Above: FP 30K SAR BL training. Identical to running… " [ a ] movie flows trough real time, like a river carrying you toward your destination. If you ask a question or think about something other than the movie, you're out of the river and up on the bank -- out of the flow. This is seldom good." -- Howard Suber ' The Power of Film ' (page 168).
Structure: How reality affects story:
"When I examined what the structure [ of the film 'Au Revoir les Enfants' ] should be, I thought it was important, little by little, to see the war breaking in. The central story is the arrival of this new boy and how he and Julien become friends; there's hostility at first and then step by step we see the birth of a friendship between two children who are equally curious about certain things, probably a little smarter than the rest of the students, and how they find their affinities." Louis Malle in 'Malle on Malle', edited by Philip French (Chapter 5, 'Coming Home', page 170 - 172)
Story: attempted quest for unity by the character(s):
" [...] "I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally," he began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would best like to hear; "yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw, how I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor chap. It was the farthest point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience. It seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything about me -- and into my thoughts. It was sombre enough, too -- and pitiful -- not extraordinary in any way -- not very clear either. No, not very clear. And it seemed to throw a kind of light." Joseph Conrad 'Heart of Darkness', first published in 1899 (page 11)
As adapted in the 'Apocalypse Now' screenplay (John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola, narration written by Michael Herr):
EXT. MILITARY COMPOUND - DAY
A darkly painted Huey lands in a guarded military compound
somewhere in Nah Trang. The two enlisted men jump out of
the helicopter, leading Willard, who seems in much better
shape. As he gets out he sees a platoon of new men drilling
in the hot hazy sun. They are clean and pale.
MEN (Chanting)
I wanna go to Vietnam.
I wanna kill a Vietcong-
WILLARD (V.O.)
I was going to the worst place in
the world, and I didn't even know
it yet. Weeks away and hundreds
of miles up river that snaked
through the war like a circuit
cable...plugged straight into Kurtz.
He follows the escort across the fields as the platoon
drills.
WILLARD (V.O.)
It was no accident that I got to
be the caretaker of Colonel Walter
E. Kurtz's memory, any more that
being back in Saigon was an
accident. There was no way to
tell his story without telling my
own. And if his story is really a
confession, then so is mine.
They approach a civilian-type luxury trailer. It is
surrounded by concertina wire, and its windows have grenade
protection, but it still seems out of place in this austere
military base.
CLOSER ON WILLARD
He stands before the door for a moment, as the M.P.s
guarding the trailer check his papers.
