By: Todd Wheatley
(c) IQ-2k   Oct. 2014

(c)1979 ____ rated- R ____ (good++)

[[ War - Vietnam ]]
cover-art_: ++
Director_: Francis Ford Copella
Starring_: Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Marlon Brando

Location_: Vietnam, Cambodia
Cinematography_: ++

I have yet to post my article on the 15-minute-movie, but suffice it to say that I have watched a handful of films countless times and this movie features the best 15 minutes of all: the Robert Duvall helicopter attack sequence ending with the famous quote, "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning".

The remainder of the movie accounts for the fact that I paid $30 to add this one to my collection round about 1997. By far the most I've paid for any movie - until very recently ($45 for the 1st season of "The Game of Thrones"). On average my wife and I prefer to spend $5 or less; Previewed or otherwise.

This movie became iconic from the moment it was released and remains a must see. Definitely a movie of its time, "Apocalypse Now" brought together "sex, drugs, and rock & roll" under the culturally significant Vietnam War. Moreover this movie will last through the ages for depicting the true insanity of war and the futility of trying to create a "sanitized" war.

Consider the 2003 invasion of Iraq "shock & awe" opening salvo. The American public was told that given the defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War the "shock & awe" campaign would deliver a quick and decisive victory. Somehow nobody told the Iraqi's and we were left with ... "another Vietnam".

Since the 1980s politicians often make reference to "another Vietnam" though always in the sense of entering a quagmire. Yet more than a quagmire, Vietnam was a war that should never have been started. It was later discovered that the Gulf of Tonkin incident that hastened the rush to war was falsely reported. A lie, in other words. And now that I think about it, something about non-existent WMD in Iraq?

The United States lost more than 50,000 people for a stinking swamp; not to mention the ones that came back permanently maimed or psychologically impaired. AND FOR WHAT? ... To deny the communists some stinking swamp land and a bunch of stone-age natives while at the same time race riots and anti-war riots plagued us at home. Clearly our priorities were out of whack.

Today the press speaks of surgical strikes and pilotless drones where no U.S. personnel are lost and only the "bad guys" are killed ... It's a load of crap. War is insanity at best and we are once again being lied to.

[line from "Apocalypse Now"] ".. it was a lie. And the more I see of them, the more I hate lies".

The real reason American troops have been sent to Iraq for a third time is OIL. Plain and simple. This garbage about protecting U.S. "interests and personnel" in the region as well as protecting the U.S. homeland from terrorists follows the kind of half-truth lie that make politicians seem concerned. Granted the reality of our involvement in the Middle East is far more complicated than just oil, but take a lesson from history. We need to focus our might and attention at home or close to home ... South America, for example.


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