I love your work on my favorite film, but could you please do a video on Sorcerer or To Live and Die in LA. Billy Friedkin was an amazing director and not well known unfortunately - especially since he just passed away. Anyway keep up the outstanding work, my favorite cinema channel on RUclips!
I see your point but I have a different interpretation: before the bridge, the hero's existence is controlled by rules and commands. Beyond the bridge, rules disappear, rationality departs and only personal morality and belief control him and the world he enters
@@loopwithers Good point; also I liked the redux version with the addition of the French plantation scenes, even if most people don't; witnessing those flippant, stubborn French colonials clinging to the old imperialistic ways was surrealism at its finest.
@@jjrj8568 Yes! Although perhaps they interfere with the adrenaline flow of the film when they are included, they add another layer of bizarre contradiction. The insane rotting grandeur of an old world colony outpost plays host to the elite forces of a new power as they pass through
The scene involving the Roach is taken from or at least was heavily inspired by this section from Michael Herr's book Despatches - "We heard then what sounded at first like a little girl crying, a subdued, delicate wailing, and as we listened it became louder and more intense, taking on pain and sorrow as it grew until it was a full, piercing shriek............ A Marine brushed past us. .... on his hip he wore a holster which held an M-79 grenade-launcher. "Put that fucker away," the Marine said, as though to himself. He drew the weapon, opened the breech and dropped in a round that looked like a great swollen bullet, listening very carefully all the while to the shrieking. He placed the M-79 over his left forearm and aimed or a second before firing. There was an enormous flash on the wire 200 meters away, a spray of orange sparks, and then everything was still except for the roll of some bombs exploding kilometers away and the sound of the M-79 being opened, closed again and returned to the holster. Nothing changed on the Marine's face, nothing, and he moved back into the darkness." (pp. 142-43.)
I was going to mention this, but you beat me to it. As thorough as Tyler is, I’m rather surprised that he didn’t bring up the excerpt from “Dispatches” himself. Still another great entry in his APOCALYPSE series, regardless.
Thank you for sharing, my next audible credit is going to that book! I highly recommend "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brian, it's another book about the Vietnam War.
@@adrianalicea6704 Dispatches, Chickenhawk and Mark Baker's Nam are the 3 best books about the US in Vietnam. There are dozens and dozens more. The ones that stayed with the most outside those 3 are one written by Nurses and two from the Vietnamese side.
The continuous destruction and reconstruction of the bridge illustrating the absurdity and pointlessness of the conflict reminded me strongly of the bridge scene in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."
Remember if you are old enough the press release repeatedly stating " The bridge is open" ... definitely "open " to inteterpretation. Or the yellow scarf hanging in the tree with downed choppers ? Someday this war will be over was an understatement.
Well done! I have liked this sequence every since viewing in 79 when released. I spent a night at a bridge that was lighted at night during my tour. It was quite different as it was the perimeter (both sides of the bridge) that was lit, don't think the bridge itself was - the Song Be bridge on the road to Phuoc Vinh basecamp, north of Saigon. My night was pretty uneventful, sitting just outside a bunker with grunts assigned to the bridge, drinking beer and occasionally tossing grenades down into the river maybe 90 feet below us, and listening to the racket of all the generators running to support the lighting. There was a Bailey bridge spanning the missing middle section which was probably destroyed during the French involvement. Interestingly enough it is bypassed now by the super highway going north, but on google maps (or Earth) you can still see the old approaches and end piers. I think I was there with my ACAV as a radio contact with Squadron or Regiment. Our tanks started crossing the bridge before daylight while moving forward to engage in Operation Montana Raider (if memory is correct). Allons! 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment 68-69.
When they finally leave, and the soldiers were running into the river with suitcases, etc, the last voice from the river cries "Youll get what you deserve!" Ive always thought that was a nice touch.
Every single time I watch a new episode of this series, I have to fight the urge to not watch the film again. I seriously have seen Apocalypse Now (in its various cuts) at least 5 times over the last year. I love this series. It's so professionally done. You should be proud of what you're doing.
One of my favorite scenes from one of my all-time favorite movies. "Hey, soldier. Do you know who's in charge here?" "...Yeah..." It took 13 nights to shoot that scene. The statistics of the materialist took to create this scene are absolutely astounding.
First time I ever saw this movie, I was a little kid. Watched it with my step-father, who served in the US Navy during Viet Nam. After Roach says "Yeah.", I asked my step-father "who?" He knew.
@@GrislyAtoms12 Mr. Victor Charley himself, but nobody calls him Victor, they just called him Charley. So, Willard picked up his mail and a couple of gallons of gas and made his way North.
I saw Apocalypse Now during its first theatrical run in 1979, and now we have that same sense of occasion and the feeling of an event every time you post an episode in this series.
Tyler, thank you so much for doing this scene from Apoc Now! I originally saw the film in '79, being 12/13 the tix booth lady and it being the middle of the day was cool enough to let me buy a ticket. I kept thinking, wow...this what my older brother's friend Richie went through??? He was Vietnam Vet and came back home in '74, when I'd visit my older apt, both he and Richie would be smoking Kents and he'd tell stories to my brother. Richie would say they had to go deep in the jungle and kill guerillas. Being a child of 9 at the time I'm thinking they mean the ape/gorilla. LOL. But this scene is my favorite from the movie; it always haunted me bc the brotha with the Thumper looked just like Richie. On a sad note, years after my brother passed away, I ran into his old GF Karen on 42nd street NYC subway and she told me that Richie committed suicide. All our veterans need help and support, especially those who have seen combat. Please pass on to you viewers to give support to the VA and groups that help vets suffering from PTSD. Peace.
