By Stephen Collins '74

Last summer, when he invited President Bro Adams to introduce a film for the Colby Film Society in the fall, Noah Charney '02 was unaware that the new president is a scholarly film buff who has published articles about American cinema, including several about Vietnam War films. Adams scanned Charney's list of more than 100 films and chose Apocalypse Now, the groundbreaking 1979 epic by Francis Ford Coppola that approached the Vietnam War as a modern version of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Bro Adams offers his interpretation of Apocalypse Now to students at a showing of the film by the Colby Film Society.

Adams's Mayflower Hill debut as a cinema sage came in November when about 40 students showed up in Keyes for the show. When he asked if it was a group of serious film buffs or just students who wanted to spend a night at the movies, the response was: "We want to know what you have to say."

Adams explained that Coppola had established himself as one of the great contemporary American directors with the Godfather series. "Great, great movies . . . certainly [The Godfather] I and II are among the best American films ever made," he said.

Then came Apocalypse Now, which was notorious well before its release. About four years in the making, it was one of the most expensive films ever made, and there were widespread reports of bizarre behavior by Coppola and Marlon Brando on the set. "It's an odd and strange and troubling and visually stunning movie, which, when it came out, provoked a lot of controversy and disagreement about its merits," Adams said. There was no consensus that it was a great film, or even a very good film.

"It's a film, in many ways, of what I would call directorial excesses. It's a very nervous and jumpy and excessive film. . . . It goes way over the top on a couple of occasions," Adams told the students. "I personally have trouble watching it as a realistic film. You have to let yourselves go and appreciate the symbolic power."

Borrowing liberally from Heart of Darkness, "Coppola was obviously struck by the analogy, imperfect but nonetheless probably appropriate, between the British experience in the 19th century in Africa and the American experience in Southeast Asia," Adams said. Using that as "literary background," Coppola was the first to explore the war as "a very dark passage in American history."

Where it really broke new ground, Adams said, was its depiction of American war history in a negative light–its "representation of that war and our experience as a revelation of a lot of dark impulses and aspects of American history," as opposed to the "positive and friendly" film interpretations of previous American wars.

Speaking to an audience born after America withdrew from Vietnam, Adams had to catch himself. "As you'll recall, American involvement–maybe you won't recall but you might have read or become aware of the facts–American involvement in the war ended in 1973. . . . The North Vietnamese captured Saigon in 1975, which brought a conclusion to a very long epoch both in Vietnamese history and American history, and four years later Coppola released this movie."

In the genre of war films that followed Apocalypse Now, almost all the films "shared some of the fundamental impulses and themes that Coppola raises," Adams said, noting that many of them–Platoon for example–"tried to be realistic and less metaphorical and literary."

"I find [Apocalypse Now] a hard film to look at as a realistic representation of Vietnam, but I think if you start with the premise that it's not, then it will be much easier for you to watch and to read as a reflection of America's experience in Vietnam," he concluded.

Charney founded the Colby Film Society two years ago, as a freshman. Every Thursday night the group screens a film–"usually something everyone's heard of but perhaps hasn't watched"–in Keyes. A 10- or 15-minute introduction helps students see films "with a critical eye," Charney said, and primes them for what to look for beyond the entertainment. For example, he said he knew nothing of the strange history of the making of Apocalypse Now and that the social context–the fact that it was the first major film not to portray American war efforts as heroic and positive–was illuminating.

Clearly it is intellectual curiosity rather than just an entertaining night at the movies that attracts much, if not most, of the society's audience. "I've found we get more interest by attaching a professor's name to it," Charney said. The favorite horror films of Professor Cedric Bryant (English) before Halloween was a big hit. An introduction to Dr. Strangelove as Cold War literature by Professor Kenneth Rodman (government) and one by Nancy Reinhardt (special collections librarian) on why Citizen Kane is considered a great film were terrific, Charney said.

"Students sometimes show up to hear the professor speak and then leave without watching the movie," he said. "You'd think the opposite might be true."