The release of Apocalypse Now might not have marked as big a watershed moment as Platoon, but the Francis Ford Coppola film is still an important work of cinema.
The film, an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, is revered for a whole host of reasons - one of course being Robert Duvall's charismatic performance as a maverick US Army officer who loves Wagner and surfing in equal measure.
There are wonderful performances right across the board though, from Martin Sheen to Marlon Brando, and it's no surprise that Coppola's direction pulls it all together wonderfully, despite the trouble that infamously plagues the film's production.
Apocalypse Now does feature a somewhat unconventional opening however, set to The Doors' rendition of The End. The image of the jungle canopy being obliterated by napalm with Jim Morrison's vocals blearing overhead is equal parts visceral and operatic, with the introduction of Sheen's Captain Willard - a battle-hardened soldier discontent with civilian life - completing the film's stellar opening salvo.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
