Apocalyse Now and the Sublime

Watched this last night. Not a perfect movie in anyway. Felt like Friedkin wasn't sure how to end it. The expression of the existential quest felt similar to The French Connection (masterpiece!), however, Sorcerer's symbolic South America never fully embeds the film the way New York City's jagged landscape becomes the very existential imbroglio each of us confronts on a daily basis.

The film's most glaring failure for me was Friedkin's inept handling of his actors. Characters would erupt into passion out of nowhere, and then, a few seconds later, stiffly speak banal, plot-centric lines as though they were automatons reading insurance policies. It feels like Friedkin felt self-conscious about the thin character development and overcompensated by asking his actors to exaggerate their emotions. I wish he would have chosen stoicism over melodrama, and concentrated instead on the story's thematic elements.

But what I really wanna talk about are the aerial shots of the oil well fire underlined by Tangerine Dream's surreal score: Visionary stuff. I caught a heavy whiff of Coppola's Sublime in Apocalypse Now, a film that follows only two years behind this movie. Anybody else catch that? I'd be willing to bet that Sorcerer was a direct inspiration.

My rating: 8 (because some of the imagery ain't never gonna stop rattling around in my head)