In Apocalypse Now, the use of lights, shadow, music, complimented the characters in the scenes that they were in. The scene that stood out to me the most was when the soldiers were in the helicopter and the captain said he would be putting the music on soon. When he does it is just so loud and dominant in the scene, and the music choice matched perfectly with what was going on below. All of a sudden the scene cuts to another and the music stops abruptly and i thought this was a very interesting choice because as I remember, it was a well known part of the song and you could finish it in your head once it went out. I thought this was really interesting, and at first i didn't understand why it wouldn't have at least finished the measure of the music but then i thought about what had happened next. There was an attack on the town below, and i don't know if i was looking into this too much but it almost seemed to compare the fact that the music stopped so shortly when you didn't expect it to how the lives of the people in the town below also stopped so shortly.

The scene where Tyrone dies was so well done but not over done. The scene starts off with everyone receiving mail which gets the boys excited because it is the only thing that has connected these soldiers with home for the last several months. Tyrone is playing a tape from his mother and all oaf sudden he dies. The directors choice to keep the tape playing while he was dying was a very effective to the viewer. Not only does his mothers voice continue, but she is saying that they all miss him, and are going to throw a big party when he comes back and to make sure he comes home in one piece. The boy dying was sad enough but to add his mothers voice saying she missed him added something personal to the mix. Before then he was just an annoying young boy off to war, i didn't really care too much about him until i was able to connect his family to him.

As soon as we find out what his mission is there is this curiosity as to who captain Kurtz is and why he is so insane. We wonder what he does thats so crazy, why no one has successfully killed him, and why people follow him as a God. At the end of the movie when we finally meet captain Kurtz we never really see his face. Every shot of him keeps part of his face in a shadow and i thought this was an interesting choice. It leaves the mystery to him. As captain WIllard spends more time around him he starts to wonder if he wasn't crazy at all and that also keeps some mystery to him. Until we meet him its easy for the viewer to hate him, or to at least agree that he is crazy and needs to be killed. We go along the whole journey with captain Willard and when we finally get to the end and expect him to just go in and kill him but then WIllard starts talking to Kurtz and considering his ideas. We start to think about them as well and i think the shadow helps us be ok with wondering.

The final scene when Willard kills Kurtz, we see a moment when Willard considers staying. He kills him, steps out on the step, and then looks over the crowd then turns his face into the shadow, and i noticed it was the same shadow that was on Kurtz when we first met him. I thought this was a really great idea to tie the two characters together for a split second. It gave you a look into the possibility of what he could become. However, Willard choses to go home instead.

Apocalypse Now was a movie about a US Army Captain, Willard, was recruited back to go on a special mission to kill Colonel Kurtz, a former US soldier who they believe to be insane. Colonel Kurtz now is the leader of a group of people who now follow him as a 'God'. Once Captain Willard got to Kurtz, he wasn't sure about what he believed. He didn't know wether he believed him or what the US army was suggesting.

The opening scene of the movie starts with showing Sheen overlapped with many other images, war images, and other images that give foreshadowing as to his past and his future. I also thought the sound of the helicopter paired with the image of the fan was very effective. It made you think about the war aspect of the movie and of Sheen's life, but quickly brought it to present day in his apartment when it cut to the fan.

In my opinion, the movie, followed Captain Willard and his crew very well. It showed the emotion and the building progression of the crew's frustration and fading stamina as the months wore on and his crew decreased in number. At times it was frustrating because you could see the potential outcome of bad situations, and then it would happen but in the same sense you could see the potential good that would also be lived up to. I loved the determination of Captain Willard to do something he didn't believe in 100% however, put his whole heart into simply because it was his mission and he was on a mission for his country.

As other would probably agree, the last 10 minuets of the movie was most effective. The lighting between Willard and Kurtz told more of a story to me then the words actually did. And while you questioned the state of his loyalty at the end his faithfulness shone through.

The diving bell and the butterfly was about a successful magazine editor who had a stroke and was left completely paralyzed. Unable to speak, he worked with speech therapists and developed a long, tiring way to communicate with others. After working with a patient translator, he was able to finish the book he had previously contracted to. The love of his life finally came to visit him and 10 days after publication he died.

The movie credits open with x-rays of bones which i found really interesting. It made me think the movie was about some kind of medical condition, which it obviously turned out to be but i never expected paralysis. In my opinion that was a really creative way to open a movie about someone who literally cant use his bones. Another decision by the director that i thought was brilliant was his decision to keep Jean-Do's face hidden for the first portion of the movie. The first time they showed his face in whole was when he was in his job. I like the fact that they showed him in his entirety for the first time the way he used to be because in my opinion it made me sympathize with him more. It also gave me an idea of how much he had change. I think if i had seen what he currently looked like, then saw what he used to look like i don't think the effect on me would have been what it was. When they did decide to show him they did it gradually. They showed the back of his head, his one eye, his hands, his feet and finally his whole face. This choice was also very effective to me. It left some mystery to him even though we already know what the outcome for the rest of his life was. The next thing i thought was completely brilliant was the shot of Jean-Do's father in the mirror with the picture of his son was incredible. It showed the huge amount of admiration he had for his son, which was a theme that was kept through the whole movie.