Through methods of the hallucinatory surreal, this film ironically depicts war in the most vivid reality.

Rating: 10/10 (1 May 2012)

Disturbingly surreal and real, Apocalypse Now is so classic because it is the first, and to this day the only war movie of its kind, in that it conveys the darkness and brutality of Vietnam through not just a deception of the grim reality of war like any other preaching drama film would to hammer their message through, but by the psychological torment to come from the horrors of war, by vividly expressing its reality through the means of hazy and bizarre experiments in thick atmosphere, and bleakly unsettling nihilistic philosophy based upon its reality. This results in a film morbidly shocking and gruesome on the surface, while at the same time being subtle in its strangeness, with the latter ending up being more disturbing than the gore, and both nevertheless just as impressionable as one another while sharing an epic scope. A literally pitch-PERFECT piece with prevalent dark overtones, and the masterfully executed ambition to heighten the impact to such an effective level to be a cinematic experience unlike anything else in film history.