User reviews

As I stated above, I think that the 2000 version of the film ought to be treated separately. The Redux is not just a longer version. It contains two new and important scenes, and one of them, the "french" episode, adds a whole new touch to a classic movie, WITHOUT breaking the atmosphere or disturbing the overall picture. I remember as I saw the Redux for the first time, that my whole understanding of the war in Vietnam changed, and how I had to go to the library and get an update on a few things. Also it is interesting that Coppola chose the year 2000 for the longer Redux. My guess is that he feels that the movie is as important today as it was back in 1979. He even went to the trouble of making an excellent piece of art even better, in order to actually make all the old fans see the new stuff, and to present a whole new generation with a very controversial and strong comment on one of the most bloody wars in recorded history. The movie is thought-provoking indeed, but also it has a visually very beautifully composed screenplay. Capturing the madness and chaos of war the storyline is also filled with more or less obvious metaphors and philosophical or existential riddles. A friend of mine called it "the most philosophical of all movies" - perhaps an overstatement - in my opinion it is just a very good film about war and the politics of war. But I can see that there is plenty for everyone here. What I'm saying is that it's one of those movies that you are likely to hear distinctly different opinions about, and you are most probably going to think again and again about it. I've seen the Redux 5, 6 or 7 times, and it is always a puzzling experience. Highly recommended.

My favourite movie of all time. This was a flawed piece of work by Coppola and seeing the documentary 'Heart of Darkness' made it even more compelling. Coppola at this point was king of Hollywood after making 'the Godfather' and 'GodfatherII' and had developed the ego necessary to even dare try to make a movie like 'Apocalypse Now'. Through sheer arrogance he went to the Phillipines with a partial script and thought he would know what he would do when he got there. Just as Captain Willard thought he would know what to do once he got to Col. Kurtz's compound. And just like Willard, he DIDN'T know what he was going to do once he got there. This is such a masterpiece of American cinema, beautifully photographed and the river is such a perfect metaphor and backdrop for the story. What I like most about 'Apocalypse Now' is that it offers no answers or conclusions. Consequently, because of this open-endedness, it infuriates some viewers who like their movies to be much more obvious.

This movie defies categorization. Some call it a war movie which it isn't at all, really it is more of a personal study of man. The best pic about Vietnam is 'Platoon' in my opinion and if a viewer is seeking a retelling of the Vietnam War go there first for answers.

Coppola should be commended for his take on the bureaucracy of war which he conveys quite effectively with the meeting with Gen.Corman and Lucas (Harrison Ford) and the Playmate review. The sheer audacity of Kilgore makes him an unforgettable character and the dawn attack will always be a Hollywood classic.

It is an almost psychedelic cruise to a very surreal ending which makes it a movie not accessible to everyone. Very challenging to watch but rewarding as well. I could offer my explanations on each scene but that would be totally pointless. This movie is intended for interpretation and contemplation as opposed to immediate gratification.

A little footnote, definitely if your a first-time viewer of Apocalypse Now, watch the original version first, the 'Redux' version is, I think, more intended for the hardcore fan and is more of a curiosity than a 'new and improved' version of the movie

Apocalypse Now is an interesting film, not because it is supposedly an anti-war film, but because it is surreal and shows an interesting journey into madness.

Martin Sheen gives us an insight into his character here and we see the senselessness of the whole situation and how easy it is to lose yourself in certain situations.

We follow his journey and the various events that befall him and a small group of soldiers in a patrol boat traveling deep into the jungle. On their way, really bizarre things happen.

Along the way, we also see Robert Duvall in the role of a completely insane officer, whose episodic role has a profound impact on the film.

The film should essentially be anti-war, but it didn't strike me as such, but simply as a film about the fate of various people who found themselves in unusual situations.

Their whole mission doesn't really make sense, and in the end they accomplished nothing, but that's the point. Everything was really in vain.

The direction is excellent, the music is perfectly integrated into the film and matches the tone of the film.

