Creating an Effect in Apocalypse Now

The film Apocalypse Now was uncomfortable to watch and it often made me feel like I was going to end up insane along with many of the characters. I can thank the film makers for that. The way scenes were shot, especially camera proximity, point of view and framing was vital in making me, the viewer, feel like I would slowly go insane.

The bridge sequence is a good example of use of camera proximity. The scene began with flashing lights and a medium close up shot of Willard. When the attention goes from Willard to the bridge, a long shot is used in order that the viewer can see everything going on—swinging lights, crazy soldiers, dark night, explosions, etc. At one point the sequence shows Johnson and one of the other crew members talking. The puppy and the bridge are in the background. A medium close up shot was used for this, but it was interesting how depth of field was used. We saw the head and shoulders of the characters talking in a shallow focus shot because everything behind them—the puppy and bridge were out of focus. When I first saw this, I was curious as to why the puppy was out of focus because it was so close to them. I think this was done to show the distortion of some kind of innocence.

As Willard’s boat gets closer, we see there are men in the water trying to get onto the boat. A high angle shot was used to show that the boat was above the men in the water, and also, the point of view changed here—we, the viewers, were now on the boat looking down. We saw from the crew’s point of view. Point of view is important when creating an effect on an audience. The boat shot included me as part of the crew—I was in the film. The film used this a lot. I was placed in a scene, whether I wanted to be or not, which made me feel like I was one of the soldiers struggling with my sanity.

Another use of cinematography that was important to the bridge sequence occurred when Willard and Johnson actually get off the boat and go on shore. There is a widescreen view of the shore/bridge, which was used to show the expansiveness of the chaos. When Willard and Johnson walk on shore there is a shot that uses framing in an interesting way. There are vertical dark, straight lined trees and light moving all around and behind them. Soldiers are walking every direction—in and out of the frames of the trees. Because nobody will stay within the frame of the trees, I got a sense of extreme disorder.

Apocalypse Now used many different aspects of cinematography to create an effect on the audience. It definitely worked on me because I felt uncomfortable and nervous while watching.