Apocalypse Now; An ancient Odyssey

Apocalypse Now; An ancient Odyssey
(into the shadow)

'On those stepping into rivers over different and different waters flow'
Heraclitus




Apocalypse Now is at heart a film about a journey into the Shadow self. The films structure reflects some of the uncountable examinations in art of this journey, from ancient stories of mythical quests to modern post war poetry and art. Apocalypse Now is a film which can be read as the personal journey of an individual into his own shadow. However any interpretation, I feel, cannot ignore the context of the time in which this film was made or based in, in the case of this film particularly as the contextual significances are fundamental to the film. This film is simultaneously one about the individuals journey into their shadow, a nations journey into shadow, a generations journey and even death within the Shadow.

Not being one who could adequately convey the experience of those who lived through or within the time of the Vietnam Conflict, nor the complexities which surround it, I will try to avoid indulging in any assumptions or analysis's which from my naive and ignorant seat in 2011 would, I feel, not only be foolish but also insulting. I will speak of this film in the only way I can, and that is to understand the story that is told and the way it relates to me, and also how I from my current situation respond to a film of which it's context is intraversably distant from my understanding. Not unsurprisingly as a twenty three year old writing almost thirty years after the Vietnam conflict, the aspect of the film which interests me the most is the personal journey into the shadow, and not that of the nation nor culture/generation who were involved.

The film strongly references and directly quotes T. S. Eliot's poem 'The Hollow Men'. The poem and the film both reference Joseph Conrad's book 'Heart of Darkness' which provided the story from which Apocalypse Now was based upon. Marlon Brando's character Kurtz takes his name directly from the character in 'Heart of Darkness' who has bought himself to a similar position as that of the Apocaylpse Now character of Kurtz has. The first line of The Hollow Men reads;

“Elliza Kurtz – he's dead”

'The Hollow men' references the Hollow men of the modern age, and many believe that weather Eliot was aware of it or not, he was expressing the condition of a post-war individual. Kurtz quotes lines from this poem, and whilst not surviving to the final released cut of the film for public consumption, Kutrz reads the entire poem out loud is a slow and contemplative manner. Similarly to the film, Eliot's poem uses and references many sources. There is something intriguing about the eclectic content of these works of art. In a modern age these works recycle and integrate older work to create a new bastard hybrid. The example of The Hollow Men is one from a time when people were coming into a new understanding of being, and western culture as Heidegger was aware was

'beginning to understand everything, even ourselves, as resources to be enhanced and used efficiently.' (Dreyfus on Heidegger, in Magee 1987, p271)

Heidegger considered that the aim of culture had changed and was geared towards efficiency. The western world had through industry arrived at two world wars which used technology in frightening new ways. Our technological understanding of being was producing some horrifying results. Men and women were being blow apart and rebuilt, physically, emotionally, physiologically. The Hollow men in reference to war takes on a horrific and tragic meaning. The Hollow men are empty of purpose, morals, meaning. They are empty like tin soldiers, technology which can be constructed and deconstructed, and thrown away.

The film's characters Willard and Kurtz are hollow men. Throughout the film we see Willard as a hollow man. He stays in a hotel room almost constantly and reflects upon his condition. He is a man without a home anymore. Willard has a family who he has returned to, however his marriage ended because of his withdrawal and his inability to leave Vietnam behind. Willards journey is clearly not over, and as this information is given to us at the beginning of the film, we know that Willard's journey to a completion of what ever internal turmoil he is going through is going to unfold throughout. His resemblance to Kurtz allows for an easy transition to Kurtz's character. Through out the film as we come to know Willard and I'm sure others like myself became attached to him, we are also getting to know Kurtz.

“There is no way to tell his story without telling my own. And if his story is really a confession, then so is mine” Captain Willard, Apocalypse Now

He is not so much a mystery to us as we might had been lead to believe he was by the military officers who give Willard the mission. By the time Willard has reached Kurtz we have witnessed an epidemic of insanity. Kurtz in contract to this although being the most extreme character of the film and the most brutal, delivers valuable insights into the human soul, namely one that has become twisted in war, and this offers Willard his salvation and his passage to finally end his journey.

The film uses the natural qualities of the location to convey the internal landscape, the symbols of which also convey the landscape of the broader social journey.

The river is the most used setting in the film and is a geological line which links the different scenes of the film together and also stands as a metaphor for the internal rivers of the psyche. The internal journey which concerns the film is well symbolized by the river. A river being water is naturally connected to the subconscious and just as the subconscious is not within our control neither is a river, upon which we can move on with out any will or even without being conscious of it. In this film Willard moves against the current producing a difficult journey into his subconscious and symbolizing the conflict of the internal. This understanding of a river and it's familiar symbols and connotations are ancient. Rivers are in a constant state of flux and their very being belongs to a large system which incorporates weather, the oceans and landscape. Heraclitus noticed that everything was in motion and subject to time. One could not step into a river twice because the river is always changing and comparatively a person cannot step into the same river twice because they are too in a constant state of change.

'On those stepping into rivers over different and different waters flow'.

For our main character Captain Willard, the river takes him deeper and deeper into an external and internal conflict without his control and changes him in such as way as to not come out the same. The way in which we have come to name rivers is of some importance here; the end of a river in the 'Mouth' and the source of the river is sometimes called the 'Heart'. This anthropomorphism relates the river further to ourselves. Any internal journey may begin symbolically with an orarphis, crossing from the outside to the inside, and at the end of an internal journey we may find ourselves at our core, or 'Heart'.

