Review of Apocalypse Now (1979) by George-Roots — 24 Jun 2013

Anyone reading this now is reading my full honest review of this legendary picture, and while the original is classic the Redux is Legend...

Obviously any film enthusiast can agree that "Apocalypse Now" is essentially a War film like no other.

A tense hullucinogenic, physically exhausting movie which can be only be described as part War, part something that doesn't really have a Genre, Apocalypse Now is something indescribable unless you see it and even then it's hard to put into words, as Roger Ebert said in a statement too true: "Longer or shorter, redux or not, Apocalypse Now is one of the central events of my life as a filmgoer".

Again one thing I love about this movie is the success it had after going against all odds in Pre-Production, for those who don't know Brando showed up way too overweight and was reportedly very hard to work with and would require a body double, Martin Sheen had a Heart Attack at the age of 36 and returned to work a month later, What would be a 16-week shooting took over 239 days of torture, Typhoon Olga destroyed many expensive sets, extras and crew all got malaria and disease, Sam Bottoms (The actor who plays Lance) was constantly on drugs while shooting, Martin Sheen's brother did half of the Voice-Over Narrative due to his Brother's Sickness, the killing of the water buffalo attracted obvious animal protection laws, the ending was re-written countless times, Coppola had to make a film out of 2300 hours of recorded footage and of course for obvious reasons Francis Ford Coppola threatened suicide countless times.

That's just a handful of problems and stuff that happened (if you're interested in learning more go watch his wife's Documentary about the movie, "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmaker's Apocalypse").

Finally beginning the movie Hellicopters fly across a burning jungle all while "The End The Doors" plays out, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is Drunk, Drugged out and wasting away in a room in Saigon (Anyone anctious to know this was shot on Martin's 36th Birthday who actually WAS drunk and drugged out, he told Copolla to film what was happening and leave him to it, what happened as you saw he actually broke the mirror, bled out then reportedly attacked Francis, who's crew were so frightened they wanted to stop yet Coppola ordered to continue.).

Being called upon by Generals (most notably a cameo by Harrison Ford under the name General. Lucas "wink") he is ordered to exterminate "with extreme prejudice" General Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando), A Green Barret who's literally gone off the deep end.

What follows is Willard's mission up the Vietnamese river on the boat narrating his views on the war and Kurtz in the Dossier given to him questioning his respect for Kurtz as well as his mission.

With his crew (among them Laurence Fishburne's first role), there all of them witness the horrors of the war and a vital lesson: Never get off the boat.

On their journey they encounter kind,yet nutcase Seargent. Kilgore (a manic performance by Robert Duvall) who utters my favourite quote "I love the smell of napalm in the morning, A Tiger, Playboy Bunnies (including real-life playmate of the Year Cynthia Wood) A Sanpan, abandoned troops, the French (In a mansion scene which should have stayed out the redux) and finally at the "Heart of Darkness" (arriving at Kurtz's location).

Arriving at the location where Kurtz is, is like jumping into a whole new movie, the natives see Kurtz as a God-like figure who constantly offer his views on life, war and everything in general one person who takes it too literally is an american photographer known only as "the photojournalist" (an expertly casted Dennis Hopper), Seeing Kurtz for the first time is probably one of the most chilling, tense, surreal moments in Motion Picture History.

The ending reflects the beginning with "The End" blaring out again as well as luckily being able to hear Kurtz's view like we did Willard's.

Not giving away the ending it is, in the sickest sense beautiful, unexplainable, and left me as physically exhausted as the soldiers (It should be noted that many people who have seen it have declared it so very accurate to how it was like experiencing Vietnam.

Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando are unforgetable characters, Sheen to me represents the every day soldier, ultimately he decides to just go with the flow and do what is neccesary to survive no matter how truly horrible it is. Brando on the other hand playing such a high ranking officer has seen more and therefore lost all hope for humanity and above all himself, making me wonder at the end will Willard be destined to follow in Kurtz's footsteps?...

Aside from that everything is just incredible, the supporting actors, the destroyed jungle, villages, vehicles "The Attack of the Valkyries" helicopter Scene is something I don't think i'll ever forget and though the Redux is in a sense too extended for it's own good, it will forever be a question to me what my opinion would be had I seen the original version first.

Final Verdict: Francis Ford Coppola Thank you, Thank you Sir for one of the greatest experiences me as a film fan and movie goer could possibly have. there's really no way to end this review due to it's magnitude, but please do see this movie as soon as, it's so incredibly hard to find on DVD in the UK and that's wierd considering it just had a sudden re-release in theatres last April.