16:14 - one of my favorite scenes. It's not just about how he knows where his quarry is. He's intuitively one with his weapon, knows its trajectory and where it will hit. Doesn't even bother using those crude "ladder" sights...
Thank you once again for this series, also for getting this up rather quickly after the last one. Probably my favorite scene in the movie, every actor knocks it out of the park, roach is so well acted & underacted by herb rice, crazy to think this is his only ever acting scene in anything (yes, he was an extra in 3 other things in the background)
People think that the suitcase scene was weird but I and many others bought suitcases really early in our tour. At Camp Eagle I gave money to a dude who was going to the PX to purchase a suitcase for me. He got some cheap ass Asian one because the PX was all out of Samsonite brand. The handle broke the first time I used it after I was transferred to the south. Bought a Samsonite at the PX near Saigon and it’s my attic to this day.
For me, this sequence may actually be the most mind-blowing in the film - along with Kurtz's death. I know the Valkyries sequence is the most iconic, but... _MAN!_ The soldiers in the water begging to be saved... the demented circus music... the "YOU THINK YOU BAD?!?" scene, with the psychedelic guitar solo (thank you, btw - I always wondered who that Hendrix-sound alike was)... "Who's the commanding officer here?" AIN'T YOU?!?!?... "The Roach"(!!!!!! - maybe my favorite character in the whole movie)... all _bravura._ INCREDIBLE! Amazes me films get made at all. Especially under circumstances like these... lol! Keep up the great work, Tyler 🙏🏼
In Vietnam my dad was on a rescue mission at the mouth of a river. Marines were pouring out of the trees into the water and climbing up onto the sides of the boat. He said the sound of their heads hitting the side of the boat will always be the thing he remembered most.
I had a funny idea that Roach just says "Yeah" at Willard's question because Willard didn't ask "Who is in command here?" or said "Tell me who's in command here". He just answered his question in the most literal way possible, kind of showing how truly gone he is, he became more of a machine than a man. But it also shows how much clarity he has compared to everyone else, unlike other soldier here who think Willard is their leader or the soldiers back in that campsite where it was raining like hell, Roach knows who is in command... And who that is? That is for Roach to know. Someone who got so deep into darkness and insanity that he came back with pure sanity and complete awareness of everything around him, but in the process he lost his humanity.
an alternative interpretation is that Roach suffered from autism. Depending on where a person is on the autism spectrum some of them lack the innate ability to understand nuance so they tend to answer questions EXACTLY as they are asked and without any added embellishment. Autism would also explain why he had such a unique talent for being able to hear and then successfully target things that no one else could
It's not "for Roach to know", it's plainly obvious- VICTOR CHARLIE is in command. That's the joke. That, and the fact that Willard should've known the answer.
@DaggerSecurity REMF alert. Typical civvie mindset, thinking "autism" when seeing a stone fucking grunt with a thousand yard stare existing under a monthslong artillery barrage. His senses werent supernatural, they were naturally developed warrior senses. That Blooper was his instrument- a guitarist doesn't look at his axe when he plays because he's one with it. Same dynamic goes double when you rely on it to keep you alive. His answer was what it was because the question itself was stupid. Its plain for everyone to see that Mr Charles is in command, and it's funny because a hard-core lifer like Willard should know that (which he did, they were just speaking on different levels).
That carnival music always scared me like it added to the eerieness of the scene and that the soldiers in that camp have lost their minds they went insane
I would give this video more likes if I could. This cannel deserves millions of the views for each video, the quality of research and attention to detail is just out of this world.
I was a film student, pursuing a career as a cinematographer. This film blew my mind. I was also a Pink Floyd fan, and I saw the original ‘The Wall’ concert, in ‘80. The combination of the two swirling around in my little brain, was inspiring.❤❤❤
For years I thought this scene was shot in a studio. I even created a history in my mind that they filmed it in Hollywood when they were rebuilding sets back in the Philippines after the typhoon! Blows my mind that they filmed it on location! I love this series on the making of Apocalypse Now!
Highly recommend you read Michael Herr's "Dispatches." Several scenes in Apocalypse Now (including the Roach scene) are taken directly from it and are based on things directly witnessed by Herr in Vietnam.
Totally - We heard then what sounded at first like a little girl crying, a subdued, delicate wailing, and as we listened it became louder and more intense, taking on pain and sorrow as it grew until it was a full, piercing shriek............ A Marine brushed past us. .... on his hip he wore a holster which held an M-79 grenade-launcher. "Put that fucker away," the Marine said, as though to himself. He drew the weapon, open the breach and dropped in a round that looked like a great swollen bullet, listening very carefully all the while to the shrieking. He placed the M-79 over his left forearm and aimed or a second before firing. There was an enormous flash on the wire 200 meters away, a spray of orange sparks, and then everything was still except for the roll of some bombs exploding kilometers away and the sound of the M-79 being opened, closed again and returned to the holster. Nothing changed on the Marine's face, nothing, and he moved back into the darkness. p. 142-43.