For me, this is a film about the loss of reason and the journey to madness. If civilization completely collapses, and somewhere it has already collapsed a long time ago, this is roughly what we can expect, madness and insanity.

I watched three versions of the film and I liked the Redux version the best.

An interesting and brutal journey into madness and darkness.

I first saw APOCALYPSE NOW in 1985 when it was broadcast on British television for the first time . I was shell shocked after seeing this masterpiece and despite some close competition from the likes of FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING this movie still remains my all time favourite nearly 20 years after I first saw it

This leads to the problem of how I can even begin to comment on the movie . I could praise the technical aspects especially the sound , editing and cinematography but everyone else seems to have praised ( Rightly too ) these achievements to high heaven while the performances in general and Robert Duvall in particular have also been noted , and everyone else has mentioned the stark imagery of the Dou Long bridge and the montage of the boat traveling upriver after passing through the border

How about the script ? Francis Ford Coppola is best known as a director but he's everyway a genius as a screenwriter as he was as a director , I said " was " in the past tense because making this movie seems to have burned out every creative brain cell in his head , but his sacrifice was worth it . In John Milius original solo draft we have a script that's just as insane and disturbing as the one on screen , but Coppola's involvement in the screenplay has injected a narrative that exactly mirrors that of war . Check how the screenplay starts off all jingoistic and macho with a star turn by Bill Kilgore who wouldn't have looked out of place in THE GREEN BERETS but the more the story progresses the more shocking and insane everything becomes , so much so that by the time reaches Kurtz outpost the audience are watching another film in much the same way as the characters have sailed into another dimension . When Coppola states " This movie isn't about Vietnam - It is Vietnam " he's right . What started off as a patriotic war to defeat communist aggression in the mid 1960s had by the film's setting ( The Manson trial suggests it's 1970 ) had changed America's view of both the world and itself and of the world's view of America

It's the insane beauty of APOCALYPSE NOW that makes it a masterwork of cinema and says more in its running time about the brutality of conflict and the hypocrisy of politicians ( What did you do in the Vietnam War Mr President ? ) than Michael Moore could hope to say in a lifetime . I've not seen the REDUX version but watching the original print I didn't feel there was anything missing from the story which like all truly great films is very basic . In fact the premise can lend itself to many other genres like a western where an army officer has to track down and kill a renegade colonel who's leading an injun war party , or a sci-fi movie where a UN assassin is to eliminate a fellow UN soldier who's leading a resistance movement on Mars , though this is probably down to Joseph Conrad's original source novel

My all time favourite movie and it's very fitting that I chose this movie to be my one thousandth review at the IMDb

As I peruse through the hundreds of comments that loyal readers of the IMDB have posted on this film, I find it very interesting how few ,"middle of the road" comments there are. Everyone either loves it, or they hate it. Having seen Apocalypse Now approximately 30 times, and having recently dissected it on DVD (how did we ever live without those magical digital machines?????), I can say without hesitation that I am one of those who have a very special place in my heart for this film. "Why would you like a film that's so confusing?" ask many of my associates. The answer is this: Forget the war, forget the brutality....This is a classic story of society protecting itself from those that refuse to fall in line with the status quo. Brando represents the individual that has his own way of getting the job done. They (Big Brother) sent him out to do the job, he does it too well, without adhering to the accepted "standards" of death and destruction (Am I the only one who's troubled by the fact that we have 'standards' for death and destruction????), so they send the "Conformity Police" out to eliminate the individual. Hmmmmmm....Draw any parallels between this and things you see every day? With the deepest respect to Mr. Coppola, whom I believe is one of the best directors of all time, I think he transcended his original intent of the movie, and probably didn't even realize it until after the movie was released. The subtle sub-text that permeates the entire movie has way too much to it to have been planned and portrayed; instead, it seems to have 'grown' itself, like some wild flower in the middle of a vegetable garden. Again I must reiterate: I think FF Coppola did a bang-up job on this entire production, as did the cast and crew, but the sum of the movie exceeds the individual efforts ten-fold. So if you haven't seen the movie, rent it, watch it, then watch it again, and maybe a few more times, and look for all the generic parallels to everyday life. Only then make a judgment on the quality of the film. Those of you that have seen it, watch it again with the mindset previously described. I think you may just have a whole new appreciation for the film. Or maybe not! No matter whether you love it or hate it, be sure and give credit to Coppola for his masterful story-telling style!

