The horror... The horror... of overrated movies...

Rating: 2/10 (15 June 2009)

If there has ever been an overrated director, Francis Ford Coppola is the one. Apocalypse Now is nearly universally praised as one of the greatest war films of all time. I consider it to be one of the most overrated movies of all time; far from a masterpiece, it merely cashes in on the American anti-war sentiment of the time.
Let's begin with the film's story itself, shall we? Well, although adapted from fantastic source material (Conrad's Heart of Darkness), Apocalypse Now has a very vague plot joining the film. As I have learned, the film was plagued with production problems, which may be why this is so. Either way, the film is comprised of a few interesting scenarios (I particularly liked the boat massacre) tied together in an extremely convoluted way. The story makes no sense, because it's practically irrelevant— too much side material takes away from a promising plot.
I've said time and time again that Coppola has a very feeble grasp of suspense. During the duration of Apocalypse Now, what does the hero, Willard, do? He watches. What does the audience, therefore, do? We watch Willard watching. The increasing chaos downriver is not a magnificent suspense builder. To be honest, it's sheer boredom.
And what of the characters? Willard is a character made out of cardboard. All he does is frown and think about his mission. I couldn't empathize with him at all, and frankly didn't care whether he was successful in his mission or not. His crew is a ragtag bunch of sketched-in, half realized, uninteresting characters. Robert Duvall's character has fantastic potential, but emerges as uninteresting: he appears, demonstrates Coppola's point that the military is a bunch of hypocrites, and disappears, all without contributing much to the plot
Another thing: a novelist's approach does not work in films. The drama should be performed, and not narrated. Although voice-over proves effective at times, Apocalypse Now is one great big, long voice-over that quickly becomes stale, boring and ineffective.
Another thing: the film supposedly "truly captures" the insanity of war. No. What it does is "subtly" point out the hypocrisy of the American army. They eat meals that the guys in the field would die for. They were planning to punish Kurtz for his murder of four civilians, but praised him once the press got a hold of the story. They send Willard out to kill Kurtz because he's half insane already. There's no leadership at the bridge. The soldiers go absolutely insane over the Playboy "playmates" instead of concentrating on the war (that was one of the film's most disturbing scenes-- not in a good way). A man indiscriminately shoots down innocent Vietnamese peasants. Robert Duvall's character attacks a village because the beach has "the best waves" for surfing. Far from subtle, it points out exactly what Apocalypse Now is: a cash cow for Hollywood after the anti-war movement.
And now for the good bits: After over two hours of insane boredom, Marlon Brando appears AT LAST. After two hours of watching Willard watching the "insanity" of the war, I was glad for a character of interest. Most of Brando's dialogue was, apparently, ad-libbed, and you can tell. His dialogue does not reek of Coppola's mediocre (or just plain bad) screen writing. That is the film's one redeeming quality: only due to Brando (whom I, ironically, consider the most overrated actor ever) is the last 20 minutes of any interest whatsoever. There is one other redeeming quality, and that is the boat massacre. Truly the film's strongest scene, it is sadly followed by a trail of disappointments that all but drown it out.
The Verdict: Far from a masterpiece, Apocalypse Now is barely coherent. Coppola apparently described the film as "not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam". Incorrect. It is Hollywood raking in profits after Vietnam. It's no use accusing me of simply not understanding the movie's point, or of having to watch it again. (I'll live quite comfortably if I never hear of the film again.) As a matter of fact, I've seen it three times: the first in my film class, where I despised it, and had to study it and its "messages"; the second on my own, where I appreciated it a little more, but not by much; the third prior to writing this review, where I returned to my original position. To be blunt, I don't like Apocalypse Now at all.
Overall Rating: 2/10 (Brando's segment alone guarantees the 2)