Apocalypse Now is one of the most disturbing and powerful films of all time

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2005)

A stunning masterpiece from the director of the Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola. Apocalypse Now is set during the Vietnam War. It follows the quest of a man called Captain Willard who receives orders to travel up river and locate a renegade officer, the mysterious Colonel Kurtz. Once located Willard is ordered to 'terminate his command with extreme prejudice'. The only problem with this is that as the quest progresses Willard begins to see parts of himself in Kurtz and begins to identify with is intended victim.
With an infamous reputation and a cast to match, I built Apocalypse Now up to be a life changing experience. One thing I can say about it is that it stands out among the bombardment of films that my brain has been subjected to over the years. It had a reputation as being a bit of a let down in Coppola's eyes as he spent far too much money for what the film eventually grossed at the box office. To be fair to Coppola, anything that follows a film as prolific and influential as the Godfather would be hard pushed to surpass its predecessor. I believe that Apocalypse Now does this and at the risk of making myself unpopular with all you film buffs out there I believe that Apocalypse Now is twice the film The Godfather is. It is a film that I attempted to watch numerous times but just couldn't concentrate on it, dare I say it I found it tedious. I just couldn't understand how it had the reputation it does. As a film man I very rarely switch a film off but I did this one, at least the first ten attempts. I then was sitting bored the other night and swore to myself that it was something I just had to do so I sat down, stuck the DVD on and started drinking a large cup of coffee. Two and a half hours later I was mesmerised. Some may say it was the coffee, I say it was the film, but never the less that night I just could not sleep with excitement. Apocalypse Now is one of the most disturbing and powerful films of all time, it reflects the true limits of the human mind and demonstrates ideally how our ideology changes in different situations. A true masterpiece of epic proportions, that if stuck with will make you a truly richer person.
5/5