Francis Ford Coppola is a director who has dabbled a little in every genre, never really settling down, never developing his own "tropes", never becoming predictable. Masters like Martin Scorsese certainly deserve their credit, but watching a Scorsese film, you know you're going to get fast-dolly-in movements, and you're probably going to get some Rolling Stones soundtrack. There are few similarities between Apocalypse Now, Rumble Fish and The Godfather, so with Coppola, you really never know what to expect.
The film is, supposedly, based on the novel Heart of Darkness, but to be completely honest, there are really only a few key parallels, some similar scenes. The movie itself is an entity all its own. Benjamin J. Willard, played by Martin Sheen, is our lead, a special operatives agent, an assassin, who is slowly going stir crazy awaiting his next assignment.
All he wants is to be put back in the field. "Every day, Charlie grows stronger while I grow weaker". He thrives on the blood lust of battle and can't take another day cooped up in this room. The opening scene is immediately gripping, with the choppers flying overhead and Willard simply going insane in a bedroom somewhere in Saigon, waiting for his next mission.
The famous shot of Sheen punching the mirror was not scripted. He really went that crazy. The film is full of scenes and moments that were not scripted, and not just because of Coppola's open attitude towards improvisation. The making of feature on this film is just about as wild and as fascinating as the movie itself, but we've only got time to review one or the other for now...
From the first scene to the last, the movie is full of fascinating characters and cameos. We see Harrison Ford in the mission briefing scene playing a one-conversation character, and then we meet Cockroach, a character who never speaks, but rather, sleeps through most of his scene, fires a grenade, and goes back to sleep, while remaining the most gripping character in the scene. We have Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, and...
This is without even mentioning any of the main characters. You could remove Kilgore, Dennis Hopper or Cockroach and still tell this story. Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz is, in fact, the heart of the film, despite not even appearing until the final act of the story. Even without appearing on screen until the finale, his existence casts a nihilistic dread across the atmosphere of the movie.
The film succeeds on every possible level. It is endearing, at times, when you see the camaraderie between the men on Willard's boat. It's funny, it's exciting with some of the greatest action set pieces ever put to film, it's a jaw dropping piece of cinematic art, yet... The pessimism, the nihilism of the two main characters, Willard and Kurtz, eventually takes over and overwhelms every other aspect of the film.
Coppola himself claims Rumble Fish as his personal favorite amongst his own work, but his fans are typically split between Apocalypse Now and The Godfather Part 2. It's up to the individual viewer, but this one is, at the very least, his most insane.
The film is, supposedly, based on the novel Heart of Darkness, but to be completely honest, there are really only a few key parallels, some similar scenes. The movie itself is an entity all its own. Benjamin J. Willard, played by Martin Sheen, is our lead, a special operatives agent, an assassin, who is slowly going stir crazy awaiting his next assignment.
All he wants is to be put back in the field. "Every day, Charlie grows stronger while I grow weaker". He thrives on the blood lust of battle and can't take another day cooped up in this room. The opening scene is immediately gripping, with the choppers flying overhead and Willard simply going insane in a bedroom somewhere in Saigon, waiting for his next mission.
The famous shot of Sheen punching the mirror was not scripted. He really went that crazy. The film is full of scenes and moments that were not scripted, and not just because of Coppola's open attitude towards improvisation. The making of feature on this film is just about as wild and as fascinating as the movie itself, but we've only got time to review one or the other for now...
From the first scene to the last, the movie is full of fascinating characters and cameos. We see Harrison Ford in the mission briefing scene playing a one-conversation character, and then we meet Cockroach, a character who never speaks, but rather, sleeps through most of his scene, fires a grenade, and goes back to sleep, while remaining the most gripping character in the scene. We have Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, and...
This is without even mentioning any of the main characters. You could remove Kilgore, Dennis Hopper or Cockroach and still tell this story. Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz is, in fact, the heart of the film, despite not even appearing until the final act of the story. Even without appearing on screen until the finale, his existence casts a nihilistic dread across the atmosphere of the movie.
The film succeeds on every possible level. It is endearing, at times, when you see the camaraderie between the men on Willard's boat. It's funny, it's exciting with some of the greatest action set pieces ever put to film, it's a jaw dropping piece of cinematic art, yet... The pessimism, the nihilism of the two main characters, Willard and Kurtz, eventually takes over and overwhelms every other aspect of the film.
Coppola himself claims Rumble Fish as his personal favorite amongst his own work, but his fans are typically split between Apocalypse Now and The Godfather Part 2. It's up to the individual viewer, but this one is, at the very least, his most insane.
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