The use of a river reminds us of the epic and remembered stories of journeys such as Homers 'The Odyssey'. The allusion to Greek myth and a symbolic and internal interpretation of the film is found in the naming of the boat on which Captain Willard travels; The Erebus. Erebus is a Greek God, the son of Chaos, Erebus is shadow and married his sister Nyx the Goddess of the Night. Erebus is connected with the underworld and is interchangeable with Hades. Hades was traditionally understood as a shadow realm which was smokey consistent with the films imagery. Hades was believed by some to be only accessible by boat. Erebus and the underworld being from Greek myth moves me to speak of another figure from Greek mythology who although not directly mentioned within the film I feel bears a particular significance to Apocalypse Now; and that is the character Odysseys. Odysseys' significance can be noted within the interviews and documentation of John Millius and Frances Ford Coppola. John Millius the screenwriter of Apocalypse Now said about the story that he saw it like the Odyssey; Killgore is the cyclopes that must be tricked, the Playboy bunnies are like the Sirens. Frances Ford Coppolla's wife when filming documentation of the making of Apocalypse Now captures Coppolla relating the epic scale of the journey within the film and the journey taken by those making the film to the Odyssey. The importance of this epic story was obviously within the consciousness of those who were in the process of miking the movie. Such is the impact of widely known classics and ancient stories which have survived due to their universal and timeless reflections on the human condition.

Odysseus's character closely associated with the wound. As Robert Bly notes,

“...when the Romans translated the Odyssey they gave Odysseus the name Ulixes, which some believe to be a union of oulsd, wound, and ischea, thigh.”

The thigh wound is an ancient symbol which recurs in ancient stories. Within the context of Odysseus, he was born from Zeus thigh wound which acted like a womb, turning Zeus in effect into a male mother or a mentor. The male mother is an older man always and nurtures the initiated. As the myth goes, one day when Odysseus hunts a boar cuts Odysseus's thigh and nearly kiss him. The thigh wound is a disabling wound that slows a person down, and in this state the male thigh wound becomes a womb, a nurturing place. These stories demonstrate the nurturing side of the wound, and darkness. In The Odyssey there are moments where Odysseus's men are killed or fall prey to magic, fates which Odysseus escapes, one of these stories is the boar hunt. It is Odysseus's wounds and his wisdom in acquiring and surviving them that enables him to overcome difficult hardship where other men might fail. As the wound slows so we see Willard who's age is never revealed, leaving us to assume he is around the age of the actor playing him at the time, around his thirties. The other soldiers around Willard with a few exceptions, are young, inexperienced and wired into a culture of drugs and music. As Willard reflects;

"The crew was mostly just kids, rock and rollers with one foot in their graves"

Willard's attitude in the film is passive, he barley become involved in anything unless it's to proceed with his mission. He is calm and observant. He seems to move and exist at a different, slower speed than the younger men. Symbolically as we see in the film and the dialogue at the beginning of the film, Willard is already wounded, and like Odysseus his wounds and his journey relate to war.

Within the epic poem 'The Odyssey' Odysseus is traveling home from war, a journey which takes him ten years, the same amount of time he spent fighting the Trojan war. It seems significant to me that the journey home should take as long as the conflict. In the context of Vietnam many soldiers did not come 'home' for many years, and some of them survived but never made it 'Home'. They may had been living in their homes with their families back in America but they certainly were not in a place they belonged. They suffered from a phycological and spiritual wound which rendered many of them unable to return into society and be so completely integrated as once they had been, leaving them to live ungrounded lives in a state of existential homelessness. Willard's narration offers us some insight into his displacment;

Someday this war's gonna end. That would be just fine
with the boys on the boat. They weren't looking for
anything more than a way home. Trouble is, I've been
back there, and I knew that it just didn't exist anymore.

This excerpt of the narration illustrates the homelessness that Willard and many soldiers in Vietnam experienced. It also illustrates how conditioned Willard is, the war ending would be welcomed by the others on the boat, but this quote leads me to believe that Willard wouldn't. He needs the conflict because anywhere else is alien to him, and he doesn't belong, where as in Vietnam he's quite at home, interestingly he is at home only when actively soldiering. The impact upon soldiers is clear,

more soldiers who fought in the Vietnam conflict have committed suicide after wards than died in the conflict. Joel Osler Brende and Erwin Randolph Parson, Vietnam Veterans: The Road to Recovery (New York: Plenum Press, 1985), p 75 in Warren Farrell, The Myth of Male Power (Berkley Publishing Group, 1993), P145

This tragic information illustrates the magnitude that soldiers suffer after conflict, and their difficulty in belonging anywhere else. Odysseus's journey after war takes him ten years. Within Apocalypse Now we watch Willard re-enter a war in a journey which is not dissimilar to the journey that Odysseus take home. Willard's return to Vietnam allows him to take a journey through the conflict and to finish his journey through the tunnel of his shadow, and rewards him with a conclusion to his own Odyssey. By the end of the film, we have not seen Willard heal but we perhaps have seem him reach a point by which be can begin to.

The Jungle is an inherent aspect for those who make a Vietnam film. The jungle and it's basic practicalities proved problematic for the American Military. The Vietnamese were much more used to the climate and terrain and this proved to be a major advantage within the conflict. The jungle within Jungle war fare is a nerve wracking environment with not only life threatening animals and insects but the jungle offers camouflage and limited visibility. The primeval instincts of a person are I have no doubt at the forefront when one travels such a landscape. In the context of the Vietnam conflict Western countries entered overconfident into an environment which they knew little about fighting in.

It is due to the Western involvement in similar environments that the jungle in the context of Vietnam takes on a deep symbolic history for westerners. The jungle and it's inhabitant's primitiveness is a view that Westerners find difficult to shake off due to a past of colonialism which included an arrogant snobbery in Civilization and adversity to the so called primitiveness, not to mention racism. For westerners the jungle is in-separable to the Primitive and is there fore threatening to our core values and ethos. It is the unsettling truth that we all have a primitive nature and a shadow side that pushes the military in the film to terminate Kurtz's command, setting the story of the film. To be primitive is to be closer to your own nature as a human, as an animal. The primitive is almost always in my mind linked to ecstatic rituals and performances. Ecstatic means To stand outside of yourself and is also the Latin word for Mask. In the film the American soldiers adopt jungle camouflage face paint as they journey deeper into the jungle and the shadow. These masks suggest an ecstatic happening I which the characters are entering different mental space. The shift is a reaction the the primitive environment the character find themselves in and it is to prepare them for the mission, to distance themselves from the horrors of the war and actions that they may be required to commit and may already have done such as the incident where the boat crew shoot up a civilian boat accidentally.

