Apocalypse Now

Rating: 10/10 (3 April 2016)

Much like The Evil Dead, a lot of the reason why I admire Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece Apocalypse Now is because of the trouble he went through to film this. Hearts of Darkness is a great documentary that tells the story of the production of Apocalypse Now and I definitely recommend it. Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did and it's amazing that they could come up with what is now considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made.
Saying Apocalypse Now is a war movie is like saying Fight Club is a movie about a fight club. Sure the movie takes place during the Vietnam War and it is a very important part of the movie but it's more about the characters and the things that they go through, both psychologically and physically. In a nutshell? For me, Apocalypse Now is a movie about dehumanization because of the War, losing one's mind and, commonly agreed, a descent into madness.
Most of the film takes place in the river, going down to where General Kurtz is and every stop represents a part of the dehumanizing process. Example, the first stop is where Robert Duvall's character is. He is a man who loves war and the "smell of napalm in the morning". He takes pleasure in killing and has no morality left in that area. Another stop, where the playboy girls are, everyone loses their morality and they try to harass the women. The stop in the bridge, there is no one in charge and people are just killing. The last stop, Lance completely loses his mind and everyone there has gone insane. Our main character, played by Martin Sheen is also very damaged. The contrast between him and Kurtz is also very intriguing.
I don't want to talk too much about Apocalypse Now because most of what needs to be said has already been said by many critics. But it's a perfect movie, with amazing sound effects and practical effects, amazing direction, perfect and inventive cinematography, a haunting score, great characters you come to care about and amazing dialogue. It's one of my favorite movies.