Perhaps the most dramatic film ever made - every scene is filled with menace and impending disaster.

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2018)

Coppolla's flawed but masterfully done movie earns it's ranking on almost every top film list that matters. 3 years in the making, the finished cut (the 1979 version not the "Redux") doesn't reflect Coppolla's personal agony in creating this (that story is told in the documentary "Hearts of Darkness" by Coppolla's wife Eleanor).
Like every war movie, there are the inevitable criticisms of lack of realism in the events portrayed, to the tune of "Yeah we really did a lot of surfing during fire fights, didn't we?" But that viewpoint is perhaps improper when looking at a truly unconventional movie of this type. "Apocalypse" is no documentary but a metaphor for the Vietnam war itself, and comparing it to other more realistic movies such as "Platoon" is unfair. Coppolla clearly is going for effect here, and the extreme absurdity of the events shown are intentional and meant to elicit an emotional reaction from the viewer (and anyone who saw this film in a packed theater in 1979 will tell you, Coppolla succeeded admirably at this). This is one of the few movies that deserve (and almost require) multiple viewings, since it would be very difficult to get the full effect of the powerful story-telling going on here, and to grasp the message (the madness that was Vietnam.). It's safe to say if this is your first viewing of "apocalypse", it'll be like no other movie ever made, before or since.
In my opinion the best cut of the film to watch is the 1979 original and NOT the "Redux", at least for the first viewing. The Redux was released in 2001 and includes about an additional hour of footage - but most of the new footage seems pointless, is fairly ponderous, slows down the story immensely and not one bit of it adds to the plot (and in fact dilutes the story in a big way.)