Like Lemmings running off a cliff...

Rating: 1/10 (28 May 2011)

This is how I interpret all the baffling high ratings this movie has gotten from viewers. I believe people will 'make themselves' see a special, wonderful, intellectual movie where there is none. They follow closely with other viewers (like lemmings running off a cliff en mass to their peril). This film reminds me of Citizen Kane- how people immediately assume that movie 'must' be the greatest movie of all time. Can any honest viewer actually watch Citizen Kane and compare it to Gone with the Wind or Casablanca or On the Waterfront or Ben Hur or The Big Country? Citizen Kane will put you to sleep- but people think it's 'supposed' to be artful, innovative, ingenious masterpiece. Apocalypse Now is the same scenario. Many people have heard amazing things about the film prior to watching and thus unconsciously force themselves to find genius and great acting and great script where there is quite the opposite. Other people watch it and see a truly weird, eccentric, failed effort at trying to make a artful, philosophical explanation of Vietnam- an overdone effort with the mantra being 'the weirder and more offbeat and melodramatic, the better'. Newsflash- that kind of movie- making is easy. Being weird and is easy- and it's a strategy to overwhelm the viewer with nonsense to such a degree that even the most objective, critical viewer will conclude 'such a weird, sick, pointless movie MUST be art.. must be genius.. must be a masterpiece. Here's a hint to the other viewers who found this to be the best movie of all time- it's easy to be strange and eerily unconventional. The true masterpieces are those movies which are simple and traditional, yet we walk away from them never forgetting, i.e. Schindlers List, The Godfather, Braveheart, North by Northwest, Rosemary's Baby, The Graduate, The Deer Hunter, etc. These are movies- classics with great acting, writing, and music, and frankly are endlessly watchable. I think any honest movie fan cannot really say they can watch a sleeper like Apocalypse more than once- it feels like a bad acid trip. Words to remember- extreme weirdness is not a recipe for a truly good movie or even a half decent one- but judging from the ridiculously high reviews, it does hypnotize its audience into thinking they are watching something worth watching. Oh well.