Apocalypse Now vs Full Metal Jacket
I’m a Coppola fan, apparently: Full Metal Jacket is no way as good a flick as Apocalypse Now. Platoon (Oliver Stone) is even poorer, if you ask me (though it makes an interesting contrast with Martin Sheen in Coppola’s film since Charlie Sheen is the lead in Platoon). Saving Private Ryan, maybe, but that’s just an original story line plopped down in the thick of war flicks. I was surprised to read others’ Top 10 War Movies
: I couldn’t disagree more. Three Kings? What about Jarheads? And Apocalypse Now was groundbreaking: released in 1979, the scene of the cameraman appears again in Full Metal Jacket; nothing compares with the montage of the slaughter of Kurtz with the superimposed slaughter of the bull; and finally, everyone knows the Ride of Valkyries scene–that is just a piece of popular culture now. In sum: Coppola outdid both Stone and Kubrick. Hard to believe, yes; but true.