Hello! I discovered your channel through Adams Savages video. Got yourself a new subscriber and a mention from Adam Savage. Keep doing what you're doing
Loving these videos. As a retired soldier, the Do Lung sequence has been a love/hate thing for me. I love the Roach and bits like that. The music. The tension/fear with the Chief. Desperate soldiers attempting to leave. Lance on acid etc. Overall, it's a great scene that serves its purpose to plunge the audience in to Kurtz's world. Leaving 'civilization'. Going outside the wire. What I don't like is the lights. Particularly the string of Christmas lights on the bridge cables and the inexplicable square panel of light bulbs off to the side. I totally understand how difficult it is to light a night set. I also get that "cinema is not reality but an interpretation of what looks real" as stated in the clip. The lights make no military sense at all. They would just help the NVA to more easily target the bridge. However, I accept it for what it is. I have mixed feelings about the use of fireworks (as another poster stated). Some are quite effective - like the big ground burst that sends out numerous burning trails. This looks like white phosphorous exploding. the other 'sparkly' things not so much. In the final sequence there are things burning on the bridge sending showers of sparks raining down on the ground that look like someone is welding while the bridge is under attack. I was never keen on the use of suitcases but a vet has explained that early on in these comments. So, I learned something today. I'm always on the look for continuity stuff. It must have been incredibly difficult given the length of this production. One that jumps out in the Do Lung scene is Willard's helmet band. Earlier in the film he has an issue, OD, cloth elastic helmet band. But for Do Lung (and only Do Lung, I believe) the band changed to a black strip of material (not tire rubber which was very common in those days). It might even be the bandana that he is seen wearing around his neck at times. Anyway, great scene.
Your work as a documentarian in these videos is incredible. You really shine a light on aspects of Apocalypse Now that just make me love the film that much more. Your videos on Alien and the films Kubrick made are also excellent. Kudos to you, great sir. I've been a fan of uour channel for a couple of years now and will continue to be. 📽🎬❤
I've been to the Philippines. I will _never forget_ getting off of the plane in Manila! Stepping out through the door from the cool, dry air of the plane and into the *HOT, HEAVY AIR* in Manila was like *_walking into a wall!_* It was the most intense combination of hot and humid air I had _ever_ experienced!
I hadn’t really thought about it but after watching your fantastic breakdown, I think this might be my favourite part of the whole movie, apart from the amazing visuals the sound effects/music is just astounding & surreal. I think it changed my perception of it being “just” really good war movie, based on a classic book, to...something else, something I found very profound.
I've always loved this scene - Apocalypse is my favorite Vietnam War film. I've got friends who complain it's "not at all realistic" - and that's true, but misses the point. It captures some very real truths about the war in it's surrealism. It wasn't trying to be a film like "We were Soldiers" - it wanted to capture a FEEL for the insanity of that war - which it did.
We Were Soldiers is the only war movie my late wife really enjoyed, it had quite the effect on her. A very powerful story made even more so by being non fiction told and acted to perfection.
Alright I just got done binge watching all 17 of these and we're only at the bridge 😂 when is 18? These are fantastic. A whole new appreciation for a movie that's already one of the best of all time. Fantastic job really
I think this sequence also inspired the opening cinematic for Starcraft: Brood War, where a space marine is fighting some zerglings in a trench and gets rescued by the rockets fired by a silent black space marine just sitting there listening to a radio blaring out a guitar riff
I started watching this series before I started working in the film industry and was always impressed by how they managed to achieve all they did. Now that I have a year of experience making films I don’t know how on earth they ever got this film made.
I love the morning after this scene traveling up the river with the thick early morning fog like passing into a new reality were you can't tell if your awake or asleep, alive or dead
Seeing this on a huge theater screen in 1979 was one of the major moviegoing experiences of my teen life. I loved sf and horror, and this was the most SURREAL moment in a non-sf/h flick I had seen, like a visit to hell.
Was listening to the "Dispatches" audiobook and the bit with Roach is taken almost exactly from an experience Michael Herr had during the Siege of Khe Sahn. Likewise, the chopper gunner scene from Full Metal Jacket also has its origins in Dispatches. There were so many others that it's hard to even remember. I'd known that Herr had been a source of inspiration for both films, and had been consulted to differing degrees on the films but I had no idea just how much entire sequences were lifted from Dispatches. It's like Kurtz is as much Herr as Coppola wanted to be Kurtz.
17:20 little historical tidbit..my dad's family were farmers in the Mississippi delta in the 50s, and then were in Vietnam. They told stories when I was growing up in the 80s about the barrels of chemicals they sprayed on the farms as pesticide were the same chems they saw being used in Vietnam, just higher concentration.
I'm so thankful for your work. I'm astonished by ammount of research and all other work that went into making this series. You are making something that will last. It's rare on YT.
I’ve been waiting for this episode as this whole sequence is my favorite part of the movie. You didn’t disappoint. Great job as always. The amount of work Coppola and crew did in extreme climate to achieve those shots…incredible.
I always saw this scene as an allusion to the River Styx from Greek Mythology which once you've crossed you have entered hell. This also aligns with the characters on the boat only dying after this point of the film which is quite unusual for war films but makes sense symbolically.
As you're telling about lighting it up with one arc light per tower - the early B52 bombing in Nam had the code name "Arc light" (I think its even in the movie) - another similarity between the war and the production. Ha! Loving this!
Interestingly, there is a book called Dispatches by Rolling Stone writer Michael Herr, who spent months in the siege at Khe Sanh. Herr later acted as a consultant on Apocalypse Now & the bridge scene is actual based on what Herr witnessed; the Marines were stranded with no leadership. In the book he describes a black soldier using an M-79 tiger striped grenade launcher to take out the enemy without even aiming.