Top 20 war movie

in Redux they added long scenes that changed tempo of movie. The one at the plantation didn't work well in context. What a great film!

This movie changed the art of film making, telling a complex story in a powerful new way. The film mixes brutal realism with fantasy, intercutting a modern war with strange scenes full of technicolour smoke. The film uses music not as a score laid in later, but as a practical part of the scene playing from speakers, radios etc. Coppola uses a classic piece of literature as inspiration, taking scenes and characters, and putting them into entirely different surroundings. That is a tricky and brave thing to do. Then he takes a superstar, Brando, pays him a fortune, and films him so that you can barely see his face. The pure guts that such a move requires is astounding, and it works beautifully. This movie belongs in the top ten.

Apocalypse Now is not only my personal favorite work by Francis Ford Coppolla, it's also one of the great visions ever put onto cinema. It makes what was horrific, strange, and ironically exciting and mysterious about the Vietnam War into this mad tale of obsession, death, loss, and the dark side of humanity. While the stories behind the production of the film made it notorious and rather risky back in 1979, it works on its own terms and represents not just Coppola's genius but others in the Zoetrope team as well. It also paints a sometimes lurid, ultra-violent, bleak and curious view of what war does to people, both in the lower ranks, the big-guns, and those who go too far "up the river".

Many have also been perplexed by Marlon Brando's performance in the film, but it's actually one of his very best turns on screen, albeit improvised and close to running off the rails. His few moments on screen (even in the somewhat unnecessary scene plopped into the Redux version) there's enough conviction in what he's saying- and what perhaps isn't said- that makes the trip down the river worthwhile on an intellectual and poetic level. And making up the bulk of the film are delirious turns by Robert Duvall (a Oscar nominated turn he should've won), Martin Sheen as the Captain with almost too much to ponder in an ever increasing state of everything but him being insane; character actors like Sam Bottoms, Frederic Forrest and 14 year-old Laurence Fishburne have some of the best work they've ever done. And it goes without saying that Dennis Hopper comes close to stealing any scene he's in, for better or worse, with the most to say in rambling, yet coherent words.

Every time I watch this film (and mostly the original version which is what first drew me in completely as opposed to the very good if muddled Redux version) I am astounded with how operatic everything is, and how the variations on the madness and chaos of Vietnam is put together. Of course one can give adulation to Coppola for this as he completed it without totally going off the deep end or possibly dying, and his talents are pulled to their richest peaks here as a storyteller and director of actors. But it can't be said enough how much I can't get enough of Vittorio Storaro's cinematography, which has in part come close to perfect for this kind of epic film. The music is perfectly eerie and insidious, with the Doors song used for one of my favorite iconic scenes in the movies (both of them). Walter Murch's editing- which apparently was what saved the film from being a four-hour disaster- makes the action move when it needs to and for individual shots to get their due. And even the production design is remarkable and, to the extent it goes to, original in its partial translation of both Conrad's fiction and the unfortunate realities of life on the river.

If you haven't seen it yet, in short, get off your ass and get a copy; it might cause a kind of shell-shock for a viewer after first taking it all in, but it has some of the purest, most rewarding bits of cinema ever to come out of that all-too-brief American new-wave of the 1970's.

Brilliant actors and brilliant picture!! I love the chopper scene with the music in the beginning, it is just SO touching and at the same time real but at the same time surrealistic! The Vietnam War was far from human and I believe this movie kind of shows have terrible human beings can act under certain circumstances. Modern war movies are spending so much money on effects. This is just a straight forward smart movie that takes you beyond your imagination. A movie that really pictures evil and hate mixed in fearness and fate. How insane the world is and the power of will and friendship, love and passion. A must seen movie and without any doubts the best war movie ever! Many tried to copy but still there are no movie even close as good as this!!

Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is given an assignment to eliminate renegade and possibly insane Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). He takes a Navy PBR and her crew up the Nung River to find Kurtz's base in Cambodia.

This is a vision of nightmare that I could never forget. More than any other movie, there are scenes here that are seared into my memory. Rarely do I give 10/10. This is one movie where I gave a 10 without reservations. There are more iconic, original and impressive scenes here than any modern movie. There is no CGI, just real movie making. Director Francis Ford Coppola used his reputation after the two Godfather movies, and risked it all for this movie. You can tell he left it all on the screen.

Somewhere on IMDb there is a discussion about the greatest director of all times (Spielberg, Copolla and others are named there). The greatest argument was around Spielberg and whether he is or isn't a great director. The problem with Spielberg is that while he is a master technician, most of his films lack depth.Saving Ryan is really outstanding from a technical point of view, but its message is dull and while its very entertaining, it doesn't make you think about anything. AN is the best movie I ever saw because it combines great shooting with a deep philosophical perspective on so many things, starting from war in general, the clash of civilizations, the condition of soldier in wartimes (is a soldier a hero or an assassin? Brando says he is neither, the french lady says he is both ...) and many others. The problem with some people is that they try to argue about whether these points are true or false. But a great movie, and a great piece of art in general is supposed to spark arguments, not to solve them ... Maybe Coppola is right, or maybe he isn't, nobody holds the truth anyway. You can watch this movie for its outer beauty, amazing scenes, great acting and memorable quotes and you will be entirely satisfied. But what really make this movie a masterpiece is its inner quality. You can't help but make a comparison with the recent Fahrenheit documentary.Both Copolla and Moore tackle similar issues, but while Copolla presents matters from an outside , objective point of view, Moore takes a very partisan position that really compromises the whole point of a documentary ... It is really a shame that a film like Fahrenheit 9/11 won a prestigious award like Cannes. But anyway, if you want to start to understand a little of the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, the second World War and any war in general, you should definitely see this movie, and not the other one ...

From all of the Vietnam war movies this is probably the most frightening and disturbing and that is really saying a lot with so many spectacular ones that have come out. It has this freakish feel to it. Everything is so chaotic in the movie it scares you. It is not like it shows a lot of different things compared to the other Vietnam war movies. What does push to such a high level is the:

The directing was spectacular here. Francis Ford Coppola shows of his talent in his last epic movie. Unlike other directors he makes you feel as if you are in the war. Most others just display and show you the horrors of war. Coppola though makes you feel confused, shocked and scared. These feelings of war are usually told to us from a movie or story. This is something that I have only experienced very few times while watching a film. The writing was of course amazing too. It brought you write into the middle of the movie. It never made me bored and this movie is three hours. The cinematography goes hand in hand with the directing which very much added to the freakish experience of watching this film showing all the chaos around you even when everything seems calm.

The acting was bone-chilling. Just look at Marlon Brando also giving his last great performance playing a deluded, out of whack colonel. When ever I think of a crazy gone made soldier I think Marlon Brando in Apocalpyse Now. With Brando n this film you don't want to look into his eyes. Like the movie he was freakish. To me this performance is as memorable as the one he gave in The Godfather. Martin Sheen gave a very deep performance and probably the best one of his career making you see everything through his eyes all the craziness he is experiencing and yet wanting him to get to his goal. It is just a wonder why these two did not get Oscar nominations. Robert Duvall was able to show part of that craziness with his ludicrous battle strategies, among those playing music to tell the enemy he is coming. Also Duvall's character asking one of the soldiers to surf in the middle of a battle was just shocking but believable. Other great supporting performances were given by a young Laurence Fishburne, Sam Bottoms and Frederic Forest who all summed up the attitudes of many of the soldiers at that time without becoming a cliché. Also for once cameos were put into good use having Dennis Hopper and Harrison Ford who I both love.

