Apocalypse Now

So, I just watched Apocalypse Now. What is there to say about that?
As I was watching it, I started to get curious, extremely curious, not about how it would end (since I figured it out about halfway through), but about how other people responded to it.
The reason I was curious was simple: the movie wasn't obvious. I don't remember the last time I watched a movie like that. It was, not enigmatic, but, you had to look for the answers. I found myself listening so carefully to the dialogue that I paused when the phone rang. It was important not to be distracted for a minute.
Now, I have this little theory about literature, about what it is and why it lasts. I think that a part of what is literary is the fact that the text does not explain itself fully, it requires you to come to your own conclusions about what it means, if you are indeed curious to know what something means.

And who wouldn't be curious? If the text doesn't mean anything, what is the point of reading it? I think it's fair to expect a text to mean something. It's like an unspoken agreement between the author and the audience: I will make sure my text means something, but it's up to you to figure out what. It's actually kind of like a game.

Anyway, my weird theory has given me a rather detached perspective on texts. It's as if I rate the qualities of the text by examining whether they attempt to evoke a meaning, and whether they are too obvious about that meaning. I do this, and I don't attempt to extract the meaning myself. Or rather, I try not to try not to, if that makes sense. Because sometimes a text is so compelling, that it positively begs for me to dissect it. But in general, I hate tearing them apart, I hate looking inside to find the meaning of things, because that kills it. It's like catching a frog, and to find out how it lives, you tear it open, pull it apart. Only, that kills it and you are left without answers. You might ask how I enjoy texts without looking for their meaning. And I'd say it's like going to a magic show. Having my mind fooled into believing the illusions is the pleasure, as is acknowledging the skill of a master magician. It's like that.

So, with this weird theory in my mind, I watched Apocalypse Now. And it did all these things. As it progressed, it challenged your perspective on things, and it hinted at its meaning, without ever saying it. It's like a riddle, where the teller can name anything about the object to be guessed, except the object itself. And, when the solution to the riddle still eludes you, the clues seem impossible, contradictory, wrong, like they don't fit together. What we don't catch we keep, what we catch we throw away. It dries as it gets wetter. It gets bigger the more you take away.

So, after watching the movie, I got online, threw the title into google, and got pages and pages of reviews. I read four. They said things like "the pointlessness of war" and "a parallel to everyday life" and "Coppola couldn't have know what he was creating, couldn't have known what he meant," "hypocrisy and bureaucracy of war." All these readings, all these solutions to the riddle Coppola posed.

I'm not saying they're wrong. But they're vast. There are a million million readings of this film, which is why it was amazing. Well, that and the excellent cinematography, music, editing, production design, editing etc etc etc. It's difficult. It's beautiful. And that's why it's good.

And that... is all I have to say ... about that.

Best,
Kori