Review of Apocalypse Now (1979) by Osh — 22 Dec 2012

Apocalypse Now was bizarre, and I didn't understand it or enjoy it. I got the feeling that it was supposed to be the skewed memories of a mentally ill soldier's experiences in the Vietnam War, and it was somewhat interesting in that light, but that aspect didn't keep me interested for the entire two-and-a-half-hour running time.

It was slow, weird, and boring at parts, and at others it was too fast and saturated with ridiculous action shots. The entire thing, though, was confusing to me. Every character seemed to act so strangely with no given explanation as to why, and while this would make sense if the movie was indeed shown through the eyes of a madman (or if everyone was a madman), it was still be frustrating to watch.

There were also lots of fireworks posing as rockets and gunfire, and there was a good deal of cheesy synthesizer music that didn't help the movie. I couldn't find much to actually enjoy or appreciate in Apocalypse Now.

I seem to be a small minority in my opinion of this film, I do realize, but I just want to make my voice heard so new viewers don't think that this movie's supposed "universal acclaim" is actually universal.