I love this scene, I love this film. My take away from do lung bridge is that it’s the perspective of lance on acid. Anyone who’s done acid before will know what I mean, the strobes and everything the circling lights
The bridge symbol was also used in The Good [ bad and ugly ], and of course Bridge over the River Kwai. Bridges provide two different borders. One: you go further up the river by boat, the river being your locus ( path ). And the bridge is the line to cross. Or, Two: you cross the bridge this time the bridge is the locus and the river is the boundary line to be crossed
The differences between the original, and redux, finally answered some nagging questions I had for years. For instance, what happened to clean after he died. We knew what happened to to Chief Phillips, but not Mr Clean. Buried with makeshift Military Honors. I liked knowing that.
This genius left out one of the most important inclusions in these scenes: as the PB is digging out of the area, the soundtrack is playing THE key Vietnam Pathos Music of the Film....the Boat is gunning out, fireworks are going off, that great Music passage is Playing....((.we also remember the pathos music in Platoon, the Adagio.)). gl
In a VHS version with Swedish subs I saw in the 90s, the line "I dropped it" got a rather literal treatment. Instead of translating it into something that means "I took it", the sub had him say more like "I lost it". One might speculate that the timid bookworm who did the subtitle work was blissfully uncorrupted by the dark knowledge of American drug slang. We laughed at it with great merriment, and honestly appreciated and enjoyed the delightfully absurd tone it brought to the scene. In the middle of this darkly foreboding and intense scene, somehow it gave the impression that Coppola found this to be an important bit of exposition...? =D
Probably watched that thing from 15 to 25 once a week after I got a VHS from a closing rental store. It had the destructive ending so that has been my way of seeing the conclusion. When the redux came on big screen I was high on some sort of mushroom thing, don't remember much but it was probably great.
I don't know where I read this, but supposedly their was a summary of WW2 vs. Vietnam that claimed that on average a WW2 combat vet spent appr. 2 months out of a year in actual battle, while the VN vet did the opposite and spent all BUT 2 months per year in combat situations. Might be an exaggeration, but personally I wouldn't be too surprised if this was close to being accurate for a lot of those guys. I joined up right after the war ended, at 17 yrs old, and met a number of guys on their way out of the military who had very obviously been deeply FU by their experiences "in country." Nothing much would shock me anymore about that war.
This scene was awesome.. walking through the trench and the group of guys gathered around a radio and then Roach comes out with his m79. Ears adapted to the war and he simply knows where to fire his weapon. Lance tripping on lsd and sitting on the top of the trench with his puppy.
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I love your work on my favorite film, but could you please do a video on Sorcerer or To Live and Die in LA. Billy Friedkin was an amazing director and not well known unfortunately - especially since he just passed away. Anyway keep up the outstanding work, my favorite cinema channel on RUclips!
Would love to see you do a series on John Millius’ “Red Dawn”
Which version of this movie is the best in your opinion, theatrical,redux or Final Cut ?
The bridge scene is definitely the border between the films realism and its surrealism because after that scene it becomes a different type of film
It “bridges” the two
I see your point but I have a different interpretation: before the bridge, the hero's existence is controlled by rules and commands. Beyond the bridge, rules disappear, rationality departs and only personal morality and belief control him and the world he enters
War takes on a different look and feel at night, enviroment plays a big part, those two pressures together.
@@loopwithers Good point; also I liked the redux version with the addition of the French plantation scenes, even if most people don't; witnessing those flippant, stubborn French colonials clinging to the old imperialistic ways was surrealism at its finest.
@@jjrj8568 Yes! Although perhaps they interfere with the adrenaline flow of the film when they are included, they add another layer of bizarre contradiction. The insane rotting grandeur of an old world colony outpost plays host to the elite forces of a new power as they pass through
Absolutely my favorite scene since I was a kid. Roach is a legend.
Yeah.
@@damionpalmer2866 one of the great minor characters of all time. hard core cool in the zone black cat!
Same
Herb Rice was also great in Coppola's Rumblefish as the pool player from across the river.
The scene involving the Roach is taken from or at least was heavily inspired by this section from Michael Herr's book Despatches - "We heard then what sounded at first like a little girl crying, a subdued, delicate wailing, and as we listened it became louder and more intense, taking on pain and sorrow as it grew until it was a full, piercing shriek............ A Marine brushed past us. .... on his hip he wore a holster which held an M-79 grenade-launcher. "Put that fucker away," the Marine said, as though to himself. He drew the weapon, opened the breech and dropped in a round that looked like a great swollen bullet, listening very carefully all the while to the shrieking. He placed the M-79 over his left forearm and aimed or a second before firing. There was an enormous flash on the wire 200 meters away, a spray of orange sparks, and then everything was still except for the roll of some bombs exploding kilometers away and the sound of the M-79 being opened, closed again and returned to the holster. Nothing changed on the Marine's face, nothing, and he moved back into the darkness." (pp. 142-43.)
Despatches is one of the best books ever
I was going to mention this, but you beat me to it. As thorough as Tyler is, I’m rather surprised that he didn’t bring up the excerpt from “Dispatches” himself. Still another great entry in his APOCALYPSE series, regardless.
Thank you for sharing, my next audible credit is going to that book! I highly recommend "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brian, it's another book about the Vietnam War.
@@adrianalicea6704 Dispatches, Chickenhawk and Mark Baker's Nam are the 3 best books about the US in Vietnam. There are dozens and dozens more. The ones that stayed with the most outside those 3 are one written by Nurses and two from the Vietnamese side.
@@neilcook4686 You know it on the first page.
