Psychotically, Ungodly, Gloriously Perfect

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2016)

Let me come out and say it: this is the best movie about the Vietnam War. I'd call it the Schindler's List of Vietnam, but it's possible that one of these days, they will make a better WWII movie than Schindler's List. They will never make a better Vietnam War movie than Apocalypse Now. In fact, they will likely never make a better war movie than Apocalypse Now. No film has ever described war better. Describing war is not just about describing the bombs that go off or the people whose lives are affected. If that's all there was, The Hurt Locker would be as good of a film as this is. And it's not.
No. Describing war involves personifying it, portraying it as an animal or a reaper or, in this film's case, a maddening plague. This movie is often described as being anti-war, but I don't think that's accurate. There are very few anti-war movies, and they are all terrible. The great war movies involve conveying the experience to the audience, and letting them feel it for themselves.
And there's no film that does a better job of that than Apocalypse Now.
That is one of the all time great movie titles, by the way. The word 'apocalypse' conjures up images of a destroyed future aka Terminator or some fantastical force ruining everything, like Sauron in TLotR. But this movie doesn't concern itself with all that. It is not talking about some far off or fantastical apocalypse. It is talking about an apocalypse in the world right now, hence the name 'Apocalypse Now.' And notice that it doesn't just throw out this term; it enforces it. The napalm-drenched skies look like a war zone, yes, but they also look like harbingers of the end of the world. Think of the tone of this movie. It is hopeless and maddening and often nihilistic, just like a movie about the end of the world would be. Coppola makes the case that the Vietnam War is comparable to the end of the war in environment and mood and happenings.
There are two versions of this movie. There is the original cut, released in the 70's, and there is also the Redux Cut, released in 2001. The original cut is better, but not significantly so. Anyone who's already watched the film should give the Redux Cut a shot, but any newbies should stick to the original. Either way, it's a long haul. The original cut clocks in at about three hours, and the Redux is about twenty minutes longer.
Our main character is Captain Willard, played by Martin Sheen, who is sent to assassinate a rogue colonel, played famously by Marlon Brando. Madness ensues.
If you look closely, you can see a very young Lawrence Fishburne. He was only fourteen when he auditioned, so he lied about his age to get the role. The funny thing is, by the time this film was finished, he was almost eighteen years old.
Why did the movie take so long to make? Because it had one of if not the most troubled productions of all time.
I don't have time to list out everything that went wrong, so I'll just talk about one example. Anyone who's seen the movie knows the helicopter scene. Not a lot of people know that the music- Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries- which plays during it is supposed to evoke the Nazi army, but I digress. Those choppers had to be given back to the country from which they were borrowed- The Philippines- because they had to be used for actual war.
As I said, it is either to say what went right during filming than what went wrong. It's kinda like the Vietnam War, now that I think about it.
Most films try to either manipulate the audience's emotions or get them running. This film manages to do both. It shakes your emotions free of their coffers, then takes control of them. Every time I watch this movie, I am shaken. It is ungodly perfect.