Tried twice and did not get past the first reel. Maybe it was made to be seen at a cinema screen only.
Good luck.
Why are you wary, Malik?
The fans of it usually also love Platoon, AN, and Full Metal Jacket.
Malik, I think this is different from those films. Indeed, a part me feels like calling this a war movie is somewhat misleading, as I tend to feel it’s not so much about war. I think not expecting a war movie—a conventional one, anyway—might help. (Watching it with the subtitles might help your appreciation, too.) I’d also say to view this as an artfilm where the narrative is secondary. (I need to see this one again, so maybe you’ll motivate me to do so. Btw, do you have the criterion version? Let me know how you like it, if so.)
No, the library only had the Fox version.
Watch it on Blu-Ray if possible. It’s a stunningly beautiful film and watching it on any other format isn’t ideal.
I don’t consider it like Platoon, AN or Full Metal Jacket at all. It’s more visual poetry than anything else.
@Malik
Have you seen other films by Malick?
…Platoon, AN, and Full Metal Jacket…
I haven’t had that experience, for what it’s worth.
The movie is really well made and needs to be seen on Blu-ray! Not quite as good as Saving Private Ryan that came out the same year but a must see if you enjoyed that or are a fan of war films.
Get ready to know what it’s like to see paradise and have god whisper straight in to your soul.
Lay aside any conventional thinking and you will be rewarded…
It’s not as good as the 7 hour cut.
Not that I have seen the 7 hour cut.
It is beautiful, though, either way.
Why let others tell you what to expect? Judge for yourself. But if anything judge the movie on it’s own merits not on the merits of the hype surrounding it. Malik didn’t hype the movie. He made it hoping to convey an idea [or many ideas] to the audience. Whether it works or not is up to you.
The Criterion Bluray is fantastic. Terry Malick is a beast of his own breed, you don’t have to worry about his movie being just like anyone elses.
If you know about Terrence Malick, or have seen other Terrence Malick films, you should expect to see a meticulously crafted and beautiful film.
After viewing it, try to find the special features, or look it up on a site that will give you details about what it took to create it.
Terrrence Malick wrote a stage play version of Sansho the Bailiff, directed at workshop stage by Andrjej Wajda in the early 90s, that was intended for Broadway
here from a Malick site:
“The Thin Red Line has much in common with Terrence Malick’s screenplay Sansho the Bailiff based on the film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Thematically and visually, many scenes were either derived or inspired by the film.
There are two prominent voiceovers used in The Thin Red Line that do not appear in the film Sansho the Bailiff, but in Malick’s script.
One is spoken by the father who is exiled as a governor for favoring his people that compris emostly of peasants. His wife is taken away to an island to work in a brothel and his two children are sold into slavery working under the wickedness of Sansho.
The Father is speaking to the peasants shortly before being exiled:
“I never knew this hour might strike, this contented life be ended. Those earthly hopes are gone that once were wings for me! Are you thoughtful and kind? Are you righteous? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? So was I! Do you trust in virtue? Do you imagine your sufferings will be lighter because you praised her name? So did I! You who thrive, whose friends hold you up! For whom life holds no dark sword!”
Malick used the highlighted lines, in part, as the voice of the dead Japanese soldier (actually it was actor Elias Koteas who reads the lines).
One other voice over was lifted from the Sansho the Bailiff screenplay. This time the original line was spoken by the son of the governor, Zushio, who has escaped the slave camp and was reinstated as governor by a sympathetic party who recognizes the young man’s noble lineage. The son recognizes what his family had sacrificed:
“The roads multiply ‑‑ there are so many ways I could go wrong. They part not once but ‑‑ endlessly! The worst of it is, I have others who are counting on me. My mother and father! My sister! I’ve come where I can’t go away, or last for long. Sorrow comes over me, greater than any I knew before, in Sansho’s camp. I would be ashamed for them to know what I’ve come to ‑‑ what a ruin! ‑‑ how all their sacrifice, their care, is poured out like water in the sand!”
