Okay, I admit it. I had never seen Apocalypse Now.

I did, however, feel like I had seen it. After 4 years as a film student, I'd seen every memorable scene, but never the film as a whole. With a cinematic and BluRay re-release looming, I ordered myself an advance copy, booked myself onto the BBC Movie Café, and arranged for Apocalypse Now to make its big(-gish) screen debut on my living room telly.

Based loosely on Joseph Conrad's turn-of-the-century classic Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now was written by John Milius and intended to be directed by George Lucas in collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola during the Vietnam War. After disputes with Warner Bros, Coppola and a move to make The Godfather I and II. When he returned to the script years later, the feature's production trials and tribulations began.

What struck me most about the film was its startling intimacy. Every colour and every wrinkle is captured as though in macro zoom. Though we'd rather languish farther behind, the camera brings us close, too close, into the green eyes of Willard; their long looks paired with his slow, desperate, punctuated speech. This physical closeness is impacted further by all manner of oppression: oppressive heat, oppressive lies, oppressive secrets, and that thick, heavy jungle air.

As I watched, I wondered, how would this look in 3D? The constant smoke adds depth rather than obscuring as it does in contemporary 3D cinema. Here, though, it's part of the atmosphere and not the spectacle. The turquoise ocean spread beneath a convoy of helicopters blasting Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries is yesterday's troop of tanks rolling in an explosion of Drowning Pool -- something timeless co-opted by something so iconic that it becomes timeless in itself. The debris, death, and destruction that batter your eyes and ears, these explosions of flimsy wooden everything, are a cinematic experience that transcends time.

Timeless too are the smaller moments, and a favourite of mine is Robert Duvall's Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore. Willard says that you can tell Kilgore will never get a scratch in 'nam, and that's exactly how Kilgore moves. The mania around him merits naught but a glance, his movements smooth as those around him jerk, turn, and duck. Walking upright through a minefield and rueing the imminent end of the war with a disappointed grimace, he revels in the madness of war in a stark contrast to its upcoming tragedies. It's a confident quietness that is soon replaced with unmerciful filmmaking - the quiet sadness of death. These palpable shifts between acts are like the 3 stages of darkness laid out in Conrad's novel. Between the shivering drunken insanity of Willard and the deeply ideological madness of Kurtz, there lie this pair of moments -- one of strength, and one of sadness. These are the moments that split the war into acts: three dimensions of darkness into which we descend, waiting for the moment when we miss the bottom step.

Apocalypse Now is re-released in UK cinemas on Friday 27 May, and on BluRay on 13 June.




I'm giving away 1 copy of the new, remastered Apocalypse Now on 3-Disc BluRay from Optimum Releasing.

Featuring the remastered film, Apocalypse Now Redux, making-of documentary Hearts of Darkness, and a boatload of brand new extra features. All you have to do is:

• Leave a comment telling me the name of a classic film you're embarrassed not to have seen.
  
• For an additional entry, leave a comment & Tweet the following: "Win Apocalypse Now on BluRay at Uncultured Critic! http://bit.ly/m3Xx8X"

Which classic film you're most ashamed not to have seen?

One winner will be selected at random next Friday, 3 June.

Good luck!

Today, I'll be appearing on The Movie Café radio programme on BBC Radio Scotland to discuss the re-release of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.

You can tune-in live at 1.15pm or stream the programme later on the Movie Café homepage.

Check back tomorrow for a chance to win the brand new 3-Disc Apocalypse Now BluRay!

Issue 14 of The Big Picture Magazine is now available - and includes my first contribution to the print edition! There's also a spotlight feature on London film locations to give you a taster of the World Locations: London book, released this July.

You can download a digital copy of the May/June edition - Lost in Transition - from Magcloud by clicking here.

If you missed it, you can read my piece on robots in film titled Almost Human on the Big Picture Magazine's website.

The Classic: All About Eve (1950)
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm

The Excuse:
I don't even know how this happened. I started hearing about All About Eve when I studied All About My Mother - twice! - at university, as much of the plot is borrowed in homage. After languishing at the top of my Netflix queue for quite some time, I bought the DVD to celebrate Bette Davis' birthday. Then waited a month. Then, finally, sat down to watch it.


The Review:
The title is fairly self-explanatory - but who is Eve? She's a timid, sweet, and morbidly obsessed fan of Margo Channing (Bette Davis) played by Anne Baxter. After attending every performance of Margo's Broadway play, the star's best friend and wife of the playwright Karen (Celeste Holm) takes the girl under her wing and introduces the pair. Eve quickly adopts the role of PA and, making her presence felt, soon begins to make Margo feel uncomfortable. Using her charm and innocence to tease favours and bend unsuspecting do-gooders to her will.