To be in the jungle and to be in the jungle at a time of war opens up a mental space out if which it is not uncommon for people to behave outside of the usual accepted modes of behavior. This point is one which much of the film is concerned with, as it is one which Willard and Kurtz are concerned with. Kurtz is angry at the hypocrisy, lies and absurdity's of the American's conduct in the conflict. He is found near his end to be speaking into a Dictaphone on the absurdities of the American Military's conduct in the war. The very mission the film is set around is one of a hypocritical nature as Kurtz's conduct is said to be 'unsound' although he was everything the American army wanted him to be. His murders are no different than the assassination which he is the target of. Willard can see the hypocrisy as well as Kurtz can. Willard looks with the audience in bewilderment at the camera crew at Killgore's assault on the Vietnamese villiage, upon receiving his mission to assassinate Kurtz he reflects;

How many people had I already killed? There was those six that I know about for sure...Shit...charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding
tickets in the Indy 500.

The ecstatic behavior of those in the jungle was also heightened by the drug culture which had followed the Americans into the conflict from home. The paranoid fears of the shadow self are some might say the basis of Conflict in Vietnam, as America and other Western countries reacted against a growing communism. The jungle for Westerner's is a living entity closely linked with a shameful past, exposing through its hard and unconquerable body Western pitfalls. Heart of Darkness relates this well, the book which formed the basis of the film and was one of the bases for Elliot's poem The Hollow Men. Kurtz is a Westerner who comes to act as a God to the natives within an African Jungle at a time when Western colonialism had moved into the continent. Kurtz's position in the book parallel to the British colonization of the territory.

Apocalypse Now treats the Jungle with a consciousness and symbolically for the film, the jungle is consciousness. Willard remarks in reference to Kurtz;

“Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's who
he really took his orders from anyway.”

The jungle's wildness is fused with the unseen and the primeval. It is not surprising that Apocalypse Now transforms this Jungle into a rich symbolic entity. The jungle in Apocalypse Now is a symbolic place which stands as the utterly wild and dangerous part of the shadow self. When one travels their own self and shadow they must take care and not become lost too deeply. The shadow of the jungle is too wild, it has no restraint, it has no boundaries, and it is very easy to become lost in the jungle. The jungle is almost too much for Willard, from the moment he begins his mission aboard the boat stepping off only leads him to those who are being consumed by the shadow and driven mad. The moments when Willard leaves the boat are way markers for America's psychology. First Willard leaves the boat near the mouth of the river, the shallowest or lightest part of the journey in the shadow and the Vietnam conflict. Willard is not in the jungle yet and the very physicality of the location is light and spacious. The deeper into the jungle and the shadow self the landscape becomes more claustrophobic, the American's influence diminishes and gives way to ancient architecture of native tribesmen, where Kurtz or by now the inner king or God of darkness can be found.

Within Western stories particularly in Fairy tales, jungles are replaced with forests. Forests always appear outside of castles. The reason for this is the suggestion that outside of the comfort and fortified sheltered and single viewed seat of the castle is a world of wild instinctual subconscious waiting to be explored. These numerous stories often depict these settings, and the characters explore or travel through forests in order to reach their goal. For westerner's the forest or jungle has always been held as a place symbolic of the consciousness of nature and thus as the subconscious of he who perceives it. This is a point of central importance in the understanding of Westerners view of the 'primitive' and why is also a mode of being which relates to the shadow self so directly. The unrestrained and unleashed desires and behavior of the instinctual and subconscious are modes of behaviors which unless in the correct and controlled setting are unacceptable to Western social standards. However westerner's and the social ethos's which have been developed and adopted by them have not ignored that each person has inside of them a nature. This nature might be understood as Carl Jung's Shadow Self or Freud's Id. The conflict arises when a persons inner personality and functions manifest into behavior and does not coincide with societies accepted modes. Therefore one might find themselves set apart from there society and culture and left 'homeless' much as Willard and Kurtz are.

When we view characters in fiction or from real life, looked upon at a distance or in hind sight, we are able to compare them to the society in which we are observing. It is this action which enables the anti-hero to exist and an anti-culture. Willard and Kurtz are anti-hero's for the viewer as they have left their culture and bravely traveled into unknown territory, putting the western philosophy of individualism and existentialism to its test.

The journey of the main character who is almost exclusively the hero, is bound to produce some darker results. Willard is a dark hero, or an anti-hero. We can see in a few moments in the film Willard's darker side rear it's head, when asking a solider for oil at the Play Bunny show he grabs the man by the collar and drags him over a bar in a sudden outburst which didn't take much to provoke at all. The second noticeable moment of darkness for Willard is also the most shocking and memorable, the civilian slaughter of the river boat.

The anti-hero within this film is set against a backdrop of American/Western heroism which sets the standards for Willard to be judged against. This age old romanticism of the hero is particularly portrayed and propagated by film, and one genre which ties in very closely with Apocalypse Now would have to be the all American and heroic Western Genre. The Western Genre touches upon incredibly relevant points which relate to the Vietnam conflict, or at least the Vietnam conflict's portrayal in film. The Western's favor traveling hero's who often are not entirely virtuous, against an immense and all powerful landscape, colonialism and a tribal war. This genre of film is a useful mechanism for understanding the portrayal of the Vietnam conflict within this film.

