Review of Apocalypse Now (1979) by Grant S — 28 Jan 2016

A masterpiece - one of the greatest movies ever made.

Vietnam, 1967. An elite soldier, Captain Willard (played by Martin Sheen), is sent on a top secret mission to "terminate with extreme prejudice" Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Colonel Kurtz is a US Army officer who has apparently gone insane and is fighting his own war from within Cambodia with an army of native soldiers. To find Kurtz, Willard sets off down the river on a patrol boat...

Searingly brilliant. As a story alone this movie is fantastic. Superb plot with some iconic scenes (eg Ride of the Valkyries), great, quotable dialogue (eg Napalm in the morning, The Horror) and some very funny lines ("Charlie don't surf!").

Director Francis Ford Coppola expertly builds the tension. The movie starts off quite light-heartedly - the first third or so of the movie is quite funny, especially anything involving Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall). It is actually over-the-top funny (eg surfing in the middle of a fire fight), which might seem strange but shows you the insanity of war and soldiers at war, and prepares you for what comes later.

As the movie goes on it becomes much darker. Coppola slowly tightens the rope around the viewer's neck, until the intensity is suffocating. By the end you're in the middle of a nightmare, a hell on earth. This demonstrates the slow progression from balanced soldier to insane maniac.

So many deeper issues tackled along the way: the duality of man, good vs evil, the morality of war and why the US lost in Vietnam.

Excellent performances from Sheen, Brando and Duvall. Duvall received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance. Good support from a cast that includes Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford and Laurence Fishburne.

One thing: regarding the Redux version (the 2001 director's cut which included 43 extra minutes), its add-on scenes are of mixed value. Some are great - anything involving Colonel Kilgore / Robert Duvall is definitely a win as his character is comedy gold. Some parts of the French plantation scene are very useful, and give you a clue to where the US is going with the war and why they will lose it, but some of it feels like padding. The entire Medevac scene (with the Playboy bunnies) is unnecessary.

So a bit hit-and-miss. Overall the extra scenes probably enhance the movie, slightly.