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Apocalypse Now Is Not an Anti-War Film. That’s Why It’s Terrifying.
Here is what an anti-war film does. It shows you the suffering. It shows you the bodies, the grieving mothers, the soldiers who were boys yesterday. It shows you the cost. And it asks you, with the earnestness of a petition, to agree that war is bad. To feel the appropriate feelings. To leave the…
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The Godfather Is Not About Crime. It’s About the Closed Door.
The last image is the only one that matters. Kay Adams stands in a hallway. Through the open door, she can see her husband sitting in his father’s office. Men enter the room. They take Michael’s hand. They kiss it. They call him Godfather. Michael sees her watching. The door swings shut. That’s the film.…
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Oppenheimer Isn’t About the Bomb. It’s About the Man They Fed to It.
You went for the explosion. Of course you did. Three hours, seventy-millimetre IMAX, a hundred and eighty million dollars, the most anticipated detonation in cinema since Nolan levelled a hospital in The Dark Knight. You went to see the Trinity test. You went to see the fireball. You went to feel the shockwave hit your…
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Amadeus Is Not About Mozart. It’s About You.
Whiplash made you a promise. It said: if you bleed enough, if you sacrifice enough, if you endure enough, you will become great. The promise was wrapped in abuse and soaked in sweat, but it was still a promise. Suffer and be rewarded. Pay the price and collect the prize. The equation balances. Amadeus burns…