Entangling herself in the theatre world of mutually beneficial contracts and friendly sharing project sharing, Eve works her way into the inner circle, though she's fooling no-one. A sparkling turn from Marilyn Monroe offsets the drama with a gently humorous vigour, keeping the tone of the film spright and fluid. Though their moves are inevitable, as the story unfurls like a fated red carpet the showbiz bitchiness makes for a rollicking journey into obsessive ambition as the characters cling to each other for balance. It really is a bumpy ride.


The Verdict:
Wowza. Reading about Bette Davis' performances, it's easy to believe that things have been a little overstated. Watching her, though, it's easy to become confounded by her intense swaying, gestures of unleashed fury, and inglorious eye-flashes. If you've never ventured back as far as the 60s (hands up!), the closest comparison I can glean is Marisa Tomei's emphatically ticking biological clock monologue from My Cousin Vinny (1992). The writing is spectacular and the comebacks drip with sincere contempt. It's everything you thought you were in high school with the added mishap of adulthood.


Favourite Quote:
"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."


Further Viewing for Experts:



What are your thoughts on All About Eve?

Stranger Tides brings tidings from strangers in this extension of a 1-part turned 3-part franchise, now pitted to carry on into its sixth instalment of the saga. Rob Marshall steps in to take the helm as director, as Johnny Depp continues his reign as the titular Jack Sparrow. No longer legend for his captaincy, we find Sparrow in London amidst the largest collection of known British actors outside of Harry Potter. After rescuing first mate Gibbs (he's the one who slept with the pigs) from hanging under Sparrow's name, our swaggering swashbuckler discovers there's a new Jack in town.

Meanwhile an arms race is taking place between the Brits (led by Geoffrey Rush's now peg-legged Barbossa), the Spaniards, and big ol' Blackbeard to find the Fountain of Youth. Pretty self-explanatory, their motives and maps are laid out in a series of hops back and forth from exposition to rehashed sword-fight and chase sequences through the streets of London. While Jack's runaways are more Austin Powers than Bond, the swift swish of metal is far preferable to Verbinski's interminable distraction with ship battles in parts 2 and 3. It takes a long time to get to the captain crossover and corrupt bargaining that the first film did so well, with a race to the finish opposed to a tactical playoff. But, warming up to a reunion between Sparrow and Barbossa, it's the archival camaraderies that bring out the best in the remaining key characters. It's in this unlikely union you'll find most of the laughs.

Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane team up as Sparrow's ex-lover Angelica and evil buccaneer Blackbeard, though her needy deception and his one-note barbarism don't liven up proceedings as much as Will and Elizabeth's foolish frivolities have in prequels past. In a despairing attempt to plug the gap, too much is made of an attraction between a random mercenary and mermaid - by the by, a depiction of the mythical creatures is too close to a Lynx advert for comfort, and the key to a center-piece so pointless that it's almost a relief that CG was similarly cut and plugged with slow-searing 3D effects.

Hingeing heavily on Sparrow's well-documented improvisation, many of the set-pieces are fun and nimble, though frustratingly hampered by needless 3D which knocks the pace of the action sequences. Hans Zimmer's ever-excellent score pulls together all the rogue threads, keeping well within the range of the first film and injecting a vigorous dose of fun. Restrained and keeping convention, Pirates 4 is far from heading up the franchise, but remains a solid addition to the fleet.

Atonement director Joe Wright makes a side-step into assassin thriller with Hanna. Starring a cute-but-deadly Saoirse Ronan, she's been raised by CIA-defector dad Erik (Eric Bana) in the tundra to hunt, fight and kill. The perfect assassin, Hanna is dispatched on a mission across Europe and must kill or be killed by pristine operative Marissa (Cate Blanchett).

Wright drops us directly into survival mode with a visceral film that encompasses boreal snow to African desert, but it's the acute sensory moments - the soundscape of Europe - that lends a resonant jolt to proceedings. Though somewhat overlong and lacking ingenuity of plot, there's plenty to be discovered in this swift action thriller. Hanna's temporal mission is a thrill of circles, tunnels, seasons and elements that feels like being plunged into a Swedish rave taking place in a futuristic rabbit-hole. Wright may lag in the race to the finish, but Hanna certainly sets the blood pumping.