Apocalypse Now (1979)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenplay by: John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola

Genre: Action | Drama | War
Running Time: 202 Minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Viewed: Owned DVD

The horror... The horror...

[IMDb]

Comments: If I had to make a list of my favorite films, a good portion of them would be extremely depressing films. While I enjoy lighthearted fare, a serious drama that leaves me feeling like I was hit by a truck always does the trick. I can remember exactly where I was when I first watched films like The Deer Hunter, Requiem for a Dream, Donnie Darko, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. Well, maybe not the last one so much. Anyway, Apocalypse Now is one of those films. I must have listened to The Doors' song "The End" ten straight times after I first watched the movie (as I am now). Apocalypse Now is truly a surreal nightmare, with so many strange and insane things happening. It is most definitely not a typical war film. We follow Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) and his escorts (including a young Laurence Fishburne) as they sail up the Nung River into enemy territory on a mission to kill Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Along the way, they meet Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), as he orders men to surf on a barely secured beach while still taking Vietcong fire (he also utters two of the movie's most famous lines: "Charlie don't surf!" and "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!"). Along the way, the group encounters total chaos as many outposts have no commanding officer, and soldiers are both losing touch and anything they learned before shipping out. I was born many years after the Vietnam War, and while many things that Willard encounters seem far-fetched, I can see it happening. Soldiers are stuck in a war with no end in sight, it seems logical that chaos would ensue. The same problem plagues The Deer Hunter, when people argue that Russian Roulette was never practiced on prisoners of war. Still, the movie is incredibly powerful, as is Apocalypse Now. This is the first time I have watched the Redux version, as I was always worried that the extra footage would alter my perspective of the film. While the film now is over three hours long, it is still excellent. Apocalypse Now easily has a place on my list of favorite films.