Dark, depressing, and haunting

Rating: Null/10 (24 September 1999)

Francis Ford Coppola's take on Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" just might be the most enduring and well thought-out film about the Vietnam War. While it contains many innacuracies, it does present haunting jungle footage, intense action scenes, and graphic characterizations that proves the the Vietnam War was one of America's darkest hours. Or, as Colonel Kurtz puts it, "The horror, the horror."
There is little I can say for this film that hasn't been said already. Coppola has a masterpiece here, portraying hearts of immense evil in which the Vietnam War serves as a backdrop. Sure, the war in itself was evil, but what kind of horrendous insanity causes such evil to exist that enables such wars to be fought? The story of Willard (Martin Sheen) as he hunts down the AWOL Kurtz (Marlon Brando) seeks to answer such questions....and does it ever. I dare not give anything away, but I will state this: the final twenty minutes are some of the most intense in motion picture history.

This is not a film for the squeamish. Choppy and dismal, it will leave a bad taste in your mouth....a taste like you've never tasted before. And that's exactly what the Vietnam War did for everyone involved with it. Any film that can bring out "the horror, the horror" of it all as this film did deserves to be called one of the greatest motion pictures ever made!
**** out of ****