John Millius who wrote the original screenplay of Apocalypse Now was an avid fan of The Searchers and was fascinated by the leading 'bad guy' the native American known as 'Scar'. John Millius can be found in the DVD of 'The Searchers' discussing the film with poignant insights. Millius's influence from The Searchers is clear. In the original screenplay of Apocalypse Now the climax at the end sees Willard and Kurtz joining to have a Western style shootout with the Vietcong. Kurtz as an American who become 'savage' and leads a band of native tribesmen is, it seems, a part of Millius's fantasy from childhood where he dreamt about being Scar.

The reason I choose The Searchers specifically is the many parallels it draws between Apocalypse Now. One such point of significance is the history of a romantic heroism engineered by director John Ford. The conflict between the heroic romanticism and the reality of conflict and violence is no where in Apocalypse Now more evident than in the Character Killgore and the scenes in which we see him.

Willard join's Killgore to be escorted up the river, a larger than life cavalier man who sums up an old fashioned heroism portrayed in the American movie's, particularly the 'Western' genre of movies which were a part of the 40's and 50's. Killgore's presence is one which sums up the American optimism and arrogance of the hyper heroic stories and films which collectively produced and reflected America's over confident belief in it's own power and capability to win a jungle based war. To begin with, Killgore's name is an obvious sign of the blunt and brutal mentality of his heroic self-belief and that of his county. Killgore's division is an updated version of the American horseback cavalry using helicopters instead of horses. They still use a cavalry embelum and as their helicopters take off to battle a solider playing a trumpet sounds the traditional charge. Killgore is all American, a cavalry man who wears a black wide brimmed hat and even a yellow necktie, the same as American cavalry used to wear.

The brutality of the cavalry is reminiscent of John Ford's portrayals of the American cavalry. Within Ford's films the cavalry was a saving grace, unstoppable the cavalry would charge in and save the day, accompanied by the sound of the trumpet. Even the distant sound of the cavalry trumpet filled characters with hope and we know the day will be saved. However in a film such as John Ford's The Searchers Ford turns his own portrayal on its head as in this film the cavalry are naive, young, inexperienced and bloodthirsty. As the cavalry charge through a native American village they preemptively know that they wont be able to choose they're targets, in fact they aim to kill all there, women and children, armed or unarmed. This kind of portrayal is parallel to that of Killgore's attack on the Vietnamese village.

What's more is the issues that The Searchers delves into. The film is concerned with the dark side of Ethan Edwards and the tribalism of America's inhabitant's, both Native and Colonial. The film produces many parallels between Ethan Edwards and Scar showing the similarities and the hypocrisy of the American civilization over the Native people. Similarly in Apocalypse Now, in the scenes with Killgore the absurd and misguided conduct and hypocrisy of the American's is clear, and within the scenes when Willard is contemplating the journey he is aware of the hypocrisies and lies around him, as so is Kurtz.

Killgore is a hypercritical character. His black and white understanding of the conflict produces hypocritical behavior such as instances in his attack on a Vietnamese Village. At one moment he call's the inhabitants 'Savages' as they destroy an American helicopter which has landed to collect the wounded. It is no doubt a savage attack but the hypocrisy is present in Killgore's voice as he says the line with contempt and superiority; Hippo-critic as Killgore has his helicopters play Wagner's 'Ride of the Valkyries' as they come galloping in; he throws playing cards with his squadron's emblem on them onto the dead bodies of the Vietnamese, even placing one calmly in one dead mans shirt pocket. Killgore's tactics are to psychologically unnerve the Vietcong, however we can see that Killgore's tactics are also glorifications of American military might. The music of Wagner creates a film like feel to the attack within the film. This adds to the film heroism which Killgore portrays. The playing cards also suggest a game and a humor in his attitude to war. This portrayal of a modern warfare can be seen in real life, as we can now see American soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts wearing headphones and listening to music as they roll through towns in tanks. This (computer)game mentality has been noted in an interesting documentary entitled 'Generation Kill'. It seems that the media and computer games inducing individuals into a kind of Hyper Reality has left a noticeable effect on young individuals going into combat. Similarly to the recent generations of people who have grown up watching violent representations of warfare dramatized and glorified on the big screen, along with computer games of war, which all have an effect of dislocating the experience of the individual, the portrayals of young men going into Vietnam to fight, the culture of rock music and drugs, has a similar effect. The Shadow side of the Modern Western culture and it's penetration into the heart of a conflict produced or rather revealed a darkness which is at the very core of Apocalypse Now.

Apocalypse Now does offer a conclusion to the journey into the Shadow. Coppola was unsatisfied with Millius's ending to the story and wrote to create a satisfactory conclusion which answered some of the questions raised by the film, to bring the characters journey to conclusion and not to leave them in a nihilistic oblivion. Willard's emptiness, his being a hollow man, allows him to reach an understanding with Kurtz. Willard's homelessness allows him to bend to the situation and to free himself from the constraints of the systems which brought him there. Although he finishes his Military Mission, his actions are not for them but for himself and Kurtz. The outcome is only coincidentally the same as that which the military wanted. Willard's journey into the Shadow has enabled him to accept himself and to proceed with a clear vision, one with less illusions than before. This story is an ancient one, to journey onwards through the shadow that falls between stable states and escape the tyranny of stagnation.

