An Absolute "Must-See" Experience.

Rating: 10/10 (16 November 2013)

This is my full review of this legendary picture. Whilst the original is a classic, I saw the "Redux" first and was blown away by the new material incorporated (Maybe the French plantation stuff still could've been left out). Obviously any film enthusiast can agree that "Apocalypse Now" is essentially a film like no other. A tense hallucinogenic, physically exhausting movie which can only be described as part War, and something else entirely towards its conclusion. It is something hard to describe unless you see it, and even then I find the experience hard to put down into words.
One thing I love about this movie is the success it had after going against all odds during production. For those who don't know Brando showed up too overweight, was reportedly very hard to work with and would require a body double during day scenes. Harvey Keitel was replaced by Martin Sheen a few weeks into filming, and Sheen had a heart attack at the age of 36 only to return to work a month later. What would be a 16-week shoot, took over 239 days of sweat & torture. Typhoon Olga destroyed many expensive sets, extras & the crew got malaria and many other diseases. Sam Bottoms (The actor who plays Lance), was constantly on drugs while shooting and Martin Sheen's brother did half of the voice-over narrative due to his brother's sickness. The killing of the water buffalo attracted obvious animal protection laws, and the ending was re-written countless times as Coppola had to make a film out of 2300 hours of recorded footage. Of course for obvious reasons, Francis Ford Coppola threatened suicide countless times. That's just a handful of problems and stuff that happened, if you're interested in learning more, I extremely recommend watching Eleanor Coppola's documentary "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse" (1991).
Based on the 1899 classic novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. The story revolves around ivory trading, colonialism, cruelty, humanity and obsession. All this seems more than fitting to be adapted into a War tale. Finally beginning the movie, helicopters fly across a burning jungle all while "The End" by The Doors plays in the background. Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is drunk, drugged out and wasting away in a room in Saigon (Anyone anxious to know this was shot on Martin's 36th Birthday, who actually WAS drunk and drugged out when he told Copolla to film what was happening and leave him to it. What happens as you see on screen he actually broke the mirror, bled out then reportedly attacked Francis. The crew were so frightened they wanted to stop yet, he ordered Coppola to continue filming). Being called upon by Generals (Most notably a cameo by Harrison Ford, under the name "Lucas"), he is ordered to exterminate "with extreme prejudice" General Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando), A Green Beret who has gone AWOL.
What follows is Willard's mission up the Vietnamese river, on the boat he narrates his views on the War and Kurtz in the dossier given to him, questioning his respect for Kurtz as well as his mission. With his crew (Amongst them is Laurence Fishburne in his first role), all of them witness the horrors of the War and the one vital lesson: "Never get off the boat". On their journey they encounter a kind, yet insane Seargent Kilgore (A manic performance by Robert Duvall, who utters my favourite movie quote "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"). They also have to contend with fellow soldiers, animals and even Playboy Bunnies (Including real-life playmate of the year Cynthia Wood).
Throughout the picture Kurtz is seen as a some what God-like figure to those around him, especially by an all too literal American photographer (An expertly casted Dennis Hopper). Seeing Kurtz for the first time is probably one of the most chilling, tense and surreal moments in motion picture history, and by the end of the movie Willard's goals and possibly your original thoughts are left so askew everything comes to close and certain fates are left unknown. Was the mission a success or what is the unexpected fallout after such events? Will Willard be destined to follow in Kurtz's footsteps?
In terms of negativity, I would like to throw in Stanley Kubrick's Interview with Michèle Halberstadt, October 1987. Kubrick: "I think that Coppola was stuck by the fact that he didn't have anything that resembled a story. So he had to make each scene more spectacular than the one before, to the point of absurdity. "The ending is so unreal, and purely spectacular, that it's like a version, much improved, of King Kong (laughs). And Brando is supposed to give an intellectual weight to the whole thing "I think it just didn't work. But it's terrifically done. And there are some very strong scenes."
Final Verdict: On the plus side it should be noted that many people who have seen it have declared it accurate to how it was like experiencing Vietnam. On the negative I would also say the films structure is so out of the directors hand given the events that happened behind the camera. What I can declare definitively is that Francis Ford Coppola manage to build something unforgettable with what should have been an absolute disaster. How he did it I don't know, and therefore I would say thank you sir for what was such an astonishing success and failure. 10/10. I guarantee there's never going to be anything like it again.