Malick was interested in the disturbance of nature by human conflict and violence. I’m not sure if the voice-overs are as effective for this film as in say Badlands but it’s a bold attempt to get underneath various reactions and inner turmoil. as a counterpoint to the visuals. The portrayal of the Japanese is more human than in many US war films
You should have no expectations and who cares what others who have liked a film also like. Just watch it and make up your own mind.
@Uli
FWIW, I don’t think asking about expectations or responding to the request signifies that the person asking the question can’t or doesn’t want to make up his/her own mind. Having inappropriate expectations of a film can hinder a fair assessment, not to mention appreciation, of a film. For example, the first time I saw A Thin Red Line, I expected a conventional war movie. I guess, one could appreciate it with those expectations, but I didn’t. But the more important point, at least imo, is that judging the film as a war film wouldn’t be entirely fair or appropriate because I don’t think the film is trying to be war film. Again, just my opinion.
What is the film trying to be, Jazz? My vote: a cheerleader.
I shot it off about 40min in, not because it wasn’t good but I needed a power nap and to watch Parenthood. The sound design in it is absolutely amazing, the narration is alright.
@Jazzaloha, I’ve seen The New World about 5 times.
Six degrees of separation: Sansho the Bailiff
For Kenji, any film is on average approximately six steps away from Sansho the Bailiff
who knew !!!Jazz, is Apocalypse Now really just a war film? I feel it’s no more a war film than A Thin Red Line is. Good “War” films are about more than war, but about the human condition.
What is a conventional war film, anyway?
A conventional war film is one that glorifies war by way of winners and losers.
Winners have God on their side – losers are sub human; thus, the conventional war film is about redemptive violence. i.e. it is okay to do bad to maintain the status quo
Does Apocalypse Now fit into that definition? Does Full Metal Jacket? Does even Platoon even actually fit into that definition?
These ain’t John Wayne movies about US first, fuck all after.
Uh,
this scene from AN:
Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that?
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.
[kneels]
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ‘em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like
[sniffing, pondering]
Kilgore: victory. Someday this war’s gonna end…
FMJ:
Crazy Earl: These are great days we’re living, bros. We are jolly green giants, walking the Earth with guns. These people we wasted here today are the finest human beings we will ever know. After we rotate back to the world, we’re gonna miss not having anyone around that’s worth shooting.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Today… is Christmas! There will be a magic show at zero-nine-thirty! Chaplain Charlie will tell you about how the free world will conquer Communism with the aid of God and a few Marines! God has a hard-on for Marines because we kill everything we see! He plays His games, we play ours! To show our appreciation for so much power, we keep heaven packed with fresh souls! God was here before the Marine Corps! So you can give your heart to Jesus, but your ass belongs to the Corps! Do you ladies understand?
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: [Hartman gives a speech to the graduating recruits] Today, you people are no longer maggots. Today, you are Marines. You’re part of a brotherhood. From now on until the day you die, wherever you are, every Marine is your brother. Most of you will go to Vietnam. Some of you will not come back. But always remember this: Marines die. That’s what we’re here for. But the Marine Corps lives forever. And that means YOU live forever.
Peabody, that’s one scene, that is not the complete film. Do you truly consider Apocalypse Now just another war film.
Each film, each of them, has scenes that that are “America, woo rah,” but that only further shows the bigger picture of each film.
Please tell me you just don’t lump them together. For the most part I respect your taste in films, but if you truly throw films like Apocalypse Now in with the other “war” movies that I feel would have to rethink and wonder if you understand the film at all.
Platoon:
Sgt. Barnes: Are you smoking this shit so’s to escape from reality? Me, I don’t need this shit. I am reality. There’s the way it ought to be, and there’s the way it is. Elias was full of shit. Elias was a crusader. Now, I got no fight… with any man who does what he’s told. But when he don’t, the machine breaks down. And when the machine breaks down, we break down. And I ain’t gonna allow that… in any of you. Not one.
[hands pipe back and spits]
Chris Taylor: The village, which had stood for maybe a thousand years, didn’t know we were coming that day. If they had, they would’ve run. Barnes was the eye of our rage. And through him, our captain Ahab, we would set things right again. That day we loved him.
Malik
I’m wary.