Black, 0.6% Hispanic and American Indian and Pacific Islander each at 0.4%. Kind of puts the lie to that China Beach TV episode that claimed there were more Black than White combat deaths.
So well done, thank you for putting this up!
Great observation about the number of black troops in the bridge scene. As soon as it's pointed out, it's obvious, but I only perceived it on a subliminal level – in total contrast to the earlier surfing scenes and barbecue. It's also interesting that the "enemy" is unseen at the bridge, as opposed to the earlier assault and slaughter in daylight with the helicopters.
A point about the B52 tail. The production prolly sourced a 1:72 model kit for the drawings and approaches for the carpenters to fabricate
That scene always spooked me, The bombing of Cambodia (Operation MENU) was Top Secret at the time having only started in March of 1969, about six months earlier then when the story was set. The crew must have been shocked and confused to see it and wondering if there were any units nearby large enough to have surface to air missiles powerful enough to blow the tail of a B-52 off. I have actually walked under the tail of a B-52 and it is a peculiar feeling. It is such a large object at such a close distance that it is difficult understand that it is even quite real.
Martin sheen gave a speech at a prison i was employed at in Ohio, he said the opening scene of this movie when he was alone drunk in a motel room inSaigon! He said he was actually drunk for that scene, but since he was playing drunk it actually worked out!
Saw this movie in 1983 as a 12-year old. Second run movie house that didn’t check age very diligently. Launched me on a lifelong obsession with Vietnam, up to my M.A. thesis on JFK and Vietnam and a birthday trip to Saigon, since Ho Chi Minh and I share May 19th as our birthday. Thank you for this ongoing masterpiece series of film analysis and appreciation. It has added many new layers to my relationship with this singular cinematic masterpiece. You do amazing work. Much respect from Germany.
👍👍👍👍👍
"Morpheus should've taken the Blue pill."
I had the good fortune to see Apocalypse in theaters first run, which I did many times, including even two different Air Force theaters. And the whole scene post-Dol lung bridge scene has always impressed me as being masterfully done as it almost stands alone as the story within the story. We see Willard opening the communique he got from Na Trang (via Carlson), which flatly informs him the little news that the guy they sent before he, Willard, was sent to kill Kurtz had instead gone native and joined Kurtz too. Meanwhile, acting as if they were off the North Carolina coast instead of hundreds of km up an enemy held river, the boat crew begin a celebration of getting the mail (which IRL really was always a joyful occasion). Chef's clipping of the bizarre real life Manson murders (which, incidentally, dates the events of this film c. 1970), half-mad Lance breaking out purple smoke, Clean playing his cassette tape from home, and all the while the music in the background is playing a tense single note, that matches our tension at Lance's childish behavior on a battlefield that might go hot at any moment, right before it actually does.
I knew Apocalypse would never win best picture or even best direction, when the fact was it should have swept the Oscars for everything from script writing to sound. Instead, 1979's best picture went to "Kramer vs Kramer" – a film you've just read about for the first time.
Print only magazine?
Did they make it with stone axes?
Your work is top notch man. Keep it up!!