A Tribute to Photography and the Movies

The Ten Best Movies About PhotographersNo. 5Apocalypse Now, 1979
I'm not sure I can make the case that this movie is actually about photography, because to this day I can't really tell you what it is about. Yes, there is one indelible image after another-images that somehow bind together the disjointed plot, like the imagery of dreams. But for me the movie boils down to a series of supporting performances: Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, smelling napalm in the morning; Frederic Forrest as "Chef" Hicks, chased out of the jungle by a tiger; and of course Dennis Hopper as the photojournalist, as mad as the war he is lost in. Despite that, he, like all photographers, is both an observer and an oracle.