Sound Design in Apocalypse Now PDF

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Essay on Sound Design in Apocalypse Now with professor Aaron Kerner Cine 200 ...

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Sound Design in Apocalypse Now

CINE 200 Aaron Kerner November 4th, 2014 Directed brilliantly by Francis Coppola, Apocalypse Now goes beyond the "war movie"

genre, raising numerous questions about the cruel nature of man, the tragic results of his quest for power, and the irreversible effects of the horror of war. On his quest to find Kurtz, Willard’s eventful journey serves for him to understand the transformations Kurtz went through, as Willard himself loses his dreams towards human values, attracted by the grandeur of the jungle and slowly changing his concepts regarding the wanted man. In order to fulfill its loyalty to the portrayal of war and internal conflicts, the precise use of sound and imagery in Apocalypse Now builds up the tension that leads to the final conflict, with Kurtz laying the ugly truth in front of us. When portraying the war, Coppola’s intent was to show, not only through images, but also sound, what were the real feelings of the soldiers in the Vietnam War. Bullets, bombs, helicopter sounds, everything should be faithful to the point of making the audience really dive into that universe. In an interview with Walter Murch, sound designer of the film, he mentioned that “Francis Coppola wanted it to be true to the experience of being in Vietnam, and he wanted the sound and the music to interpenetrate each other.” 1 The final scene in which Willard assassinates Kurtz, the audience is able to experience this soundtrack interchange with The Doors song “The End” and the indigenous drums, shifting back an forth as the tension and rhythm builds up. This musical contrast brings out the inferences about men’s real nature and the sequelae that war can attain in one’s sanity, with the tempo of The Doors song escalating as Willard gets ready to kill Kurtz, showing the audience what humans are capable of when put through unconventional situations. Following the method of this "harmonic overlap", the sound layers were arranged in a way that, when all sounds were played together, the chaos of the Vietnam war could be felt by the viewers. Apocalypse Now is the framework for a major effect occurred in American culture after the 1 LoBrutto, Vincent. Sound-on-film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1994.

Vietnam war: the loss of innocence. The Vietnam war made it clear to the American people that there was a good side and a bad side of the story, as Willard stopped seeing his country with ingenuity. The final sequence in the film shows the attack from Willard to Kurtz simultaneously with the attack of the natives to an animal, perfectly symbolizing one of the discussions that the film suggests, can human beings be all that rational? What differentiates us from animals is the ability to reason, but what are we doing with it? Brando expresses the embodiment of power that the character represents through his upper and intimidating look. Kurtz’s speeches, full of symbolism and reflections create hypnotic and unforgettable sequences. When Kurtz is shown for the first time, his face is revealed slowly, as if we were being carefully prepared to stand before a god. Even the way Coppola captures the character, leaving it virtually inaccessible, submerged in shadows and more like a spirit or a deity. In the last scene Kurtz is also shown completely embodied by the shadows, revealing his inner darkness and true self. The juxtaposition of the sacrifice as Coppola “cuts between Willard killing Kurtz, and the water buffalo being slaughtered, there are so many layers of symbolic meaning and hints at primal violence the scene as an actual diegetic event almost dissolves into its various interpretive possibilities.”2 In the final words of Colonel Kurtz, "the horror" that war provides is the example that the rationality of man does not always win over their primitive and irrational impulses. In conclusion, sound and imagery play a high significant role in Apocalypse Now for its meaning beyond the plot. All the diegetic sound from the Indian drums, to The Doors’ non diegetic soundtrack, and the contrast between the slaughter and the killing of Kurtz, together, they represent the chaos and madness experienced in the Vietnam war. Francis Coppola himself admitted that the set conditions were a great influencing factor to bring out the true meaning of the story as “[he] had access to too much money and too much equipment, and little by little we 2 McKibbin, Toby. "Francis Ford Coppola." Tony McKibbin. Accessed October 29, 2014.

went insane.”3 When our protagonist went through the same experience as Colonel Kurtz, his actions and ideas did not seem so unreasonable, and leaves us to an open ending where we assume that Willard turns out to replace the one he was meant to annihilate, we realize he is becoming the person he wants to destroy. Much more than a war film, Apocalypse Now shows a philosophical portrait of the existence and nature of a human being personality.

References Coppola, Francis Ford, John Milius, Kim Aubry, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, et al. 1979. Hollywood, Calif: Paramount. LoBrutto, Vincent. Sound-on-film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1994. McKibbin, Toby. "Francis Ford Coppola." Tony McKibbin. Accessed October 29, 2014.

3 McKibbin, Toby. "Francis Ford Coppola." Tony McKibbin. Accessed October 29, 2014....