“Where there is no strife there is decay. The mixture that is not shaken decomposes”.
Heraclitus

Lost and found: Kikuchiyo the Seventh Samurai

When viewing Akira Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai' (1954) there is one character who stands out from the rest and gradually takes over the film. This character is called Kikuchiyo and he is one of the most interesting and complex characters I have ever come across in film or literature. The factors which make Kikuchiyo memorable and the most arresting character of 'Seven Samurai' are to be the focus of this piece of writing. I will be discussing Kikuchiyo's character assuming a prier knowledge of the film so I would like to warn anyone who has not yet seen it that reading on will reveal the story and aspects of the film which will have the best impact when experienced for the first time without any prier knowledge. I notice how difficult it is for some to remember the names and their characters so I have also included a list to help readers identify the characters:

Kambei Shimada: The leader of the group
Katsushirō Okamoto: The youngest and inexperienced
Gorōbei Katayama: The Strong man. He assumes a second in command position.
Shichirōji: He was once Kambei's lieutenant and he re assumes this role.
Heihachi Hayashida: He is recruited to keep up the spirits of the group.
Kyūzō: The most skilled fighter of the group. Dedicated and serious.
Kikuchiyo: A false Samurai who proves himself within the film.

Lost and Found: Kikuchiyo the Seventh Samurai



The character of Kikuchiyo is revealed to us slowly through out the film, the more we see of him the more we like him and the more we understand his character.
Kikuchiyo's being ungrounded is the over riding factor of his character. His whole being evolves around his status and his desire to become a worthy, better version of himself. Through out the film Kikuchiyo is trying to prove himself, and this is of vital importance. For a man who has no reputation, no family, no family history, no home, no friends, there is no one to whom he has to prove himself. There is no one who cares or has any interest in his worth except for himself, and that is the most moving aspect of his character and the most revealing. Kikuchiyo wishes to prove his worth to himself and wants to be worthy of respect form those around him. His mission is a personal one, one in which he competes against himself and his personal daemons. Kikichiyo is battling his shadow self.

Kikuchiyo is not a real Samurai, he is not from an aristocratic line. He has in his possession a scroll which he claims has been passed down through his family and that he is 'Kikuchiyo'. He is reproached for this by Kambei because the scroll indicates that Kikuchiyo is thirteen years old, far too young to be the character in front of us. This suggests that not only is the so-called Kikuchiyo not a Samurai but also cannot read otherwise he would not have made such an obvious mistake. This character the so called 'Kikuchiyo' has no name as he cant remember it, therefore the group adopt the name 'Kikuchiyo' in order to have something to call him and so he is continued to be called by it. Kikuchiyo's not having a real name is significant of his being spiritually lost and it is also significant that the name which he is given is one from a boy who is from a Samurai family. This is significant because Kikuchiyo's manner is like a child's and he wishes to become a better person, to rise above his station by being a Samurai which he is not. Kikuchiyo is an orphan and this is why he cannot remember his name, he has no family and no home, no friends and no money, all he has is his false title and a giant sword which looks much to big for him. The sword is another significant object, it's size suggests that it is a symbol of the characters trying to fill boots that are too big for him. It also echo's his false status as a Samurai as the rest of the Samurai in the film have Katana's, a much smaller type of sword compared to Kikuchiyo's which is almost the size of him.
To understand Kikuchiyo's position fully we must understand a little of the society in which he lives. The story is set in 16th century Japan. In this time there was a very strict social order, whatever station you were born into was the station in which you were expected to remain forever. Kikuchiyo is an orphan who is from a farmers family. Through out the film all the farmers are woeful and lowly. They're existence is hard and unforgiving. In a scene in which the Samurai are gathered around an elderly woman who wants to die because she has nothing to live for, Kikuchiyo remarks at how he hates miserable people. This shows us how deep Kikuchiyo's inner turmoil and conflict goes. He is understanding and sympathetic to the farmers and perhaps the most passionate of all the characters in the film, yet he scorns a vulnerable old woman and attempts to dash the Samurai's attempts to comfort her. This display demonstrates his anger and frustration and his philosophical view point, he holds a kind of existential stance, unwilling to live the life he was born into he wishes to lift himself out of an unnecessarily painful and meaningless existence.



'I never want to be a worm'
-Kikuchiyo

Kikuchiyo is first presented to us as a silent and disheveled man but at the same time as a warrior. The only characters within the film who have swords are the Samurai and bandits. As the character is played by the actor Toshiro Mifune he has inherited a charisma and a domineering presence from the actor which holds the character to be a ferocious and confident individual. This character has some gestures which help us to acknowledge his characteristics. He scratches himself publicly and adopts a casual and uncouthed conduct throughout the film.
The first few scenes in which we see Kakuchiyo are worth noting as they set up our first judgments about his character and it is these first judgments which we reflect upon later in the film when we come to understand his character more.

Katsushirō Okamoto is the youngest of the Seven Samurai and is an inexperienced aristocrat. Katsushirō enters the film at the same moment as Kikuchiyo and at the same moment both characters become impressed by Kambei's heroic display in rescuing a child who is held hostage by a thief and follow him. Kikuchiyo barges his way through the peasant farmers with out so much as a glance and skulks his way around Kambi without speaking, his silence comes across as a mixture of a challenge and a shyness, it is as though Kikuchiyo would like to adopt Kambi as a mentor in the same way as Katsushirō Okamoto does but Kikuchiyo can not bring himself to ask or to admit that he requires guidance. At this moment we can compare Kikuchiyo and Katsushirō and find important similarities and differences. Katshushirō is inexperienced and young and is in need of a mentor, he is aristocratic and is willing to throw himself at the feet of Kambei and beg to be taken on as a disciple. Kikuchiyo comes across as inexperienced also, and is undisciplined. Despite being older than Katsushirō, Kikuchiyo behaves with a manner similar to a teenager. The clearest difference between Kikuchiyo and Katshushirō is their refinement and their dress. Kikuchiyo dresses more like Kambei who is a Samurai who roams as a Ronin with no master and little wealth, he travels and lives a simple life, it is unclear if he has a home or not. This can reveal to us a hint of the similarities and contrasts of the characters of Kambei and Kikuchiyo which become more noticeable further into the film. It is within this scene a fore mentioned that Kambei asks Kikuchiyo if he is a real Samurai and does not seem to believe his answer as Kikuchiyo insists that he is a samurai.

