Streetgang calling Almighty.

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2008)

This movie has given me one of the greatest movie experiences in my life. That is why I don't have a choice but to give it 10/10.
I have seen this movie countless times (the original one), I have had Eleanor Coppola's: "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse" on VCR and seen that one more times than I can remember and I have read several reviews of the movie from Magazines etc.
According to the legend it is based on Joseph Conrad's "Hearts of Darkness" and several directors (Orson Welles for instance) have tried to put that book into a usable film-script but failed.
So Francis Coppola tried, and told it as a story of a Captain Willard who, during the Vietnam war, gets the assignment to go up a river (into Cambodia ("that's classified")) to find Colonel Kurtz whose "methods are unsound" and to "exterminate him with extreme prejudice".
The opening scene is simply outstanding. We see Willard in a hotel room haunted by his demons, bursting into tears and smashing the mirror with his bare hands. The score is the Doors "the End" - a superb choice. If you see Eleanor Coppola's movie you will realize that Martin Sheen is actually on the brink of a mental breakdown and that Coppola exploits it. The crew is afraid that he will actually attack Coppola but nonetheless Coppola keeps directing him, bringing out emotions of sorrow in him. So what you see in this opening scene is not so much acting as it is a man who is actually on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Willard gets on a boat with a small group of soldiers and as they go up that river we slowly learn about Colonel Kurtz through the dossiers that Willard brings along as well as getting acquainted with the madness of war.
What we learn about Kurtz is, that he has had an outstanding military career but that at a certain point he starts to use methods that cannot be tolerated by his superiors.
After a long and dangerous journey we finally reach Kurtz's hide-out and are greeted by a very nervous guy (Dennis Hopper) with pseudo-philosophical thoughts and a local tribe. From him we learn the Kurtz is clear in his mind but sick in his soul and that he expects something from Willard - understanding? Later Kurtz returns and takes Willard as a prisoner and talks with him about war in some dialogs that sends shivers down your spine. Kurtz tells Willard about his war experiences and of one in particular that made him realize what it takes to win a war. What he tells is that he earlier in the Vietnam war went into a village where he together with other US soldiers inoculated the children of that village. After they leave the village they are suddenly called back and upon returning they see that the north Vietnamese have been there and hacked off every little inoculated arm. And as if "shot by a diamond bullet in his forehead" Kurtz realizes that an act like this is what is needed to win the war. He goes on and claims that a soldier that can do an act like this is not a monster but just has an extraordinary amount of will; the will to win the war.
After having this "revelation" colonel Kurtz applies the same sort of methods himself and although they are very effective they cannot be tolerated by his superiors and this is why Willard gets the assignment to terminate him. Kurtz's way of viewing how a war should be fought poses some very interesting questions that are difficult to answer in a simple way. As I see it Kurtz's point is, that once you have decided to go to war it really doesn't make sense not to use any method available to win it. There can only be total war if you really want to win. The act of hacking off the arms of the children has been done in the attempt to win the war and should not to be seen as an act motivated by mere hatred. If you concern yourself with the civilians and human rights then you are a nothing but a hypocrite. Kurtz then becomes a very efficient soldier but his new war-philosophy makes it impossible for him to stay "human" (or makes him sick in his soul as stated by Hopper).
It has been stated that the ending is a flop. Coppola himself struggled hard to find a suitable ending and I am not sure that he was altogether satisfied with this one. To me I always understood it this way: Kurtz wants Willard to kill him as he has probably seen and imposed horrors beyond our wildest imaginations which makes it nearly impossible for him to carry on. When he at last is brought down by Willard the only thing that comes to his mind is "the horror, the horror". He is truly sick in his soul.
I will recommend this to anyone as I think it tries to give us some account on what war can bring out in the soldiers who are sent away to fight.
regards Simon
Ps. When you read reviews that gives max score check to see if the user has made more than one review. If not consider the possibility of a lobbyist. If you agree consider putting this post scriptum at the bottom at your own reviews.