I would definitely recommend people to watch this movie. It has a message and everyone involved in the making of it is at their best. There is nothing more I could ask of this movie with its great acting, directing, writing, cinematography and great ending. Watch and you will see why it lives up to its title Apocalpyse Now.

"Apocalypse Now" stars Martin Sheen as U. S. intelligence officer Capt. Willard who's assigned to travel to Cambodia during the Vietnam War to terminate the demented Col. Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Kurtz is in the midst of attempting unapproved and bloody operations in the deepest jungles lead by local tribesmen and U. S. soldiers. Willard is joined by staff members Chief (Albert Tucker), Chef (Frederic Forrest), Clean (a very young Laurence Fishburne) and Lance (Sam Bottoms). Willard teams up with loopy Lt. Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall) and his helicopter brigade and some Playboy bunnies for entertainment purposes and a French family stubbornly not wanting to leave the premises. This leads up to an epic battle against the sadistic Kurtz.

After finally seeing the redux version of "Apocalypse Now", I can admit that it exceeded everything the shorter version of this classic film has to offer. The AFI has ranked it as one of the top film in movie history and I have no reason to argue that analogy in any way possible. It was truly an amazing masterpiece film and I am just so greatly honoured to witness one of the greatest films ever made.

If anyone was expecting a feel-good movie, well what the hell were you smoking? There's no feel-good elements to this film. This is the threshold to hell. The weak at heart is not invited to this party. I'm not trying to be mean, but if you can't take the brutal grimness of this movie, then it's really not for you to see. There are some comical elements, but not intended for chuckling, but for a much darker tone. Martin Sheen truly delivers as Capt. Willard a hired assassin sent on a dangerous mission to track down and kill one of his own kind named Col. Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando who was his demented best), who has now gone on the brink of dementia has developed an operation set up the deepest darkest jungles in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. One thing I don't understand is why couldn't the Army just simply sent him home via Section 8? I mean lots of Vietnam vets fell too dementia during these harsh moments. Robert Duvall as a tough, but eccentric Lt. Col. Kilgore who enjoys the aroma of Napalm in the morning. Every scene that Duvall is in he just steals every scene he's in.

It was very smart of Sheen to take this role, if anything, by the end of this movie, his character should have been rewarded a Silver Star or a Purple Heart or something. I mean he's aboard in a vulnerable navy boat as he crosses the jungle as he eerily gets closer to Kurtz and his insane demesne and as he draws near, I fear that Willard might be on the brink of the dark side himself. With the conditions they're up against, anyone can go bonkers Kurtz, Willard, Kilgore, anyone. You really can't rest on your laurels and say "what will be will be."

By expanding the film to an extra 49 minutes, I don't know what the story would be without the French plantation in Cambodia. I think it would be lost in the shuffle that we see these people argue over issues like politics as they exchange brandy and cigars maybe it's a ploy for Willard to have his last chance in preserving his sanity.

I had a chance to see it on my outdoor theatre. Just the whirling sounds of the helicopters and the explosions of the bombs sound so close to you that it could almost blow up right into your faces. This film is the perfect war movie with great acting, lots of intense scenes and a film that truly won't insult your intelligence. You're more crazier than Kurtz if you choose to neglect this movie.

This film is completely brilliant. The first half of the film has more violence and a lot more fun to the film but I'm the second half, the true physiological torment of Vietnam is shown. When they enter Kurtz's camp, the mood of the film completely changes from mildly disturbing and a bit mad, to incredibly disturbing and complete madness. The cinematography, writing, acting, direction and sound are incredible from one of the best films of the 20th century. I highly recommend you to watch this film.

The original "Apocalypse Now" is an awe-inspiring masterpiece and is my all-time favorite film. Memorable scenes abound, starting with the mind-blowing opening with Willard (Martin Sheen) having a mental breakdown in his sweltering Saigon hotel room to the tune of The Doors' "The End."