The only other character who holds a profoundness similar to Kikuchiyo is Kambei. Kambei is the leader of the group, he is the first to accept the offer from the farmers and he does so because of his kindness. Before this moment he is seen selflessly saving a child held hostage by a thief. It is within this scene where Kambei prepares to trick the thief into letting close enough to intervene by dressing as a monk and shaving his head. When Kambei's head is shaved there is a curiously long moment between himself and Kikuchiyo where both characters look at each other. This may suggest a significance to the audience that the two characters are important when examined together. Kambei is an older and high ranking Samurai. It is mentioned within the film that he had distinguished himself in war and gained ownership of a castle. His military status is noted when Shichirōji re-assumes his position as Kambei's lieutenant. He is respected throughout the film and is held as the leader due to his skill, experience, military status and reputation. These qualities are that which Kikuchiyo desires. However as the film progresses there are two notable moments where Kambei expresses his experience of being a reputable samurai. Kambei remarks how he is alone in the world and has nothing to show for his lifetime as a fighter. The second moment is at the end of the film where Kambei and the other two surviving Samurai contemplate the events of the story by the graves of the dead hero's. It is a profound scene where Kambei remarks, “we have lost again”. Kikuchiyo's desire to be a respected individual such as a samurai is reflected by the experience of Kambei who has nothing to show for his life, he is a wanderer like Kikuchiyo and has no master nor any wealth or friends/family to speak of. His life similar to the farmers is at moments bleak and empty, the very life Kikuchiyo is trying to escape.

Kikuchiyo is aware of the dualism between the farmers and the Samurai. In his emotionally delivered and passionate speech to the Samurai Kikuchiyo notes the faults of both parties. The farmers are deceitful and dishonest people who have hunted down Samurai at the end of battles to harvest their wealth and who now are relying on Samurai's compassion to save them. Whilst the Samurai who are noble and honored have fought wars and burnt down villagers and raped women causing the farmers to become deceitful and to hide their provisions and lie. Neither the farmers nor the Samurai are completely virtuous. Kikuchiyo does not pretend to have virtue, he is neither a farmer nor a Samurai, and this leaves him in some ways the most honest character of the film.

Kikuchioy's position as a farmer and Samurai leave him part from both positions. He conducts himself without Samurai decorum but also without the fear and woe of the farmer. Japans strict social structure is one which Kikuchioyo is able to transcend because of his undefinable position. He is held to no station nor code of conduct. Kikuchiyo is the embodiment of the 'fool' who is a common character in stories, being of the most lowly position as a 'fool' the character is able to reveal truth without reproach where others cannot, even truths which a respected individual might be punished for.

By the end of the film Kikuchiyo is dead and in the ground. In the last shot we see Heihachi's flag which accepts him whilst acknowledging his difference by representing him as a triangle whilst the others are circles. He is accepted as a Samurai and buried with the same status as the other four who have fallen in battle. The title of the film accepts him as a Samurai. Kikuchiyo has earned his place and has succeeded in elevating his position and reaching his potential. He his much more than an orphan of a farmers status. Kikuchiyo defined his own life and his character shows us the individual struggle with the shadow self and a chaotic world.

Scarlet the Anima

Toris Amos's album 'Scarlet's Walk' is a concept album released in 2002. The Album follows a character called 'Scarlet' who is tracking down a friend who needs her help. The journey which Scarlet takes goes all over the United States of America and the album is in fact an album about America and identity. The album has certain parallels to Janet Cardiff's 'The missing voice' in which a red haired woman follows clues around a city which is presented to the audience as an audio recording. Scarlet is 'played' by Tori Amos who has red hair and similarly to the character in 'The missing voice' who is the voice of Janet Cardiff Scarlet follows clues left by the woman she is trying to find.

In Tori Amos's Album each song represents a certain part of Scarlet's journey and this is indicated by the booklet that accompanies the album, making the work of art as a whole the entire album including case and booklet.

This Album has themes in common with ideas I had been working on for some time and I became a fan of the work listening to it often during my time working on my project in the third year. My first ideas for artwork exploring identity and the search for identity where inspired very much from this album which is why I feel it important to reference here.

The area from which I lived with my parents is in the Somerset levels, a particularly flat area of Somerset which used to be underwater until barriers where put in place and the land drained revealing a fertile moorland. I often walked sections of the Parret river whilst listening to this album infusing the work and Tori Amos personally with the memories of those journeys. The front and back cover of the album show's Tori as Scarlet stood on a long straight road in an incredibly flat land presumably in America, an image which spoke strongly to me being a person who often walks the levels in Somerset. There is a romanticism in walking a landscape and being exposed to the elements. For myself personally I moved with my family to the village Martock in Somerset when I was 11 years old, only seven miles away from the town of Yeovil where I lived previously. My romanticism began straight away as I took long trips into the countryside and searched almost daily for a female figure whom I was convinced I would find out in the countryside. This female character was a source of romance and developed to represent freedom and emotion. I continued to hold close this idea of a woman whom I believe now to be my Anima, a Jungian archetype who is represented as the opposite sex and holds characteristics which one simultaneously looks for in a partner and in them-self. My character developed as I grew older taking on the character of Kate Bush after I discovered her Music. For me Kate Bush was inextricably linked with the countryside around me and I sought to make art which could invoke the feeling which I felt from listening to her music.

