Analysis Of The Aestheticization Of War In Apocalypse Now By Francis Coppola

William Lo

Professor Rodais

Cinema 286 L

3/19/14

Midterm Paper

1.

a) The expression “aestheticization of war” refers to the depiction of war in a glamourizing fashion. By aestheticizing war, the filmmaker creates a proverbial bridge that connects the audience into the war and romanticizes the violence that occurs. In doing so, the filmmaker transforms the traditional idea of war that is atrocious, chaotic, and repugnant into an object of fascination by sensualizing the acts of war in a positive light that creates a feeling of comradery to the soldiers within the audience.

b) A particular scene that best exemplifies the aestheticization of war is from Apocalypse Now (1979) by Francis Coppola. In the scene where the United States army helicopters attack a Vietnamese village suspected of concealing weapons and assisting the enemy, Coppola embellishes the idea of destruction and sheer terror by using a low angle camera shot that transforms the visualization of a helicopter into a flying death machine. The scene begins with the soldiers in the helicopter checking their ammunition and preparing their weapons for battle. As the scene progresses and the helicopters approach their designated target, Coppola utilizes a wide angle shot across the horizon to show the tremendous formation of the flying death machines, accompanied by a long camera shot to show the massive ocean waves in the background to strengthen the perception of the immense power of the United States army. Moments before the attack, the pilots play the soundtrack “ride of the valkryrie”, which is cunning tactic known as “psych ops” (psychological operations) to instill fear to the Vietnamese combatants. The music is met with cheers and laughter from the soldiers, which...

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...emise.

Klimov uses deep focus camera angle to show the Nazis sending flares in the air and shooting at them. Moreover, Klimov combines a low angle shot of the bullets flying over Flora’s head and a close-up shot of the dead cow with its eyes rolled back to emphasize the scope of violence by conveying the message -not even animals are spared. In the final scenes of the movie, Flora discovers a painting of Hitler on the ground and fires at it with his rifle. As Flora is shooting at it, we see rewinding videos of Hitler rising to power leading back to when he was a boy. Klimov uses an video editing technique within the film to tell the audience a story of how Hitler rose to power and the atrocities that he committed in the concentration camps. Klimov used these techniques to give viewers an understanding of the Russian perception of the Nazi invasion through his film.