Speaking of Sheen, people overlook the fact that he expertly carries the film. His haunting commentary is one of the most effective narrations in cinematic history and hooks the viewer into the nightmare-adventure.

I could go on and on about the noteworthy scenes, but I'll resist, except to comment on Col. Kurtz: Was he really insane or actually a bold genius? General Corman informs Willard: "He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field commanding troops." And, yet, Kurtz was accomplishing what the US military couldn't or wouldn't do because of political complications and niceties. I bring this up because, as I've aged, I've come to see that I'M Kurtz in some ways -- operating "out there" beyond the parameters and restrictions typically linked to my work.

The script was written by John Milius with alterations by Coppola as he shot the film whilst the narration was written by Michael Herr. The meaning of the story is obvious: The trip up the river led by Capt. Willard exposes him to two extreme viewpoints of war represented by the two colonels he encounters on his long journey, both of whose names start with 'K,' which is no accident:

Lt. COL. KILGORE (Duvall) is a romantic who embraces war as a lifestyle and even feeds off it, i.e. Glorifies it. The fact that he's a romantic can be observed in the air-raid on the village where he literally plays Wagner as a prologue. He feeds off the war to the extent that he "loves the smell of napalm in the morning." War is just another day to him so why not go surfing? Since he lives off of the war there's no way it can kill him or even give him a scratch. Kilgore naturally has the support of the top brass because he's part of the system and plays the game of war.

COL. KURTZ (Brando), by contrast, sees through this hypocrisy. He realizes that being in a state of war is humanity gone mad. It's living horror and therefore must be ended through the quickest means possible at whatever cost. He refuses to play the game of war as he expertly takes out double agents, etc. Of course the brass can't have this so they put out a hit on Kurtz via Willard. The existential Kurtz becomes increasingly disillusioned -- even crazy -- after jumping ship from the system and now has no sanctuary. Death is the only way out. His consolation is that Willard will tell his son the truth.

The "Redux" version was put together by Coppola and released in 2001 with the addition of 49 minutes of material that he originally cut, not to mention placing Clean's surfing scene later in the story.

Coppola made the right decisions with his original 1979 edit of the film (2 hours, 33 minutes) since the extra footage of "Redux" tends to drag the film down with 1 or 2 scenes being dubiously scripted, e.g. The theft of Kilgore's surf board. Not every idea that is birthed during the creative process is worthy of the final product and "Redux" illustrates this. Thus the new footage of "Redux" should've arguably been relegated to the "deleted scenes" section.

That said, I've warmed up to "Redux" and feel it's a worthy version of the film, but only if you've watched the Theatrical Cut and want more. "Redux" successfully fleshes out the characters and gives them more dimension, especially Willard and Kurtz. Plus the sequence involving Kurtz reading a couple of TIME magazine articles illustrates beyond any shadow of doubt that he wasn't insane and that the brass simply slandered him as crazy in order to justify the assassination of a decorated American officer.

Coppola's preferred cut of the film is the "Final Cut," released in 2019, which runs a half hour longer than the Theatrical Cut. In other words, it trims the fat off of "Redux." There's also a "First Assembly" version, a bootleg, that runs 4 hours, 49 minutes.

The film was shot in the Philippines.

GRADE: A+

There must be something inherent in man, something from long ago, that sits deep within us; a scary thing, frightening to those who would choose - or who are forced to - gaze at it.

In making this movie, Coppola must have seen this thing that is not always visible. And if he did not see it in its entirety then in what must surely be a cliché by now, he saw enough of it to allow the heart of its darkness to pulse throughout this film.

And just as Coppola was changed by his experience in the jungle, so too his most mysterious character. Something happened to Colonel Kurtz. Something he saw fractured his mind, the diamond bullet shattering his perceptions into a single struggle that he himself, deep within his heart, knew he was unable to comes to terms with. And this is the crux of this movie, that this journey into darkness can promise a truth so clear that it blinds you, a truth so powerful that is keeps a hold of you and does not let you go and traps you into staying exactly, exactly where you are.

