A Few Great Moments but Many Poor Ones

Rating: 6/10 (15 November 2006)

"Apocalypse Now" shows some greatness here and there, but its also one of the most over-rated movies. Its a very good illustration of why egotistical directors often need someone to make big cuts in their work due to self-indulgence. Here and there, much of "AN" stretches on seemingly endlessly, with very little compensation in imagery, especially in the longer version. Some of the images and other elements might satisfy those with a taste for the surreal, but that's not a lot to say for such a long movie. And often "surreal" is just a fancy name for pretentiousness.
The whole French episode is silly, and seems pretty pointless except to show that the French once had a presence in Vietnam, and to exhibit the physical attributes of one French actress. Much of the dialog in this segment is unintentionally comical too, including at a funeral. The French episode along with an extended stay with some stranded Playboy bunnies badly break up the continuity of the plot, with very long interludes in which nothing much happens except for some sophomoric humor in the case of the bunnies. On the other hand, an advantage of the longer movie version over the one initially released in theaters is that it includes a few brief clips early on which reveal a bit more about the major characters on the boat.
I'm unimpressed by the characterizations throughout the movie. The characters mostly seem as if they were pulled from a comic book. For those who remember the old Sergeant Rock comic books, AN is sort of like a spacy, cynical, hip version of them. And its fashionable nowadays to criticize earlier war movies for their inclusion of soldiers from all walks of life: the poor kid, the farm boy, the immigrant, the rich kid, etc. AN, for all its pseudo-sophistication, does a 1970's version of this, particularly with the boat crew.
For me, Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall are by far the best elements of the movie. Hopper as a wacked-out, guru-following photographer is very much like a few 1960's relics whom I've known, and he nicely captures their wackiness, obsessions and paranoia. Robert Duvall is also good as the cocky, driven, combative officer who shows flashes of compassion. He and Hopper were much more memorable than the main characters in the boat, except maybe for the Fishburne character nicknamed "Clean." Brando shows off his weirdness, which is somewhat appropriate for the role of Kurtz. For my taste, it would have been more satisfying to see Kurtz more, but the filmmakers probably wanted to keep some mysteriousness about him, which is legitimate.
Don't watch AN thinking that this is a "Vietnam movie." Please people, remember that you won't get history from movies like this! Sure, AN shows some of the absurdity and horror of that war, but there is absurdity and horror in every war, and in many other major human undertakings. AN does touch upon a few aspects of Vietnam such as the jungle settings, draftees, poor morale in some sectors, and no front lines, but it seems to fit more into some sort of adventure/mythology/noir genre than a realistic depiction of war.
On the plus side, AN serves at times as a pretty good adventure story, or it would if it was drastically cut. Much of the credit for its good story elements and major themes should go to Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness upon which AN is very loosely based. The combat scenes with the Air Cavalry are also pretty well done, and some of the imagery is nice and imaginative, such as the boat floating underneath a wrecked plane. Overall, though, the sophomoric humor and pretentiousness which saturate this movie are big flaws.