The continuous destruction and reconstruction of the bridge illustrating the absurdity and pointlessness of the conflict reminded me strongly of the bridge scene in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."
a Sisyphean torment
Yes, I was thinking the same thing!
Remember if you are old enough the press release repeatedly stating " The bridge is open" ... definitely "open " to inteterpretation. Or the yellow scarf hanging in the tree with downed choppers ? Someday this war will be over was an understatement.
Well done! I have liked this sequence every since viewing in 79 when released. I spent a night at a bridge that was lighted at night during my tour. It was quite different as it was the perimeter (both sides of the bridge) that was lit, don't think the bridge itself was - the Song Be bridge on the road to Phuoc Vinh basecamp, north of Saigon. My night was pretty uneventful, sitting just outside a bunker with grunts assigned to the bridge, drinking beer and occasionally tossing grenades down into the river maybe 90 feet below us, and listening to the racket of all the generators running to support the lighting. There was a Bailey bridge spanning the missing middle section which was probably destroyed during the French involvement. Interestingly enough it is bypassed now by the super highway going north, but on google maps (or Earth) you can still see the old approaches and end piers. I think I was there with my ACAV as a radio contact with Squadron or Regiment. Our tanks started crossing the bridge before daylight while moving forward to engage in Operation Montana Raider (if memory is correct). Allons! 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment 68-69.
When they finally leave, and the soldiers were running into the river with suitcases, etc, the last voice from the river cries "Youll get what you deserve!" Ive always thought that was a nice touch.
Chilling indeed
Your Apocalypse Now videos are always worth the wait
Every single time I watch a new episode of this series, I have to fight the urge to not watch the film again. I seriously have seen Apocalypse Now (in its various cuts) at least 5 times over the last year.
I love this series. It's so professionally done. You should be proud of what you're doing.
One of my favorite scenes from one of my all-time favorite movies.
"Hey, soldier. Do you know who's in charge here?"
"...Yeah..."
It took 13 nights to shoot that scene. The statistics of the materialist took to create this scene are absolutely astounding.
First time I ever saw this movie, I was a little kid. Watched it with my step-father, who served in the US Navy during Viet Nam. After Roach says "Yeah.", I asked my step-father "who?"
He knew.
@@GrislyAtoms12Mr. Charles.
The amused tone is because Willard should've fucking well known the answer.
@@maxpower21c That's the guy.
@@GrislyAtoms12 Mr. Victor Charley himself, but nobody calls him Victor, they just called him Charley. So, Willard picked up his mail and a couple of gallons of gas and made his way North.
Industrial metal bandFear Factory used this as the intro in track "Crisis" from "Soul of a New Machine".
I saw Apocalypse Now during its first theatrical run in 1979, and now we have that same sense of occasion and the feeling of an event every time you post an episode in this series.
Tyler, thank you so much for doing this scene from Apoc Now! I originally saw the film in '79, being 12/13 the tix booth lady and it being the middle of the day was cool enough to let me buy a ticket. I kept thinking, wow...this what my older brother's friend Richie went through??? He was Vietnam Vet and came back home in '74, when I'd visit my older apt, both he and Richie would be smoking Kents and he'd tell stories to my brother. Richie would say they had to go deep in the jungle and kill guerillas. Being a child of 9 at the time I'm thinking they mean the ape/gorilla. LOL. But this scene is my favorite from the movie; it always haunted me bc the brotha with the Thumper looked just like Richie. On a sad note, years after my brother passed away, I ran into his old GF Karen on 42nd street NYC subway and she told me that Richie committed suicide. All our veterans need help and support, especially those who have seen combat. Please pass on to you viewers to give support to the VA and groups that help vets suffering from PTSD. Peace.
"I'll talk about him in the post production episodes"
I love this series. You should made a single cut of all the parts together when you are done.
I always thought that actually was Hendrix on the guitar, the impersonator did a great job sounding like him
I also wondered if it was really a Hendrix track.
Randy Hansen.....
16:14 - one of my favorite scenes. It's not just about how he knows where his quarry is. He's intuitively one with his weapon, knows its trajectory and where it will hit. Doesn't even bother using those crude "ladder" sights...
Thank you once again for this series, also for getting this up rather quickly after the last one. Probably my favorite scene in the movie, every actor knocks it out of the park, roach is so well acted & underacted by herb rice, crazy to think this is his only ever acting scene in anything (yes, he was an extra in 3 other things in the background)
People think that the suitcase scene was weird but I and many others bought suitcases really early in our tour. At Camp Eagle I gave money to a dude who was going to the PX to purchase a suitcase for me. He got some cheap ass Asian one because the PX was all out of Samsonite brand. The handle broke the first time I used it after I was transferred to the south. Bought a Samsonite at the PX near Saigon and it’s my attic to this day.
For me, this sequence may actually be the most mind-blowing in the film - along with Kurtz's death. I know the Valkyries sequence is the most iconic, but... _MAN!_
The soldiers in the water begging to be saved... the demented circus music... the "YOU THINK YOU BAD?!?" scene, with the psychedelic guitar solo (thank you, btw - I always wondered who that Hendrix-sound alike was)... "Who's the commanding officer here?" AIN'T YOU?!?!?... "The Roach"(!!!!!! - maybe my favorite character in the whole movie)... all _bravura._
INCREDIBLE! Amazes me films get made at all. Especially under circumstances like these... lol!