For the critics of this film, I wonder if they would ever admit to the existence of the dark place within. Admitting it, will they discover empathy? Art - and the film maker's craft is certainly that - surely requires the observer to join forces with the artist so as to see and to experience the world from the perspective of whatever the artist has discovered. Coppola, following the path of his own film making, ensures that his central character Captain Willard, journeying deep into the jungle, deep into his heart, has his own chance to discover the horrific artistry of the Colonel.

Words are escaping me. First point, I think there always will be a before and a after ´Apocalypse Now' in the cinema history in my opinion.

Outstanding casting, outstanding scenario, outstanding photography (these orange themes oh God), outstanding soundtrack, but most of all, I'm pretty sure the movie got one of the best last 15 minutes of history. Now that all of that is said, can we seat 5 seconds and just talk about Marlon Brando's performance in the film ? Completely captivating & absorbing from the very first moment when we see him on screen to the very last one. Legend.

Words are missing. Perhaps I don't even realize what I just saw this afternoon but believe me, I really, really really won't forget it.

I have seen Apocalypse Now so many times over the decades, with various different cuts that Francis Coppola has released. I even once went over parts of the Grand Canyon on a helicopter with Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyries blaring out. It was like experiencing a moment of the movie.

Co written by John Milius, one of the most right wing guys in Hollywood. Apocalypse Now is not really anti war, it sat too much on the fence with the Vietnamese being cannon fodder. The Vietnam War had only ended a few years before the film started production. Major film studios were in no mood to be too overtly critical about the war. That will happen in the 1980s with Oliver Stone.

Coppola uses Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness as a metaphorical journey. A war that started off with good intentions by the Americans. Help the Vietnamese and save them from communism. You have Colonel Kilgore's (Robert Duvall) gung ho performance that involves Napalm and surfing. It then ends with Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) a once brilliant soldier literally gone mad.

Coppola said of the movie's production "My film is not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam." A typhoon had destroyed the film set in the Philippines. Martin Sheen was encouraged to get drunk for his opening scenes and promptly had a near fatal heart attack. An overweight Marlon Brando turned up on the film set without reading the script. It led Coppola to shoot Brando with light and shadows to hide his girth.

Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) a Special Ops officer is sent on a secret mission into Cambodia to kill Colonel Kurtz who has gone rogue. He has set up his own military unit with a local tribe using savage methods.

Willard goes up river in a small navy patrol boat to Cambodia. A journey where they meet oddballs, a party of Playboy Playmates entertaining the troops, a trip to a French plantation (Special Editions), a journey that becomes increasingly dark, dangerous and nightmarish. Willard particularly does not care much for the crew of the patrol boat.

Apocalypse Now is an audacious dazzling epic that becomes a journey into madness. I dread to think how much of the Philippine jungle was firebombed during the making of the film.

Coppola was at the height of his powers after his success with the two Godfather films. There is wonderful craftsmanship on display. Also wilful disregard for animal life with the slaughter of the water buffalo in the climax. Sorry Francis, your excuse about that scene is lame.

There are supporting roles from Harrison Ford playing Colonel George Lucas to Dennis Hopper playing a wacky journalist in Kurtz's compound. Even Scott Glen has a small non vocal appearance and Laurence Fishburne was only 14 years old when he played one of the crewmen of the patrol boat.

The heart of the movie is Sheen. He looks young and innocent but is also suffering from his own traumas and cynicism before he embarks on his mission.

