Review of Apocalypse Now (1979) by Jc E — 22 Jul 2016

An absolute masterpiece. Having just enjoyed Band of Brothers´s conventional warfare during the WWII, Apocalypse Now gave me an entirely new experience by visiting the insane jungle and guerrilla warfare in Vietnam.

Despite the obviously choreographed chaos for spectacular effects visually, sound wise, the horrors of war in Vietnam is many times darker and more gruesome. While WW2 was still still a time of segregation and the army was white, we see many black soldiers in the Vietnam war reminding us that time has moved forward.

While soldiers fought with more purpose in WW2, the GIs during the Vietnam war fought aimlessly against chaos, madness, darkness and without redemption. Unlike WW2, the so called enemy ´gooks´did not wear recognisable uniforms and therefore cannot be differentiated from civilians.

Consequently, indiscriminate killing of civilians resulted in extreme human tragedy and turning the US soldiers into unforgivable demons. The question of ´why why why were the US soldiers in Vietnam fighting who we would not consider any enemy today´.

The movie was a great display of American brazen stupidity and arrogant display of their gross atrocity against the indigenous natives who they massacred indiscriminately. Anchoring this awesome film was the giant Marlon Brando.

His greater than life persona commanded undivided attention in the last 30 minutes of the movie. I have no idea why Martin would Kill Marlon even after acquainting himself with a man who lost faith in the US army for all the atrocities he had witnessed and experienced.

Where trigger happy men have gone berserk with fear and command and control had broken down.