A dystopian criticism against all wars.

Rating: 8/10 (9 February 2017)

Francis Ford Coppola played the sorcerer's apprentice in this movie but, contrary to what happened with the legendary apprentice, the magic went very well. But this film is not about reality or the real Vietnam War. We may regard it as a parody or a joke, but I think its deeper than that, its a statement of the director's opinion regarding the war, in particular Vietnam. And Coppola's statement is crystal clear: war was a total disaster where thousands of Americans died in vain and any war is always the apocalypse. Coppola wanted to give the public a view of this through this movies and we can prove this not only by the shocking graphic violence that punctuates it but also by the dystopic form as the conflict is portrayed and narrated. This way of facing the war is also evident in some of the dialogues. Its as if the war transformed the human being into the worst and raw of the animals, according to Coppola's mind. At first, the film was largely softened with various cuts but, recently, a DVD with an extended version appeared on the market. I understand the reasons: at the time, Vietnam was a hot topic, Coppola wanted to raise awareness and show what he thought about it but he might not want to hurt social morality. But today things are different. The scenes with the Playboy bunnies, however, seem to be left in the film, though they look as animalistic as the soldiers, as if they were objects and not real women.
The film features an extraordinary Marlon Brando (for me, it is his best film after "The Godfather") and a good Martin Sheen, alongside Robert Duvall (who would specialize in action films and hard characters), Laurence Fishburne , Harrison Ford (still far from stardom), Dennis Hopper and Scott Glenn. All the actors have been quite well. The film has a constantly very heavy environment and the combat scenes were filmed quite realistically. I know some older people who have been at war (not in Vietnam but in Portuguese Africa) and cannot stand it because they feel again at war and awakens traumatic memories. So I'll leave the warning: if you cannot handle violent movies, if you're sensitive, suggestible or underage, do not watch this movie. Giving good advice never hurts, does it?