Movies seem to fall into two categories: films that reinforce existing societal values and beliefs, and those that challenge them. This film is a 180-degree shift from the idealistic rhetoric portrayed in offerings like "The Longest Day" and "The Green Berets" which seem more like Disney fantasies by comparison. The "Apocalypse Now!" project, the production and resulting film, is "Heart of Darkness" updated into a psychological horror story of the late 20th century post-modernist variety. The cast and crew who worked on it probably could relate to the terrifying places the human mind can achieve. This is the plight of Joseph Conrad's original character Kurtz who came into literary being in 1901 and subsequently referenced in TS Eliot's "The Hollow Men" (Mistah Kurtz, he dead) of 1925. Although neither a straight telling of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (1901) nor a first-hand account of the Vietnam experience, "Apocalypse Now!" stands as a masterpiece which pushed on the envelope of cinematic potential. "Apocalypse" is not just about the "horrors" of war per se, like "Platoon" and "The Deer Hunter", but the darker sensibilities of human nature as revealed through the raw and demeaning confrontations of violent conflict on a mass scale. Apocalypse Now! is not so much seen as experienced.

The bulk of the movie is the journey of a trained secret assassin, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen in a tour-de-force performance), aboard a US military boat traversing an unnamed river into the heart of Vietnam and Cambodia where few westerners would ever tread. His mission is to terminate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a career army Special Forces Division officer who was the darling of the US Military until he went AWOL and renegade in the deep uncharted jungles between Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The official classified report is that the colonel has gone insane but as events play out, something else has happened to him that is far more terrifying than simply insanity. Sheen's mission is to terminate the colonel with the American public none the wiser.

The movie is rather episodic. The journey along the river is made up of several vignettes as Sheen and his crew meet different self-contained "aspects" of the war at the ground level. American audiences of the 1970's had probably never seen this kind of film-making before, with the possible exception of "The Deer Hunter" which was released in the previous year. The first, and one of the most notable, is an helicopter battalion led by Col Kilgore (Robert Duvall in an Oscar-nominated performance) who is a cross between General Robert E Lee and Richard Wagner. He loves to play "Ride of the Valkyries" from Wagner's "The Ring" when he bombards helpless villages. His line "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning" is one of those oft-quoted lines from the annals of cinema. Other encounters include an amphitheater where enlisted privates will be entertained by the likes of Hugh Heffner and Playboy bunnies.

Despite all the production catastrophes that impeded getting this footage into the can, the remarkable aspect of this film is its pacing. The original release (not the later Redux version) does a fine of job of building until the viewer is emotionally prepared to deal with the climactic confrontation between Willard and Kurtz. The strange discourse between Willard and Kurtz is worth the price of admission alone. And some of the shots of both Sheen and Brando in certain places are some of the starkest and terrifying images ever produced on film. Not even the likes of Clive Barker, Wes Craven or David Cronenberg have anything on Coppola in terms of horrific imagery. Brando's Kurtz in one scene in particular is so utterly terrifying it makes most other horror movies seem tame by comparison, which comes from the recognition that the horror is not from without but from within.

Without giving too much away, Coppola's solution to the climactic moment stands as one of the most innovative of cinematic revelations. According to the documentary "Hearts of Darkness", Coppola feared that the inevitable final scene would lapse into melodrama, and the atmosphere of the movie's darker hues would be compromised. He wasn't sure how he could make it work until his wife encouraged the director to witness the ceremonial sacrifice of an ox as practiced by the native people with whom Coppola was using as extras in the scenes with Kurtz at "his" village. After the viewing, Coppola had his ending, and it is one of the most simultaneously disturbing and beautiful sequences in the history of American film-making. Love it or hate it, no western viewer will be the same after seeing this scene.

This film is not for all tastes just as Conrad's original novel is not the kind of book that will be read on airplanes. It's not just the violence and the pointlessness of violence that are difficult for most American viewers to absorb. It's the naked unveiling of aspects of the human condition that seem so removed from suburban American life that make this film difficult for the average movie-goer to handle, which is as it should be. Coppola did not make a family picture. However, if the viewer can understand its larger point, there is a lot to be gotten out of Apocalypse Now!. If you're looking for a film experience to reaffirm pre-existing attitudes about American sensibility and heroism, better stick with John Wayne. But if you're willing to be taken into places you've never been, even beyond "the evils of war" rhetoric, "Apocalypse Now" will take you into a world you thought you'd never visited before, and the disturbing part of it is that you may recognize it.