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News and the Movies - Apocalypse Now and the Newspaper Model
The similarities and comparisons between the 1979 Francis Ford Cappola war movie classic and the epic and sometimes comical struggles of the newspaper business are interesting and timely . (Should be read while listening or whistling the Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner) We are being sucked up river by a changing tide.
Both are epic stories . Both have a great story line , a great struggle , intrigue , well acted , lots of action and drama . Both are played out in an artistic , psychological , action packed , adventure with a few slow spots . Haphazard , both hugely expensive to produce and are supported by very worried backers. Violence warnings apply , with some nudity , some scenes run longer than necessary but are well acted.
Based on the novel the Heart Of Darkness , Apocalypse Now is one of the greatest war stories ever told. We only know how one ends .
It is said that the "greatness and madness play off of each other". It took four years to make . Damian Cannon 1997 says , "Apocalypse Now fully releases the chaos and absurdity of this jungle conflict before slipping into the same trap. "
The movie took four years to make . It has been about 4 years since we in the newspaper business has taken on its arch rival the internet in a bloody game of chicken .
If the "war" has been going badly , we stand tall still using our vast resources well. We fight with professionalism and passion and are fighting an insurgency that is deep rooted , also passionate . An enemy that blends into the regular population . You can't tell friend from foe. Most of them love our ideals , everyone loves newspapers in theory .They come out grab the "free" and slip back into the urban environment. The lure of "free" , and conflict with some of the things we stand for are a problem for print on paper. The new generations are paperless , wireless , leaderless , un-biased , biased, , unregulated, fascist and the democratic . The wide range of thought,a guerilla war of ideas has given "Victor Charlie" a creeping advantage.
The theory and practice of war has a duality . Politicians spout publicly about Freedom , but there there is money to be made, uniforms and bullets , lot a bucks there. Not surprisingly there are also advancements and innovations , big ones. It is a business, ideology vs capitalism .
With the idealistic spartan enemy popping up in a relentless hit and run strategy , with no rules or conventions it is a tough war to win. It really looks like a civil war but that term is never used .
The conservative media tries to fight the battle in a conventional way like Col. Kurtz started . Rules of engagement are in effect , we do what we always have done . We hold the high ground. We see government at every level.
Our troops go out into the field everyday doing what we always do , and do it over and over again , institutions well covered.
But " Victor Charlie" is out their , everywhere , working for free , just writing words and creating visuals . Doing what every they want. It is actually very cool stuff . A million ideas coming from a million editors , reporters and photographers . And ! It is all just everyday stuff.
"Outside the Box " thinking with no box at all . A universe with no limits . Everyday stuff. A string theory of variations exciting every brain and every brain cell. Capt. Willard talks about Col. Kurtz's methods saying , "I doesn't see any method at all".
While we sit in our bunkers and shopping centre command centres , sipping wine and eating prawn , Charlie squats in the bush eating rice . At least they fought. Now we fight in bathrobes , sitting in easy chairs , trading combat pilots for Drone drivers. Thousands / millions of ordinary people with video cameras and laptops occupying every space on earth with something to say and a place they created to say it.
We try to maintain our rules , the conventional way is taking some hard hits , casualties everyday in every sector.
Col. Kurtz , an exemplary officer , groomed for the "top slot" , general , tires of the losses , joins the unconventional war . Leaving regular army and joins the Special Forces , the Green Berets even at his advance age. War fighting by different rules , thinking outside the box , but that even fails . It's too late for bigger pictures and design. Special Forces start Blogging and tweeting, infiltrating the enemy using indigenous forces in an effort to clone the enemies tactics.
The Globe and Mail takes a huge gamble , spending over a billion dollars in a long term print based "special forces" op , in what was said to be an outside the box makeover. A titanium horse drawn buggy. Somehow the radical redesign looks suspiciously like the same old newspaper but smaller . Not wanting to offend regular customers , the subtle differences in paper quality are likely lost on the readership .The decent into madness.
Yet it will still be the best of what we all do. The Free Press ON7 will likely gather the same information about our changing market at a fraction of the cost , while only affecting one publishing day of the week. Independent and agile.
We love the smell of newsprint in the morning. " that smell , that ink and that dusty fibre smell , it smells like , money.
Kutz creates his own "military cult" and is charged with murder by the military establishment. Charge with murder in Viet Nam is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500 , paraphrasing from a line spoken by Capt. Willard .
Journalists encouraged to embrace the unconventional tactics of their enemy , first blogging then tweeting , some slide just over the edge and are fired ,one is suspended 30 days without pay. Taking offence at making up a preemptive story that mostly correct has that a same quality as the Viet speeding ticket. . In a world with TMZ , and tabloid journalism , scandal sheets , TV , radio , reporters that are columnists that are , media personalities, bloggers and tweeters .Slipping over the line is inevitable .
"Charlie don't surf" says Col Kilgore (Robert Duval) as he creates a helicopter assault on a beach to capture large breaking waves held by the enemy. Electronic , breaking news media "don't run corrections" . They break new , correct , or near correct , best available information every minute always moving . Creating a puzzle that starts at 6am and ends at 11pm. Back to base for night fall , Victor Charles owns the night.
It is a busy battle ,on all fronts some of the warriors have opinions of how it all should go, most just do what they always do. The movie ends in a firery explosion. The establishment wins a battle , sort of.
The cost of war is very high. We fight in the most expensive way possible while Charlie carries AK and a bag of rice. The war is lost by the well financed invaders .
" Victor Charles " , wins the war "after losing every battle". There is just casualties in the Ten Thousand Day War, millions of casualties.
Critically acclaimed , times two. Artistically done , five stars for style alone . Of course there is that other Apocalypse Now REDUX . A directors recut version of the original , with 45 minutes of EXTRA content. So much for short and snappy. . It is longer and replaces the psychological aspects of the plot making a more conventional war movie . A movie seeking its core. The newer version has sex scenes , and more human characters , humour, a very cool French Plantation scene where the French ex-pats try to maintain their culture against the tide of a long war .They no longer concider themselves French. They conclude the war they fought since the 1950s had "nothing to win".
In real life , Peace is made , we are all friends now .Co existing , trading partners . The American government created a template based on the Viet Nam war called , HOW NOT TO FIGHT A WAR ,and " Victor Charles " created a template for insurgency called HOW TO FIGHT AN INSURGENCY . And it goes on , over and over again. Total victory has been replaced with Peace with Honour.
Topic: Apocalypse Now The Movie (Read 1913 times)