Another adaptation of a novel, this time from Joseph Conrad's classic, "Heart of Darkness." The novel focuses on a trip into the Congo during war, but Francis Ford Coppola transfers the action to the more contemporary setting of the Vietnam War. Deep in the Cambodian jungle a renegade colonel has broken off from the order of command and has set up his own rule and empire. Captain Benjamin Willard, played brilliantly by Martin Sheen, is sent to exterminate the "insane" Colonel Kurtz, the last great appearance by Marlon Brando. Away from the main skirmishes of Vietnam, the plot and Coppola's direction allow the war's bizarre effects on the human psyche take center stage. As Willard and his men move upriver, the lush foliage, the anthrax, the brutality, and the confusion of right and wrong distort what is seemingly a straightforward mission, however cruel. By the time Willard reaches Kurtz, both he and the viewer can understand how one might "go crazy" in such a situation and seek an alternative reality. Some critics view Apocalypse Now as the film which best captures the stunned, damaged aura of the Vietnam War and its lasting imprints on the soldiers who endured it. The ineffable nature of war is summed up perfectly by Conrad in the novel and delivered flawlessly by Brando's breathy death squall: "The horror, the horror."
Das Boot (1981)
Keith Loh called Das Boot a "Look into the claustrophobic and terrifying world of a German U-Boat crew." Claustrophobic is a perfect adjective for the film and its cinematography, both realistically and metaphorically. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the close confines of a submarine encroach heavily on a viewer. It is dark, it is wet, it is a lot like being in a windowless automobile made of cardboard as some unseen force drops bombs all around. Through all the invisible terror, the crew attempts to accomplish their missions. These missions, however, become just as much about survival as serving a country's orders, as they begin to feel the claustrophobic isolation of an undersea squad with no visual contact of the wars progress. Not a film for those who need quickness, Petersen plods along to emphasize the boredom and intense nervousness that goes along with waiting and being vulnerable. This film is also noteworthy because it lends a sympathetic glance toward the German soldier, something upon which only rare focus is applied.