Friday, April 12, 2024 saw the announcement that Eleanor Coppola had passed away at the age of 87. Coppola, the wife of director Francis Ford Coppola, was best known for directing the documentary footage contained in Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, the 1991 film that chronicled the making of Apocalypse Now, her husband’s classic Viet Nam movie about Captain Willard’s journey upriver to kill the insane Colonel Kurtz.
The night Eleanor Coppola’s death was revealed, I went back and rewatched Hearts of Darkness yet again. I’ve lost track of how many time’s I’ve seen it, much like how I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched Apocalypse Now in its many permutations. For what it’s worth, Apocalypse Now is my favourite film of all time, and my personal go-to when I want to experience it is to put on Apocalypse Now Redux, its longest iteration.
Perhaps this is why I see so much of Apocalypse Now in Civil War, writer-director Alex Garland’s newly released film currently in theatres. While much has been made about the subject matter, a divided United States with a facist third-term president (Nick Offerman) who has fired upon Americans, and the journalists covering the story as it nears its conclusion, what really captivated me most about the film was the journey itself.
A quarter of journalists, photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst), reporter Joel (Wagner Moura), veteran correspondent and Lee’s mentor, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and aspiring photographer Jesse (Cailee Spaeny) set off from New York City, with Lee and Joel’s ultimate intent to arrive in Washington and confront the President before the ceded states that make up the Western Front overthrow him. It’s a harrowing task, one that will take them through backroads and involve multiple confrontations along the way.
These encounters, none of which I will spoil here, very much felt in line with those that Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) and his small crew experience in Apocalypse Now, as they head towards their assignment of finding Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). In Civil War, there are moments of shoot-outs between enemies, though its unclear who’s on which side; a side quest into a town that seems to have stood still; a horrifying face-off with a man (Jesse Plemons) who has taken things into his own hands.
In Civil War, the Nùng River of Apocalypse Now is replaced with American highways littered with abandoned and destroyed cars, and two-lane roads curving into the unknown; the green jungle is often a concrete one. Cinematographer Rob Hardy’s work is gorgeous, especially when seen on an IMAX screen, which Civil War has been optimized for. In a film that worked for me on every level, from story to performances, the look of Civil War remains a particular standout.
I don’t know how history will treat Civil War, if it will be talked about in venerated breathes like Apocalypse Now is. For me, though, the connective tissues I found between both films means that I’ll return to Civil War again to take its journey.
Hopefully, the America it depicts will only be seen when we watch the film.
