More of an experience than a movie

Rating: 6/10 (24 February 2015)

"Apocalypse Now" is a 1979 movie by Francis Ford Coppola. 7 years after "The Godfather", he reunites with actor Marlon Brando (fat and bald here in his mid-50s), who is really difficult to recognize. He plays a highly decorated soldier, who deserted in Cambodia. However, I felt his part was just too self-indulging. It had "Give me an Oscar" written all over it as the final 45 minutes of the film entirely circled around him and everything before as well as he was talked about for pretty much the entire film. However, Brando did not win a single award anywhere for his performance here and the film won Oscars for its cinematography and sound. With the truly big awards, the Academy preferred a family divorce drama that year. The central character in "Apocalypse Now", however, is played by Martin Sheen, who shows striking resemblance to his son Charlie in quite a few scenes.
This is probably the most famous anti-war movie of all times. It's in the IMDb top50, but definitely not in my top50. However, I still thought it was a good film. Especially Robert Duvall (Kilgore) succeeds in displaying the insanity of war as he treats combat like a painting, plays classic music to the horrendous scenes and has his guys surfing at the same time. Excellent portrayal. He was the much better Coppola reunion in this movie and the Golden Globe and BAFTA wins were absolutely deserving. And when there is no visual horror...horror (e.g. a severed head or the death of the character played by the very young Laurence Fishburne), we hear people talking about it, for example Kurtz' story on severed children's arms.
The redux version of the movie runs for considerably over 3 hours, about 200 minutes, and I would lie if I said there was not a single moment when it dragged. It did, occasionally, for example when they meet the French guys. I could have done without that part. The cast is pretty spectacular. Apart from everybody I already mentioned, there's also Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford and Frederic Forrest in this movie, all 3 Academy Award nominees themselves. It's an interesting take on soldiers' lives during this difficult time. But apart from all the brutal battle scenes and (during one scene) the unsuccessful longing for leadership, we also see a bunch of playboy bunnies giving the troops some pleasure with their mere presence.
This is a good film, no doubt about it. You may certainly need some knowledge about historical background to fully appreciate it and even then, it is certainly not for everybody, but watching this film can be a great experience. Visually, it's a masterpiece and the cinematography contributes as much to the nightmarish atmosphere and constant fight for survival as does the music, most of all The Doors' "This is the End".