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 said to be based on the novel Heart of Darkness, and while there are some parallels, it's really nothing like a direct adaptation. The film follows Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin J. Willard, a veteran secret operatives specialist who, after his last tour of duty, has apparently taken to heavy drinking and grown psychotic in the meantime.
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...
The movie is loaded from end to end with unforgettable scenes and incredible characters. Before we even get into the main cast, we have Cockroach, who appears for a single scene in the film during a fight over a key bridge in Vietnam. He sleeps through the battle while the others defend, but when a lone V. C. Sits amongst his friends bodies in the dark, shouting insults, Cockroach is awoken, he fires a grenade into the air which arcs perfectly and silences the V. C. Immediately, and then Cockroach goes back to bed. Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore is one of the greatest one-scene characters ever, ordering his men to surf while mortar fire hits the waves.
This isn't even getting into the main cast, these characters appear for one scene and then disappear from the film forever. Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz doesn't even appear until the very end, but his presence, his mere existence, casts a shadow that commands the entirety of the film, despite his limited screen time, or perhaps, mythologized by his non-presence.
The film works on every level. It's an incredible action film, a fascinating political statement, it's funny, and, at times, it's even endearing. However, while it succeeds on all these levels, the nihilism cast over the film by Kurtz and Willard eventually overwhelms all these other aspects and creates a film that is dark, psychedelic, and a frightening look into the human heart.
While Coppola claims Rumble Fish as the personal favorite amongst his body of work, his fans typically consider it to be between Apocalypse Now and The Godfather Part II. It is, at the very least, his most wild, insane and epic film to date.
The film is said to be based on the novel Heart of Darkness, and while there are some parallels, it's really nothing like a direct adaptation. The film follows Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin J. Willard, a veteran secret operatives specialist who, after his last tour of duty, has apparently taken to heavy drinking and grown psychotic in the meantime.
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...
The movie is loaded from end to end with unforgettable scenes and incredible characters. Before we even get into the main cast, we have Cockroach, who appears for a single scene in the film during a fight over a key bridge in Vietnam. He sleeps through the battle while the others defend, but when a lone V. C. Sits amongst his friends bodies in the dark, shouting insults, Cockroach is awoken, he fires a grenade into the air which arcs perfectly and silences the V. C. Immediately, and then Cockroach goes back to bed. Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore is one of the greatest one-scene characters ever, ordering his men to surf while mortar fire hits the waves.
This isn't even getting into the main cast, these characters appear for one scene and then disappear from the film forever. Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz doesn't even appear until the very end, but his presence, his mere existence, casts a shadow that commands the entirety of the film, despite his limited screen time, or perhaps, mythologized by his non-presence.
The film works on every level. It's an incredible action film, a fascinating political statement, it's funny, and, at times, it's even endearing. However, while it succeeds on all these levels, the nihilism cast over the film by Kurtz and Willard eventually overwhelms all these other aspects and creates a film that is dark, psychedelic, and a frightening look into the human heart.
While Coppola claims Rumble Fish as the personal favorite amongst his body of work, his fans typically consider it to be between Apocalypse Now and The Godfather Part II. It is, at the very least, his most wild, insane and epic film to date.
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