Apocalypse Now opening/ending scene analysis

Within the opening of Apocalypse Now a wide shot of the trees during the day with yellow smoke rising with no movement and the trees are suddenly blown up as 'this is the end' by the doors begins to play and as soon as the trees are on fire the camera begins to slowly pan across the forest on the fire as the only sound that is audible is the song to signify a doomsday atmosphere which links to the name of the film as a fade in on the protagonists face with a close up is layered on top of the pan of the burning forest s only for a few seconds as it cuts back to the forest on fire panning across as the protagonists face fades in and out with the the music still being the only audio we hear for around two and a half minutes until the faint sound of a helicopter is heard as helicopters are shown as the shot of the protagonist changes to a high angle shot showing that he is in a room which is poorly lit to create a unsettling atmosphere the camera begins to move slowly around and also a low angle shot of a ceiling fan is also layered on the screen so three separate shots are layered on the screen which connotes to everything shown in the scenes being linked together as the ceiling fan is linked to the helicopters in the war and this gives us an idea on who the protagonist is as they seem to be in the army and the ceiling fan maybe connoting that he has PTSD as his facial expression throughout these opening layered scenes is like he is in a trance or is dazed. The next scene shows a pan in extreme close up across all the documents he has and a picture of a women and finally panning to his face with no change to his facial expression as it carries on panning past his and a layered shot of alcohol is shown as this entire time 'this is the end' carries on playing which creates an unsettling atmosphere and this is reinforced as the song now begins to fade out and the diegetic sound of the  ceiling fan begins to get louder and louder and gradually begins to turn into a non diegetic helicopter as it pans to a gun next to the protagonist which strengthens the idea of the him being involved with some kind of violent acts and make the audience question the identity of the protagonist and as no words have been spoken yet all the audience can do is assume. His room is finally shown and it is dark and dismal and cuts to the protagonists face and cuts looking the window and begins to quickly zoom into the window and changes to a first person poverties shot as the camera is shaking a lot with the non diegetic sounds of the helicopter become its loudest and fades out as he begins to speak he first speaks about where he is and how he thinks he is going to wake up back in the jungle which reinforces the idea that he is suffering with PTSD and his facial expressions are usually blank which gives off this effect of him being scarred by what he has done also he is shown topless which connotes to him being in that room a long time as it begins to show multiple scenes of him in his room with the same dingy lighting to convey that he has shut himself in and his posture within these scenes are him hunched over which portrays him being bored as it is not totally implied that he has been in this room for a long when can make an assumption that he has been in this room for a significant amount of time as this shots show his during the day and night but during this a scene fades in slightly of him with his face painted and walking in the night which could foreshadow the ending of the film as he has the same appearance but then finally cuts to a mid shot of the protagonist who seems to be drunk which the room having more light which makes the room less dingy  with a cut to him close up and follows his face as it moves up and shows the ceiling fan in the top corner for a small amount of time which shows how significant this is as it is shown a lot throughout this entire opening scene as it is synonymous with the helicopters. And when these final scenes are shown the music begins to play again but is only the instrumental and fades out as he passes out after punching a mirror smashing it and drinking alcohol conveying that he is drunk and is suffering as his facial expression changes to him being in pain    





Ending analysis: At the end of Apocalypse Now the protagonist kills Colonel Kurtz and while this is happening footage of the tribe people killing a cow is in between shots of Kurtz's death to signify his link to these people as he uses them for his cult. After he has killed Kurtz everyone begins to bow down to Willard as he has just killed a "god" in the eyes of those people and is now being praised as the new leader and could suggest a cyclical nature of the leader always being murdered as the people instantly began to worship Willard when he sees this his face is mostly covered by darkness which suggests that he was thinking about becoming the next leader with a sinister atmosphere through the small amount of his face we can see but as he moves forward his face becomes more visible and this idea is almost instantly scrapped as he begins to leave having completed his mission and ending somewhat ambiguously as we have no idea on what happens after he gets back on the boat. The themes which is most prevalent at the end is good and evil as willard begins to sympathise with Kurtz and the hero and villain is not clearly shown like in traditional films also the effect of power is a another theme which is shown as we see Kurtz has created a cult and has taken over a a small area in Cambodia and seems to be corrupted by this and has become crazy from all of the power he has.