Keep up the great work, Tyler 🙏🏼
In Vietnam my dad was on a rescue mission at the mouth of a river. Marines were pouring out of the trees into the water and climbing up onto the sides of the boat. He said the sound of their heads hitting the side of the boat will always be the thing he remembered most.
watching this movie as a 13yr old kid, i knew it was something special, and time has reinforced my thought.
The Roach should have won an Oscar and the Medal of Honor.
Roach is one of the coolest characters in the history of cinema. Awesome character..
I had a funny idea that Roach just says "Yeah" at Willard's question because Willard didn't ask "Who is in command here?" or said "Tell me who's in command here". He just answered his question in the most literal way possible, kind of showing how truly gone he is, he became more of a machine than a man. But it also shows how much clarity he has compared to everyone else, unlike other soldier here who think Willard is their leader or the soldiers back in that campsite where it was raining like hell, Roach knows who is in command... And who that is? That is for Roach to know. Someone who got so deep into darkness and insanity that he came back with pure sanity and complete awareness of everything around him, but in the process he lost his humanity.
Yeah 😂
an alternative interpretation is that Roach suffered from autism. Depending on where a person is on the autism spectrum some of them lack the innate ability to understand nuance so they tend to answer questions EXACTLY as they are asked and without any added embellishment. Autism would also explain why he had such a unique talent for being able to hear and then successfully target things that no one else could
It's not "for Roach to know", it's plainly obvious- VICTOR CHARLIE is in command.
That's the joke.
That, and the fact that Willard should've known the answer.
@DaggerSecurity REMF alert.
Typical civvie mindset, thinking "autism" when seeing a stone fucking grunt with a thousand yard stare existing under a monthslong artillery barrage.
His senses werent supernatural, they were naturally developed warrior senses. That Blooper was his instrument- a guitarist doesn't look at his axe when he plays because he's one with it. Same dynamic goes double when you rely on it to keep you alive.
His answer was what it was because the question itself was stupid. Its plain for everyone to see that Mr Charles is in command, and it's funny because a hard-core lifer like Willard should know that (which he did, they were just speaking on different levels).
yep'@@maxpower21c
Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket two of the greatest war movies of all time.
I also love Platoon and also Black Hawk Down
That carnival music always scared me like it added to the eerieness of the scene and that the soldiers in that camp have lost their minds they went insane
One shame for my odd mind is that the haunting circus track has never been put on the soundtrack and you can't find it without dialogue etc.
Such an amazing addition to that scene... maybe my favorite sequence of the film, which has several of the best sequences in film history.
I recorded this flick off TV onto VHS, and used to fast-forward to this scene just to hear those incredible acid-drenched guitar licks.
It exists without the dialogue on the Redux soundtrack.
I would give this video more likes if I could. This cannel deserves millions of the views for each video, the quality of research and attention to detail is just out of this world.
I was a film student, pursuing a career as a cinematographer. This film blew my mind. I was also a Pink Floyd fan, and I saw the original ‘The Wall’ concert, in ‘80. The combination of the two swirling around in my little brain, was inspiring.❤❤❤
For years I thought this scene was shot in a studio. I even created a history in my mind that they filmed it in Hollywood when they were rebuilding sets back in the Philippines after the typhoon! Blows my mind that they filmed it on location! I love this series on the making of Apocalypse Now!
This is one of the greatest scenes ever filmed.
Highly recommend you read Michael Herr's "Dispatches." Several scenes in Apocalypse Now (including the Roach scene) are taken directly from it and are based on things directly witnessed by Herr in Vietnam.
Amazing book.
Totally - We heard then what sounded at first like a little girl crying, a subdued, delicate wailing, and as we listened it became louder and more intense, taking on pain and sorrow as it grew until it was a full, piercing shriek............
A Marine brushed past us. .... on his hip he wore a holster which held an M-79 grenade-launcher.
"Put that fucker away," the Marine said, as though to himself. He drew the weapon, open the breach and dropped in a round that looked like a great swollen bullet, listening very carefully all the while to the shrieking. He placed the M-79 over his left forearm and aimed or a second before firing. There was an enormous flash on the wire 200 meters away, a spray of orange sparks, and then everything was still except for the roll of some bombs exploding kilometers away and the sound of the M-79 being opened, closed again and returned to the holster. Nothing changed on the Marine's face, nothing, and he moved back into the darkness. p. 142-43.
Dispatches was made up he admitted it
@@Roderick-c7n Source.
I have a Samsonite card table in my kitchen heavy and tuff.
Saw this movie in theaters, Made my decision, Joined the U.S.N. 80/84 🇺🇸 AWESOME MOVIE .
Hello! I discovered your channel through Adams Savages video. Got yourself a new subscriber and a mention from Adam Savage. Keep doing what you're doing
Loving these videos. As a retired soldier, the Do Lung sequence has been a love/hate thing for me. I love the Roach and bits like that. The music. The tension/fear with the Chief. Desperate soldiers attempting to leave. Lance on acid etc. Overall, it's a great scene that serves its purpose to plunge the audience in to Kurtz's world. Leaving 'civilization'. Going outside the wire.
What I don't like is the lights. Particularly the string of Christmas lights on the bridge cables and the inexplicable square panel of light bulbs off to the side. I totally understand how difficult it is to light a night set. I also get that "cinema is not reality but an interpretation of what looks real" as stated in the clip. The lights make no military sense at all. They would just help the NVA to more easily target the bridge. However, I accept it for what it is.
I have mixed feelings about the use of fireworks (as another poster stated). Some are quite effective - like the big ground burst that sends out numerous burning trails. This looks like white phosphorous exploding. the other 'sparkly' things not so much. In the final sequence there are things burning on the bridge sending showers of sparks raining down on the ground that look like someone is welding while the bridge is under attack.
