A remarkable visualization of Conrad, by way of Herzog's "Aguirre: The Wrath of God"

Rating: 9/10 (14 January 2014)

The opening scene depicts Martin Sheen's Captain Willard having a breakdown, drunk and covered in his own blood, wrecking his hotel room in frustration. His voice-over hints strongly at what we now recognize as PTSD, which for him manifests as an inability to readjust to civilian life. He knows he's unwell, unfit for duty even, so when the army sends a couple of fresh-faced soldiers to his room with a summons, he assumes they're there to arrest him. But no, it's an assignment. Because, as it turns out, he's the most level-headed person in the movie, and as it unfolds he seems to be the most well-adjusted Westerner in all of Vietnam. That comparison says less about him than the people he encounters as he heads upriver: Robert Duvall as a hilariously (a better adjective would be "sickeningly" if the tone wasn't so hyperbolic) amoral colonel, young soldiers turned feral by the loss of their commanders, and finally Colonel Kurtz, a man perhaps so unmoored by the horrors of war that he's come full circle and achieved a kind of clarity. In much the same vein as Werner Herzog's "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" (1972), which follows a conquistador's journey down the Amazon and into madness, Coppola's cameras and the atmosphere of the river work to make Willard's boat journey a disorienting, mind-altering experience. "Apocalypse Now" is not a critique of a futile war, at least not any more than Herzog's movie is a critique of conquistadors: it doesn't try to provide answers or even to depict reality, but to convey the feeling of becoming lost in a primeval place that makes civilized notions of identity and morality seem like quaint inventions. In other words, it is much more a "Heart of Darkness" adaptation than it is a Vietnam War movie, and is best enjoyed with that in mind. Visually, Coppola nails it. Misty jungles loom around the boat, grinding away at the sanity of those aboard. The camera spins and rolls, faces come in and out of view as the light waxes to spotlight brightness and fades to pitch black, and bodies are strewn everywhere like a house of horrors. The soundtrack and script are more debatable. The music of The Doors fits the atmosphere perfectly, but it's so well-known outside of the movie that it takes me out of it. At times, Sheen's voice-over narration seems overwritten, like something from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. "I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said yes to a divorce," he deadpans at the beginning. But if "Apocalypse Now" is not perfect, and if the runtime of the director's cut is a bit too long, it is easily a substantial and artful enough work to reward repeat viewings.