War bad, war very bad

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 2020)

What a film. It's one of those films that leaves you speechless at the end because your still trying to process what the hell just happened. Defiantly the best war film I have ever seen. It was both a spectacle and a horror. It's fucking haunting, seeing all this destruction. What coplla manages extremely well is creating chaos that we experience through the eyes of the protagonist. There's incredible set prices like the bridge and the city that play with light and fog to create this dreadful atmosphere and a visually striking picture that left me completely flabbergasted as to how they achieved this all in 1979. It's impossible to talk about this film without mentioning marlon Brando. He may be a crazy method actor but by god does it work here. He's shrouded min mystery both literally and figuratively, lit by shadows and shrouded in fog after the nearly 2 hour build up to his character and so after all this hardship and trauma they face getting to him, this performance is built up and resolved perfectly. I realise I watched the shorter version and there's a three hour version out there but one of my only criticisms is that he's only in it for around 10 minutes. Even so, it leaves a massive impression on the viewer which is what makes it so iconic.
Another massive contributor to this errie and haunting atmosphere is the soundtrack, splicing classical music to rock to the main oppressive synth score creates this mismatch of tones and styles that runs throughout.
Despite being surreal and horrific in places, it never stops feeling realistic, keeping this tangible horror of the story. Speaking of, this is a prime example of how to adapt a classic book to a different time period, taking the novel heart of darkness into the Vietnam war shows that this idea of savages and humans, ya and them still relates to this day, the vietnam war ending only around ten years from when the film was made.
All in all, war bad- war very bad