As I aged and my view of women and myself changed so did my Anima, unable to remain as a pure character of virtue after my sexual development. I was introduced to Tori Amos's music through a friend who suggested her music because of my love of Kate Bush and that Tori Amos was influenced largely by Bush also. I embraced Amos and my anima changed form into the tall and sexual redhead whom stays with me today. This transition may be seen as the transition from the 'Mary' stage to the 'Sophia' stage of the anima development,the third and fourth stages. Mary is virtuous and unable to have sin attached to her and Sophia is an integration of good and bad aspects creating a well rounded character.
Until very recently when ever I imagined ideas for performances I would image how they looked in my mind and in place of myself I would have this redheaded woman. This seemed to happen without my control. I toyed with the idea briefly of bringing this character out into the world through cross-dressing and performing the persona but this idea felt very uncomfortable and according to Jungian theory the embodiment of the Anima is very unhealthy. My first performance ideas centered around a search and this is the theme I have returned too in my recent work. One significant relationship that my relationship I have with the countryside around Martock and my Anima is that of my relocation from Martock to Cardiff, from the countryside to the city. The years spent in Martock set up a foundation from which my current work is built upon. The shifting of place and the separation of myself from the landscape in which I invested so much of my emotion places Cardiff for me as a location of estrangement. The Album 'Scarlet's Walk' was recorded by Tori Amos in England despite its subject matter and story being about the United States of America. This to me seems a significant set of locations, to discuss a location as a large and powerful landscape in which one feels lost and out of place in from a location in a different and older country which has a long-standing relationship to the other.



"Can someone help me I think that I'm lost here, lost in a place called 'America'"
-Tori Amos, Wednesday in Scarlet's walk

A Candy Coloured Clown

When watching David Lynches film 'Blue Velvet' certain scenes stand out to me and to others whom I know who have watched the film. The scenes I am referring to are the scenes which make use of the Roy Orbison song 'In Dreams'. The significance of the song to the film is it's subject matter, a song about dreams and the uncanny figure of the Sandman. Within Lynches film there are many references to dreams and the sometimes threatening subconscious. Around this subject the film is full of dislocated shots and sounds which invoke a dreamlike discordance. I will not go into all of the symbolism of the film but keep myself to what is relevant to the song I have before mentioned. The scenes in which 'In Dreams' is used both involve the main character Jeffrey Beaumont and Frank Booth the main villain of the film. Frank has an unusual attachment to this song, he is moved emotionally by it and uses it as a kind of soundtrack to his own scenes, fusing the association of Frank and the song, turning Frank into a profound character, an observation I will go into in more depth momentarily.

The first time we encounter the song the song is sung by Ben played by Dean Stockwell, Ben is a drug dealer which has its significance in relation to this subject as drugs supply a passage into the subconscious, accompanied sometimes by dislocations, confusion and waking dreams. Along with his providing of the song 'In dreams' on tape, he seems a kind of personal 'medicine man' or Shaman in some sense providing Frank with art and substances which satisfy his emotional and spiritual needs. Ben is most curiously wearing a subtle white face paint, to show perhaps how debonair he is but this white face mask acts as a mask, creating a sense of mystery and uncanniness about his character similar to the Sandman of the song who also prescribes a rout into dreams and the subconscious. Beyond this the white mask is also associative of actors who embody mysterious transformations and Clowns who embody the 'trickster' persona, a Jungian archetype. The trickster archetype can be found in any culture, first being manifested in society as a Shaman or 'medicine man' (with is relevant to Ben)the Tricker is a shape-shifter. The Trickster has evolved to be embodied sometimes as a jester or clown, masked and mysterious, revealing profound truths. The song 'In dreams' begins with the line "A candy colored clown they call the Sandman" infusing the 'Sandman' and the 'clown' together, and this fusion is used in Blue velvet as a mechanism to do just that, infusing the sandman with the clowns of Frank and Ben.

The second time in the film the music is played Ben is not present, Frank has taken Jeffrey to a secluded location and before playing the song from the tape player of his car applies lipstick to his lips messily so that it covers more than his lips and kisses Jeffrey in a sexually threatening display. However the image of his painted lips is two fold, not only does his painted lips carry with it sexual overtones but it also reminds us of the white faced clown, with big red lips. Frank embodies the Trickster persona (it is interesting to note that 'Persona' is Latin for 'mask'). Frank is a nighttime figure, seen in the night time hours of the subconscious. In this very scene in a convosation in the car Frank says to Jeffrey "Your like me". Jeffrey has at this point began to behave in some instances in a similar way to Frank. This sequence paints Frank as a reflection of Jeffrey, a trickster who reveals to Jeffrey his own dark side, the sandman of nightmares.

Context and performance

The relationship between film and performance has always existed, films often have performers in them, whilst Performance artists often film their performances. On the course I am studying the most common way for a performance artist to document their work is through video, and by the end of the course in order to be assessed the performance artist will usually perform and have a DVD of their other performances and practices on display separately. The relationship between performance and film is one which has interested me since I began performing. My very first performance was not filmed or documented in any way other than in my own writing, my later work was filmed and photographed with minimal editing or manipulation, I attempted to show what the camera had captured.

Following my research into Heidegger's theory of Being which places Being as a situation always existing within a surrounding context, I view performance and film from the same stand point. No film or film maker can ever be completely neutral to the situation being filmed. I enjoyed films which made light of this point or admitted their own artifice. I noticed some performances ignored the presence of documentation and rely heavily upon documentation for advertisement and self-promotion. The audience appeared to do the same, ignoring the camera as having any significance to the works meaning, however they did not ignore it's presence as a camera, avoiding standing in it's way or standing in shot, and when in shot being noticeably self conscious of their own actions and conversation. I came across my own issues with documentation in my performances where I emptied a room, and in order for the room to be empty needed to move the camera, the problem with moving the camera out of the room is that of course without the camera there is no documentation which is required if you are performing on an art course where lecturers and examiners need to see evidence of your work. As well as this the integrity of the work would be compromised if the camera was allowed to remain within the room, treated as a transparent object.