I was never keen on the use of suitcases but a vet has explained that early on in these comments. So, I learned something today.
I'm always on the look for continuity stuff. It must have been incredibly difficult given the length of this production. One that jumps out in the Do Lung scene is Willard's helmet band. Earlier in the film he has an issue, OD, cloth elastic helmet band. But for Do Lung (and only Do Lung, I believe) the band changed to a black strip of material (not tire rubber which was very common in those days). It might even be the bandana that he is seen wearing around his neck at times.
Anyway, great scene.
Your work as a documentarian in these videos is incredible. You really shine a light on aspects of Apocalypse Now that just make me love the film that much more.
Your videos on Alien and the films Kubrick made are also excellent.
Kudos to you, great sir. I've been a fan of uour channel for a couple of years now and will continue to be. 📽🎬❤
Thanks so much!
I’ve been waiting for this let’s go
Me too... one of the great sequences in film history.
I've been to the Philippines.
I will _never forget_ getting off of the plane in Manila!
Stepping out through the door from the cool, dry air of the plane and into the *HOT, HEAVY AIR* in Manila was like *_walking into a wall!_* It was the most intense combination of hot and humid air I had _ever_ experienced!
Same for me when exiting the plane at Cam Rahn Bay, Vietnam in '71.
@@jopflah416
1971...I was 7 years old!
I went to the Philippines in 2003.
Oh yeah? Try living in Phils for the last 6 years, like me. You never get used to it unless you're a native
@sirliner8035
I was there for only a couple of weeks...I can only imagine what years would be like! I avoid humidity like the plague!
I felt the same way, the first time I visited Thailand.
I hadn’t really thought about it but after watching your fantastic breakdown, I think this might be my favourite part of the whole movie, apart from the amazing visuals the sound effects/music is just astounding & surreal. I think it changed my perception of it being “just” really good war movie, based on a classic book, to...something else, something I found very profound.
I have been seeking this information 13:55 since 1979. Thank you.
Randy Hansen guitar
I've always loved this scene - Apocalypse is my favorite Vietnam War film. I've got friends who complain it's "not at all realistic" - and that's true, but misses the point. It captures some very real truths about the war in it's surrealism. It wasn't trying to be a film like "We were Soldiers" - it wanted to capture a FEEL for the insanity of that war - which it did.
We Were Soldiers is the only war movie my late wife really enjoyed, it had quite the effect on her. A very powerful story made even more so by being non fiction told and acted to perfection.
Alright I just got done binge watching all 17 of these and we're only at the bridge 😂 when is 18? These are fantastic. A whole new appreciation for a movie that's already one of the best of all time. Fantastic job really
Finishing up the next episode now!. Probably next week!
Watching this series shows how the Film itself is a series of isolated events that are greater than the sum of their parts.
I think this sequence also inspired the opening cinematic for Starcraft: Brood War, where a space marine is fighting some zerglings in a trench and gets rescued by the rockets fired by a silent black space marine just sitting there listening to a radio blaring out a guitar riff
I started watching this series before I started working in the film industry and was always impressed by how they managed to achieve all they did. Now that I have a year of experience making films I don’t know how on earth they ever got this film made.
Still can’t believe this film is real. So perfect and complex it almost seems like it’s impossible. Nothing even close will ever be made again.
I love the morning after this scene traveling up the river with the thick early morning fog like passing into a new reality were you can't tell if your awake or asleep, alive or dead
This series ROCKS...carry on dude
Seeing this on a huge theater screen in 1979 was one of the major moviegoing experiences of my teen life. I loved sf and horror, and this was the most SURREAL moment in a non-sf/h flick I had seen, like a visit to hell.
Was listening to the "Dispatches" audiobook and the bit with Roach is taken almost exactly from an experience Michael Herr had during the Siege of Khe Sahn. Likewise, the chopper gunner scene from Full Metal Jacket also has its origins in Dispatches. There were so many others that it's hard to even remember.
I'd known that Herr had been a source of inspiration for both films, and had been consulted to differing degrees on the films but I had no idea just how much entire sequences were lifted from Dispatches. It's like Kurtz is as much Herr as Coppola wanted to be Kurtz.
Thank you for this video. This whole series on Apocalypse Now is top notch.
17:20 little historical tidbit..my dad's family were farmers in the Mississippi delta in the 50s, and then were in Vietnam. They told stories when I was growing up in the 80s about the barrels of chemicals they sprayed on the farms as pesticide were the same chems they saw being used in Vietnam, just higher concentration.
Wow, that’s awful!
This series good enough to be a companion on the special features for Apocalypse Now. Hell, all your videos and series of of that quality
I'm so thankful for your work. I'm astonished by ammount of research and all other work that went into making this series. You are making something that will last. It's rare on YT.
I love this series!
Me too
I’ve been waiting for this episode as this whole sequence is my favorite part of the movie. You didn’t disappoint. Great job as always.
The amount of work Coppola and crew did in extreme climate to achieve those shots…incredible.
The B-52 tail.. I love this scene
I always saw this scene as an allusion to the River Styx from Greek Mythology which once you've crossed you have entered hell. This also aligns with the characters on the boat only dying after this point of the film which is quite unusual for war films but makes sense symbolically.
And "Bridge of sighs"
That's part of it, for sure.
What's great about the scene is how multilayered it is.
