Apocalypse Now Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: Apocalypse Now
Year: 1979
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Country: US
Language: English

I have seen Francis Ford Coppola's great works like The Godfather and The Godfather Part II and I have seen the great Vietnam films of our time such as Oliver Stone's Platoon and Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter, but oddly enough I have never seen Coppola's Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now until a few days ago. Why have I avoided it? I can't recall. Like Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, this is a film that nearly destroyed the filmmaker and the crew involved. The stories about the making of this film are so enticing an entire documentary called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse was made about it.

The film is set during the height of the Vietnam war U.S. Army Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is sent by Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford) and a General to carry out a mission that, officially, 'does not exist - nor will it ever exist'. The mission: To seek out a mysterious Green Beret Colonel, Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando), whose army has crossed the border into Cambodia and is conducting hit-and-run missions against the Viet Cong and NVA. The army believes Kurtz has gone completely insane and Willard's job is to eliminate him..."with extreme prejudice".

Francis Ford Coppola should be applauded for his efforts in creating this film. He risked his house, his family, his money, his career and his life in the hopes that he could actually complete this astonishing epic. His shooting schedule went from 6 months to 16 months, he went over budget, his lead actor had a heart attack and Marlon Brando was incredibly difficult to work with. Coppola was edge of insanity due to the stress of making this film, he pushed himself harder than any-man should and contemplated suicide far too often. He pushed the creative envelope whereas most directors might have either a) given up or b) compromise their film by working in a studio.

Coppola's directing makes you feel as if you're actually in the Vietnam war. Everything is realistic, everything mirrors the insanity of the Vietnam war. All innocence has been thrown out the window, death is everywhere. Every scene is important and incredibly well made. Even the first improvised scene where Willard has an emotional breakdown is quite impactful and leaves a lasting impression.I found the homage to D.W Griffith's controversial Birth of a Nation quite amusing, instead of the KKK riding horses there are Americans flying helicopters about to kill some Vietnamese.

In conclusion, I wish I could say something about the philosophy within Apocalypse Now but the film will take a few days to digest and this is probably a film I will have to see quite a few more times in the next few weeks. It is better than most "war" films I have seen, because this isn't necessarily about a physical battle but a battle of the mind and of the soul. It is one of the finest American films that I have ever seen. The acting by Martin Sheen is haunting and spellbinding, while I didn't buy Brando as entirely evil, I certainly bought him as an American soldier gone completely mad. Praise it! 5/5