Apocalypse Now (1979)

The greatest opening sequence of all time begins audibly with the psychedelic pounding of helicopters passing from the right audio channel to the left, proceeding this the song "The End" by The Doors begins to play as we are shown an establishing shot of a Vietnamese jungle as war time helicopters traverse by it. The now grimy and foggy shot lingers as the diegetic helicopter blades and non diegetic score merge to form something of its own atmosphere. As the song begins the vocalist declares "This is the end, beautiful friend" as we see the forest napalm bombed. The camera pans across the fire torn and smoky expanse of the forest war scene and as the editing dissolves together with a close up shot of the main character, the mentally tortured soldier, Captain Benjamin Willard, played by Martin Sheen. We see many shots dissolve together over the close up of Willard, the ceiling fan of his room which mirrors the blades of the helicopters, the fire, the forest as the lyrically and thematically appropriate song continues to assault the senses. The lighting and editing of this opening sequence shows an emphasis on duality, we see half of Willard's face cloaked in shadow as the other shots are superimposed over him as well as the shots of the shadowy jungle silhouetted by the glow of the deep orange fog and fire. As the opening music ends we are shown more close up shots of the alcoholic Willard suffering from post traumatic stress and cabin fever are shown. The dialogue delivered by Willard in this scene is dubbed over the cuts of him in his room, adding to the sense of insanity the opening sequence gives us. We see a high angle shot of Willard crouched down in the room appearing very small, this is mirrored in the overdubbed dialogue from the deep voice of Martin Sheen stating "Each time I look around, the walls move in a little tighter". The now erratic and violent "The End" slowly starts to get louder as the scenes again start to merge.  Great use of lighting is again used to shadow half of Willard's face with the ceiling fan framed over his shoulder as the scenes cut and change. This time we are shown a camouflaged and muddied Captain Willard, that we see again in the closing sequence where Willard gives into the insanity of the jungle and kills Colonel Kurtz.

These techniques are recurrent throughout the filming of Apocalypse Now, in the end sequence the editing style of merging shots together over each other is also used. Francis Ford Coppola uses repetition of the opening song in the final sequence of the film, connected to the use of shadows in this scene as well as in the opening the song and lighting represent the theme of duality and evil within. Shots of Captain Willard silhouetted in the final sequence demonstrate when he has given into this duality. The song rising in a loud crescendo as we see captain Willard bathed in shadow kill the colonel. The theme of war and blurred morality which is shown time and time again in Willard's journey up the river and through the heart of darkness is represented in this opening sequence. We see the effect it has on his psyche, the veil like editing that places scenes of war and destruction over close up shots of his face, a technique that is also repeated in the closing sequence. 

Apocalypse Now Scenes