It is important that the context in which an artwork exists is understood and taken note of. In the case of my work the context of the location in which my work is performed and my vocation as a fine art student creates a context for the artwork. My actions have focused upon the preparatory actions for performance, mainly cleaning the room I use to restore it's white cube status, a process which is specific to my university's M.A.P department's etiquette and practice. I find that actions which have a clear aim tend to be actions which are ubiquitous such as cleaning a room. A person tends to act in a certain way within the available script of the current social parameters they find them self in. In other words one only does what one does, so actions which have a practical aim seem to work very well. A practical and 'regular' action placed at the start of a perform seems too ease people into the work, adjusting the lens and creating a narrative and context which is assessable by the audience and which set up the next actions which may not be so recognizable or understandable. In my Cleaning performances the starting action is reflected by the ending action which is also to clean the room, emphasizing the temporality of the work and erasing it's own trace until all that is left of the work is a clean room which as a trace is indistinguishable from the white cube room. Recently I have been developing ideas of performing for film, and displaying the films as the only way for an audience to view the actions as the performances will have no audience. The film displaces the work in space and time allowing the viewer to engage with an 'after image' of the work, degraded and removed from reality into an electronic retrospective.

Film and performance are themselves glimpses into a persons life or soul. I have already in a previous post discussed John Ford's film 'The Searchers' and the bracketing scenes similar to those used in Orson Well's 'Citizen Kane'. My cleaning actions are a parallel to these, creating a clear 'begging' and 'end' to the audiences experience of the performance although the performance itself has been going on before and continues after. The Searchers is most relevant for these scenes because of the search that the main character embarks upon and the search which continues after the end of the film. I wanted my performance to continue, as the feeling and subject it is based upon does, allowing the audience a small glimpse into a personal journey.

The Red Shoes (1948)

The Powell and Pressburger film 'The Red Shoes' (1948) has an interesting sequence in it. The film evolves around a dancers role in 'The red shoes' ballet and her love which is torn between to men. The sequence I am mentioning is a chapter of the film in which 'The red shoes' ballet is performed in front of a theatre audience. I first came across this scene by itself without watching the rest of the film which came before or after. By watching this scene and not the rest of the film I was fascinated by what I thought was a short film about the story of the red shoes. The scene begins with an man in the audience opening a theatre guide which contained the cast and crew, including photographs which I assumed where the real names, people and photographs of the actors within this 'short film' as I took this peek into a theatre guide to be the credits of the film. The ballet is filmed with shots of lights on stands at the sides of the stage, sound and film editing and special effects such as superimposition. I took this to be a film which did nothing to hide the fact that it was a film. To take this scene in such a way based upon some incorrect assumptions this sequence was to me fascinating and a very powerful work of art utilizing the techniques of theatre and film to create one work of art beautifully executed. Even to ignore my incorrect interpretation of this scene it remains a part of film which stands up as a work of art. My incorrect interpretation of this extract of the film lead me to experience it in a way which created through misunderstanding a new and unique experience of this extract. This unique experience of viewing was based upon a situation which was created in my mind and conjoined with the film I was watching. It is this chance misinterpretation which endears this moment to me.

The visuals of the film are stunning. The ballet's music makes up the only sounds of the scene, we watch the main character move upon the stage in silence and silently dance into a dream like sequence where the films special effects come into play much more. The characters decent off of the stage and into a dream world represents her complete rapture in the role she is performing, internalizing the story and performance to give a convincing performance. The scene was for me about an actresses engagement with a role whilst she performs. Indeed now knowing the full film and story this scene is still the case, we see an actress using personal emotions and experience coupled with situations and charters in the ballet to invoke a more genuine performance.
The shots of the stage lights behind the curtains and the gradual integration of film techniques with the ballet following my incorrect assumption, would show that the film was made to reveal that it is a film, reminding the audience that they are not watching a ballet but watching a film of a ballet, a cut and edited film of a ballet which was produced and performed solely for the film.

Improvisational Collaboration

In order to expand my artistic practice I embarked upon an improvisation performance with Owen Lawrance. Owen's work had focused upon performance and mainly, audio work. I was interested in how Owen's sound work would effect my actions within the space in which we performed. We worked for a day in the 'Sculpture Instillation room', all the decisions we where to make regarding the work and it's set up where not discussed before hand, we both agreed than we should move in the objects and materials we wanted to work into the room and start from there. Owen set up his sound equipment which consisted of two speakers, an amplifier, mixing desk, and microphone in the corner of the room opposite the camera we had set up to document the work. Owen's set up was compact and defensive, he had created a space for me to perform in quite separately to his corner of sound work. During the performance because of Owen's amplified sounds a small crowd gathered to watch and soon disbanded, I can only imagine because they found no entertainment or artistic value in what we where doing. The performance began slowly as a dialogue between artist and material and a dialogue between myself and Owen began to form. Owen branched out of his corner to involve himself in the rest of the space and materials eventually after bordering off his area with soil and salt.

One audience member and fellow M.A.P artist Rob Offord stayed for much of the duration. Rob's review of the work highlighted aspects of the work which had a particular relation to the audience. Rob's continued presence in the room lead to our involving him with some of our actions. By the end of the performance myself and Owen had sat quiet and still upon an island of soil contemplating the performance and experiencing a scene of emotion created by a liberation that comes from acting impulsively, I felt an unease in leaving Rob to stand apart from us in the room as a passive onlooker and invited him to sit with us which he did.

Rob reviewed the performance to us afterwards remarking that as an onlooker and following the conventions of the M.A.P audiences he had tried to avoid effecting the work, but once bags of soil had been tipped empty and the fine soil particles had covered the room Rob found it impossible to move without changing the material. As the soil had effected the entire room the audience was no longer separate to the performance and found themselves participating actively with the performance than passively as they had done before. This was a point which brought to light my previous performance of cleaning in which the audience moved around me as I moved around the space to clean. My following performances also included actions and set ups which forced the audience into positions which kept them from sticking to the wall farthest away from the performance.