Excellent Psychological War Film

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2005)

This is the most "emotional" film I have ever watched. I do not mean in the sense that it made me cry for hours, but I meant that it had so much substance to it. The film follows Captain Benjamin Willard as he is sent up a river into Cambodia during the Vietnam war to assassinate a Colonel (who has gone insane). From the very opening scene (which shows a jungle being immersed in napalm) to the very last moment, you are completely engrossed. This film has elements of comedy, violence, gore, and (in the redux version) some nudity. Needless to say, this film has had good reviews and is a very famous war film. It must be said, however, that this film is not for the squeamish. It is not over the top in gore (like the Kill Bill movies) but it does have some very graphic violence in it. This said, I enjoyed the movie very much but don't expect to make any plans on the day you watch it (the redux version is 3 hrs and 20 min long or something like that).
I have seen both the original and the redux and thought that both were excellent. People with shorter attention spans probably shouldn't watch the redux version. Nor should they really watch the original either, most of the beauty of the movie will fly over their heads like a 747.