This guy is SO cool, he is the freezer!..... What a truly magnificent film!
The only unpretentious film essayist on RUclips. Good stuff as always.
"Ain't you?" Maybe my favorite line in the movie.
I saw Randy Hanson this June at lake fair in Olympia Washington. What an amazing guitar player,
Tyler, you do an amazing job on these videos. There is a ton of cuts and edits. Well produced. Thanks
Been waiting for this episode for years.
These videos are killer man. You do fantastic work.
As you're telling about lighting it up with one arc light per tower - the early B52 bombing in Nam had the code name "Arc light" (I think its even in the movie) - another similarity between the war and the production. Ha! Loving this!
Another piece of brilliance from Cinema Tyler!!!!
Interestingly, there is a book called Dispatches by Rolling Stone writer Michael Herr, who spent months in the siege at Khe Sanh. Herr later acted as a consultant on Apocalypse Now & the bridge scene is actual based on what Herr witnessed; the Marines were stranded with no leadership. In the book he describes a black soldier using an M-79 tiger striped grenade launcher to take out the enemy without even aiming.
"No Leadership" Roach
Amazing work once again!
Thank you for the background on the guitar solo!
Hey soldier, do you know who's got the best opium?
YEAH!
I love this scene, I love this film. My take away from do lung bridge is that it’s the perspective of lance on acid. Anyone who’s done acid before will know what I mean, the strobes and everything the circling lights
The bridge symbol was also used in The Good [ bad and ugly ], and of course Bridge over the River Kwai. Bridges provide two different borders. One: you go further up the river by boat, the river being your locus ( path ). And the bridge is the line to cross. Or, Two: you cross the bridge this time the bridge is the locus and the river is the boundary line to be crossed
One of my favorite movies. Needs a sequel where Willard and the French do a "Sherman's march to the sea" .
This series has been such a pleasure, so glad you're keeping it going! Cant wait to get to Brando 😁
That would make one helluva amusement park ride. But how many people/vets would freak out during the ride?
This is a great scene, one of my favorite in a classic. Nice breakdown.
Best movie scene in history. The black guys should have become stars.
Very cool series, i like them sooo much! Thank you Tyler!
Your series is friggin amazing!
The differences between the original, and redux, finally answered some nagging questions I had for years. For instance, what happened to clean after he died. We knew what happened to to Chief Phillips, but not Mr Clean. Buried with makeshift Military Honors. I liked knowing that.
This genius left out one of the most important inclusions in these scenes: as the PB is digging out of the area, the soundtrack is playing THE key Vietnam Pathos Music of the Film....the Boat is gunning out, fireworks are going off, that great Music passage is Playing....((.we also remember the pathos music in Platoon, the Adagio.)). gl
“Solider, do you know who is in charge here” “Yeah”
One of my all time favorites. Excellent movie.
Nice upload. This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
I want to watch Redux, The Bridge is my favorite scene by far. I'll play it tomorrow after I vote, it's already late tonight.
please just like never end this apocalypse now series, it's amazing lol
Christ - now I have to watch this movie AGAIN ... my wife is definitely gonna leave me.
Worth it.
@@theceoofcrackcocaineandamp5961 She actually left me, although it wasn't AN related ... I don't think. And yes, it was worth it.
Damn, i Just finished watching the final cut...what a movie
I prefer the theatrical version, but there are some interesting things in the other cuts
In a VHS version with Swedish subs I saw in the 90s, the line "I dropped it" got a rather literal treatment. Instead of translating it into something that means "I took it", the sub had him say more like "I lost it". One might speculate that the timid bookworm who did the subtitle work was blissfully uncorrupted by the dark knowledge of American drug slang. We laughed at it with great merriment, and honestly appreciated and enjoyed the delightfully absurd tone it brought to the scene. In the middle of this darkly foreboding and intense scene, somehow it gave the impression that Coppola found this to be an important bit of exposition...? =D
Hilarious!
Truly impressive research and work, Tyler.
Your videos are always top shelf, many thanks for your dedication to film.
This was my favorite scene in the movie.
This sequence was truly unnerving and surreal...
Poor actors! Imagine the millions of men in WW2, Vietnam that stayed in those jungle for YEARS!
Probably watched that thing from 15 to 25 once a week after I got a VHS from a closing rental store. It had the destructive ending so that has been my way of seeing the conclusion. When the redux came on big screen I was high on some sort of mushroom thing, don't remember much but it was probably great.
The Roach is the baddest way cool mother fkr ever. "Yeah:" Ask a stupid question...
I don't know where I read this, but supposedly their was a summary of WW2 vs. Vietnam that claimed that on average a WW2 combat vet spent appr. 2 months out of a year in actual battle, while the VN vet did the opposite and spent all BUT 2 months per year in combat situations. Might be an exaggeration, but personally I wouldn't be too surprised if this was close to being accurate for a lot of those guys. I joined up right after the war ended, at 17 yrs old, and met a number of guys on their way out of the military who had very obviously been deeply FU by their experiences "in country." Nothing much would shock me anymore about that war.
Great moves Tyler, keep up the leng work bossman.
That this scene - beautiful, surreal, hellish, and funny - became the basis for Bob Peak’s awesome theatrical poster was no accident.
You know the Roach was in the E4 mafia
Love all this detail, Tyler!!!
This scene was awesome.. walking through the trench and the group of guys gathered around a radio and then Roach comes out with his m79. Ears adapted to the war and he simply knows where to fire his weapon. Lance tripping on lsd and sitting on the top of the trench with his puppy.