The fascinating ‘Apocalypse now’ reference in Todd Field film ‘Tár’
The 2023 Oscars has an impressive lineup of ‘Best Picture’ nominees, with the Academy picking a diverse range of movies from different genres and backgrounds. Included alongside the WWI flick All Quiet on the Western Front, multiverse romance Everything, Everywhere All at Once, and $2billion-earning blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water, among others, is the complex Todd Field drama Tár starring Cate Blanchett.
An enigmatic Kubrickian masterpiece, Field’s film takes place in Berlin and follows the fictional pianist, ethnomusicologist and composer Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. A neurotic artist with a passion for control, Tár carefully curates her public image, despite the legal battle she is fighting behind the scenes that will soon take over her life.
As well as ‘Best Picture’, Field’s film is also nominated for ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Original Screenplay’, ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Actress’ for Blanchett, whose powerhouse performance drives the intense character study.
Though the film’s marketing sells the film as something of a dark thriller, Tár is more like a gloomy psychological drama in reality, telling the story of a woman stuck in an identity crisis who steadily loses control of her public image. Discussing the ceaseless art vs artist debate, talking about the contemporary culture wars and the rapidly changing ideals of modern society, Tár constantly references back to the world of popular entertainment.
One surprising reference comes when the film draws a veiled comparison between itself and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 classic Apocalypse Now. Occurring towards the end of the film, when Lydia Tár travels to the Philippines sometime after her legal case and public scandal, the scene comes when she takes a boat trip down a river with a couple of locals. Dipping her hand in the water, she is quickly prompted to remove it due to the crocodiles.
“A Marlon Brando movie” brought the reptiles to the river, as stated by a young man in the boat, a reference to the 1979 film shot in the Philippines. This seemingly strange reference links the insanity at the heart of Field’s central character to the same madness in Apocalypse Now’s protagonist, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a Special Forces renegade who sees himself as a god.
Brando’s Kurtz isn’t the only one who sees himself as an omniscient god-like figure, with Lydia Tár suffering with the same over-inflated ego. Indeed, Kurtz’s famous monologue, which reads, “Horror has a face…and you must make a friend of horror,” isn’t all that dissimilar from Tár’s own view, “You must, in fact, stand in front of the public and God and obliterate yourself,” with both affirmations relating to championing life’s most existential challenges.
Field’s comparison between Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and his own film is a neat one, helping the viewer to understand the true heart of darkness of Lydia Tár.
