Depiction of the human mind

Rating: 10/10 (10 December 2006)

The movie begins with the motion of helicopter blades followed by "The End" by The Doors, already this film is perfect. Coppola depicts everything there is about Vietnam, war and the human mind within this film.
I won't divulge into the story itself, I'm sure anyone viewing this will already know. Also for anyone interested, read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad it is what Coppola based this film upon.
The performances by Martin Sheen, Denis Hopper and the late Marlon Brando are sublime, all of them adding such depth to the film. The way Sheen narrates the story to the viewer is sheer genius, the dramatic music and gloomy looking backdrops the sky orange and the forest bright green yet filled with danger.
This film perfectly depicts Vietnam and everything it was, a complete mess. When they arrive at the US camp and it has no superior officer. Just guys smoking dope, shooting everywhere. 'The west is the best' ? But this film goes further than anything you could imagine, every scene, every part furthers characters and to an extent the human mind, this is very true of Martin Sheen, Brando and Hopper. The latter are already past coming back and soon enough Sheen joins them, but it was inevitable. War itself changes men, and the further he got to Kurtz the farther away from sanity he got. This was Vietnam, this is war. This is the human race.