Apocalypse Now and Then

You don’t speak about Apocalypse Now in the same breath as La Dolce Vita. One takes place in the jungles of Vietnam, the other the Via Veneto. The famous scene of Anita Ekberg frolicking in the Trevi fountain is a far cry from Southeast Asia. What the two movies have in common are helicopters. One famously comporting the statue of Jesus over Rome's Aqueduct Park, the other an enormous predatory bird,  a vulture circling the Heart of Darkness (the "Ride of the Valkyries" scene). In fact both movies herald the decline of civilization, holding out the subliminal hope, facetious or not, of a Second Coming and redemption. Colonialism, materialism excess and exploitation make for a toxic cocktail. You might equate the good life with apocalypse or the reverse. Both lead to oblivion.

read "Rome Journal: Aqueduct Park" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and listen to the "Ride of the Valkyries" from Apocalypse Now