>>214339578
Nope, the French plantation completely ruins the pacing.
-Coppola's trademark is the DISSOLVE, which he uses to great effect in The Godfather. In the Godfather, especially around Tom Hagen's visit to the bigshot producer, the dissolve is used perfectly from shot to shot as visual elements blend perfectly into each other. Later, as they go to the mattresses, a dish of spaghetti being scooped into the trash dissolves into Clemenza's fat, naked belly.
In Apocalypse Now, the big showcase for the Coppola dissolve is the opening montage (dawn, light), which compares directly with the closing montage (night). In both cases, the same elements are present, fade in and out: a human face, the jungle, and, off in a corner, a fire.
-During the playboy bunny sequence, horny soldiers cling for dear life to the departing helicopter. They represent the epitome of life itself, what it really is to be fully alive, daring, trying, living. They're probably not going to get to fuck or rape any of the women, but they're damn sure going to try. They are suspended about 20 feet above the water. They are pantsless. After a while, they tire and give up, falling a short distance into the water. The dead body at the front door of Kurtz's camp is a repetition and inversion of this, it stands for death itself. The dead body is also pantsless. In a later shot, it too is cut down into the water.
