Cinematic scribbles of a ham sandwich fan: A perfect pairing of sound & vision. Apocalypse Now

March 27, 2019

A perfect pairing of sound & vision. Apocalypse Now - Ride of the Valkyries

The year is 1969. Captain Benjamin Willard has been tasked with tracking and exterminating a rogue US army colonel called Kurtz who has seemingly gone insane and joined the enemy. The mission involves a long trek up the Mekong river and to get to his starting point, Willard and his men catch a ride with Colonel Kilgore. Kilgore is about to embark on a raid on a Vietcong owned village and he has his own special way of letting the enemy know he's coming. He blasts classical music at them.

An absolutely bonkers scene in an absolutely crazy film. One of the most epic portrayals of warfare ever filmed. A moment voted most memorable scene ever in Empire Magazine. It's a superb pairing of sound & vision but it's a very troubling one too because there's no denying that it makes war look exciting. It gives what is essentially a massacre a visceral and thrilling charge. It's a moment that will drop your jaw until you realise what you're getting worked up about. Director Francis Ford Coppola called Apocalypse Now an anti war film but this scene gives it a mixed message. When this was filmed the Vietnamese war was only a couple of years in the past and the infamous U.S. led My Lai massacre was still fresh in American memories. That can't have been far from his mind.

The music is of course 'The Ride Of The Valkyries', a piece of music written by Richard Wagner in the 1850's. Valkyries were female supernatural beings in Norse mythology who carried the dead to Valhalla after death in battle. Here the Valkyries are U.S. soldiers delivering death from above. Not quite Wagner's intent but 120+ years later he wasn't going to get much of a say in the matter.

Whatever your take on the scene, whether you find it amazing or horrifying, there's no denying it's one that will stick in your mind.